It's the last day of the month and yet the end of another challenge.

In the last 7 days I have paddled 183 kms on my SUP bringing the total kilometres paddled in 4 weeks to 700.4 kms and with 3 days that make up the month, my SUP total for the month is 770 kms. 

That brings my total kilometres paddled on a SUP in 3 months to 2200 kms and it’s been hot and it’s been windy. 

November 818 kms, December 612 kms and January 770 kms and that's not counting the kms I have paddled in a kayak. 

This morning I thought I would do a 10 km time trial on my SUP just to end the month with exerting a bit more energy. I did the 10 kms in 1.14.35.

If clubs have something to get out to the paddling community, please send me details. 

A Sacred Kingfisher.

These guys are at intervals all along the river. Keep a sharp eye out.

• Remembering Geoff Mullins
• PRIME Paddlesport Coaching
• Rhys MacRae - Junior Slalom
• Ben Pope - Kayak Cross
• AKC PRG Session
• Canada Day
• Yukon River Descent
• Birds Along The Way
• Coming Events

Races Coming Up

1st & 2nd February - WA Sprint Championships

9th February - Pinjarra to Ravenswood Race

16th February - Canning Classic

8th March - City Lights

23rd March - Rod Fry Race 

Remembering Geoff Mullins

It was a very sad day when I was told that Geoff Mullins had died. Geoff had been a member of the Ascot Kayak Club for many years so we bumped into each other on many occasions. He was an avid CDU Newsletter reader and he would always come up to me to tell me how interesting my stories were and reflect back to some of his adventures, although I didn’t realise how many he had had. 

On one of my trips on the Mackenzie River in the north of Canada we passed the junction of the Nahanni River. The Nahanni River is one of those special Rivers and one that I have always wanted to paddle but one I have never been on, but Geoff had. I was so envious when he talked about it and whenever I think about the Nahanni River I think about Geoff.

He was such a nice guy and it wasn’t until Wednesday at the Celebration of Geoff’s Life that I and all the people who were there, and there were many, found out how much Geoff and done in his life, with his family, his work, his travels and his many adventures. I was extremely impressed and I think everyone there would have walked out of the room thinking - wow what a great man and what an amazing life he has had. I know I did.

It is so unfortunate that we find out about what people have achieved after they are dead. And it’s a great pity that Geoff didn’t write about his life because it would have made extremely, interesting reading.  

Geoff at the Ascot Kayak Club.

I found this in the West - Obituaries

GEOFFREY CHARLES MULLINS 29 October 1943 to 19 January 2025 A proud father of Sophie, Kara, Luke and Sean. A loving Papa Geoff to Lucy, Mary, Milo, Sidney, Ronan, Connor and Erin. Loving Partner of Kylie Mahony for 26 years. Formerly married to Suzanne Mullins (nee Gordon). He was a committed paediatric ICU doctor and anaesthetist across the globe. An avid kayaker, cross country skier, marathon runner, hiker and adventurer. Strong, tough, smart and compassionate until the end. You've left a part of you with all of us. You will be sorely missed.

PARIME

Paddlesport Coaching 

By Australian Marathon Champion 

New Offering for 2025 Aus Nationals

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Our tailored coaching programs are founded on the belief that mindset, discipline, and consistency are core to success in sport, and a structured process is critical to enjoying the journey toward achieving your goals. Don’t miss this chance to get ahead.

Visit www.parime.com.au, email on info@parime.com.au or search PARIME Paddlesports on Instagram for more information. 

Kind regards,

Josh Kippin Head Coach

 E  info@parime.com.au     Wwww.parime.com.au     

Josh Kippin.

Australia's number one marathon paddler

Silver to 
WAs Rhys MacRae

in the Oceania Championships

Such a fun weekend of racing and amazing experience for Rhys at his first international event. He brings home a silver for U18 men’s K1.

Rhys is ready.

Rhys following in the footsteps of many other WA champion slalom paddlers

Ben Pope leading the way.

AKC Progressive Racing Group

Tuesday evenings

Different types of boats, different levels of speed and skill.

Slower paddlers start off first and the faster paddlers catch up close to the finish of the race, so everyone finishes within a minute of each other.

Hayley Williams and Isabel Combe, PRG regulars 
paddled 59 kilometres on a SUP in one day last week.

Hayley doing some tricks.

But aren't you supposed to stay on the board!!

Photo Isabel Combe.

Canada Day
Friday 1st July 2011

A thunderstorm suddenly brewed and Tobin Lake quickly churned up. I stopped briefly at a cabin community before continuing on with an exceptionally rough lake bouncing me about. I could see there was another thunderstorm threatening, not the best when you are 5kms or so from shore.

I rounded the next point just in time and discovered another cabin community. On the beach there were four ladies eating, talking and drinking. I pulled in and they invited me across, and within seconds they were offering food and beer. One of their husbands Don, then came along on his quad bike, to stoke up the fire. 

I spotted a good landing spot to get out of the rough lake.

The lake became even more churned up so I decided to sit low for a while and not bother getting back on the water, no sense in trying to kill myself crossing it. I watched on as lots of boats were heading back to a resort on the other side of the lake and saw how they came to a dead halt when they hit the exposed choppy water. Their bows were bouncing pretty high and their speed was severely reduced. I was more than pleased to be enjoying the company, eating and drinking beer.

After a couple of hours the weather cleared up a bit but as I had to cross the lake at that point it wasn’t worth going on, why ruin a good party and with there being fireworks later best to stay then I thought, so I pitched my tent on the beach, got changed and settled in for the night!

