Easter Kayaking in Kangaroo Valley
After meeting up in Kangaroo Valley, driving to Tallowa Dam, and sorting through the mountain of ‘just-in case’ gear we brought (for me, a wetsuit, for others, 9 t-shirts) it was time to set sail. This was all piled into two inflatable boats, fairly dividing the gear by putting none in the tandem and all of it in the solo kayak.
We set off in high spirits at approximately way-too-late on Friday night.
Carrying the solo boat down from the car park.
I don’t want to throw anyone under the bus, but we immediately acted on faulty intel that there was a campground “just across the river”. With no other options we set up camp on an incline, inflatable mats protected from rough ground by a pre-used space blanket. Resigned to our fate, we cooked a respectable plate of nachos.
The next day we pushed west, upstreaming the Shoalhaven, and witnessed some of the prettiest scenes in south-east NSW. On either side of the river was dense vegetation all but tumbling into the water, above this were sheer rock-faces clearly not to be climbed by us on this weekend.
Views typical of this part of the Shoalhaven River
We eventually stopped for lunch, and went west until we no longer could due to the current pushing against us (which was about 15k). This was an area called “Acacia Flat”, and while there was wattle, it was not flat. We turned around and started looking for camp. Deciding to stop as soon as we could, the river suddenly filled up with people and there was nothing for us. We pushed for maybe 5km further than we wanted but eventually found a spot.
Once here all that was left was pull the boats out of the water, build a fire, and get naked (to dry our clothes of course).
Calm
The next morning there was leak in one of the kayaks. Oh no! It seemed to hold well enough by just putting some duct tape over it. Oh, okay.
That day we went east. On the way past the cars, a dicky paddle was swapped for a better one, some rubbish was disposed, some food was consumed, and we kept going. Now we were going upstream on the Kangaroo River. Towards our destination of Bendeela we entertained ourselves on paddling breaks by testing the acoustic properties of the surrounding walls, hitting a record of three intelligible echoes!
The campground was lovely.
More nudity, more cooking, it’s now the last day. We paddle up a tributary a little bit and saw some lovely lily pads and some tree stumps (formerly just trees) that had been flooded in when the dam was built. We spent a while entertaining ourselves by taking turns risking life & limb on a way-more-than-suspect rope swing. On the way back the shoddy patch over the air leak in the Intex Explorer gave out, but fortunately only one chamber seems necessary and we were able to limp the last few kilometres home.
Despite all the extra gear, the one man was a lot easier to paddle than the tandem available
The tandem, which we have far fewer photos of
Luxury river trip experience, I swear the angle was worse than it looks here
I think the gear we took was all pretty reasonable, with most dry bags functioning correctly. The boats themselves are a different story. The Intex performed reasonably, but was not particularly durable (I suspect the leak came from the lightest contact with a pebble during overnight storage). The Bestway and its paddles handled about as well as a barge would propelled by kicking your feet. Solid kayaks would be lovely, but having to move them from house to house would not be. For now I’ll just patch the bloody balloon I’m lumped with for now.
An excellent trip!