I was invited to stay and celebrate Canada Day with the locals.

It was cold, and windy and the lake was rough so I bedded down for the night and accepted the hospitality of the locals. Nice food and drinks. 

A family from the next cabin were playing horseshoes and they had been at it for hours, even whilst it was raining. Apparently it was tradition on Canada Day. More food came out when dinner time arrived, so I didn’t go hungry that night. Cooked meat, prawns, chicken, sausages, salad and more food was brought to the tables. As the night drew on several other people came down to the beach to enjoy the food and festivities. There were two kids playing on a huge stack of driftwood nearby. It looked pretty dangerous to me.

The sons of a guy that had recently died came across with a bottle of Canadian whisky. Everyone had a shot including me……..the first time I have had a drink of whisky in 45 years!!!! Although people said that the whisky had a kick, I didn’t think it had that much kick, well not at first!

Teresa was telling me her husband’s part time job was as a bear hunting guide. She said they had lost a lot of money after the financial crash and her husband had to return to work. Now he’s away for 2-3 months at a time. 

Then Teresa asked one of the sons, who had a two seater oversized quad bike or buggy, to take me for a ride around the community. The first two minutes were fine, then he threw a wheelie on the main street in front of some friends, before carrying on down the road at a very high speed. Apparently he was in trouble with the community leader as he had been tearing around the community the day before.

Jarrod's facial expression told me that I was in for a ride of a lifetime.

I was pleased to have survived the buggy ride. At times I had my doubts and I thought we might crash. It was the most dangerous thing I did on the trip.

We were soon out of the community grounds on the main track but soon after he drove off the road and onto a track through the scrub. Whilst we bounced over the bumps still travelling at high speed he mentioned the forest on the right was burnt in a bushfire but they were able to save the community because of the retardant spray that had been dropped around the fire edges near the community.

We then hit the road again and accelerated to 100kms in 3 seconds, did a wheelie and then moved onto a bush track. All this and he was steering one handed because the other hand was holding a drink and the drink wasn’t water. At the end of the bush track he braked heavy at the lakes edge, spun around and sped back to the road again. The acceleration on this thing was just amazing. As the wind was blowing through my hair at 100kms an hour, I wondered why I agreed to go for that ride. It was with some relief that we arrived back in the community and in one piece.

Back on the beach the ladies said, you survived then. They knew I would be treated to something special and just not a slow ride around the gravel streets. How they must have chuckled when I took off on the quad!

More people had gathered at the beach all waiting for dark and the fireworks. Of course dark didn’t come until about 11pm but when it did fireworks began to appear all around the lake. Some were good, others fizzled. The brothers started letting theirs off. My tent was close by so I was hoping the fireworks wouldn’t go astray. A big firework went off down the beach, the ladies commented that that one was from the rich people! Then later our group had some beauties, we were the rich ones now. I don’t know how much fireworks cost but these guys sure had quite a lot of good ones.

After all the activity it was time to retire. It had been a great interesting day.

Fireworks were let off all around the lake.

Yukon River Descent

Monday 19th July. Day 34

I heard the zip on Ed’s tent door open. I waited a few minutes, asked him whether it was time, and what the weather was like, hoping it was the middle of the night and he was only out there for a pee. Having no watch and twenty four hours of day light does have its draw backs. Ed said it was cold and the tent was wet with moisture and yes, it was time to get up.

Although it was one of the most difficult campsites to get to and it was covered with bear tracks, I slept really well, so well that I forgot what I dreamt about. There were fewer gnats at breakfast than at dinner the night before; cool wind blew across our sand patch and kept them away. It also blew our tents dry.

Leaving was quite an operation. The mud hadn’t got any firmer overnight so when we loaded the boat we placed new timber runners on the mud to help the canoe slide. Once we started to push it was important to keep the momentum going, so it wouldn’t bog down in the mud. If it did we wouldn’t have a chance of moving it again without unloading.

We placed the canoe on the timber runners and pushed it hard. It slid down them perfectly and landed in the water with Ed following and slipping into the mud up to his shorts. We had also placed a separate line of logs further downstream so we could walk across the mud on the timbers to reach the boat. With Ed now already muddy he didn’t need to use it, but it worked just fine for me. I was perfectly clean when I entered the canoe. Poor Ed, he left the campsite as he arrived at it….covered in mud.

We paddled on towards the scenic ‘Cement Hill’ and just beyond it, opposite a place called Paradise, a sand bar developed. It didn’t look too much like paradise to me. Ed suddenly spotted a bear on our left side, so we quickly ferry glided across to the island. Unfortunately the bear had also spotted us and it kept us in its sights. We drifted to within 50 metres before it was up and away galloping across the sand bar heading towards the trees. That was bear number eight, so we were pretty chuffed to see it even if we didn’t get close.

We paddled on and within a kilometre I saw something else at the waters’ edge. There was a dirt bank behind it so I couldn’t quite see what it was, however when it moved I saw four legs and the shape of a bear. We again ferried across the river and drifted slowly down to it. When we were within 20 metres it spotted us. It had a puzzled look on its face, but it didn’t seem to care. It allowed us get within 10 metres before it moved a few metres and then it fixed its eyes on us once more. By the time it moved again I could just about touch it with an out-stretched paddle. It wasn’t the biggest bear, but it was a bear and it was cute. With a twitching nose and a puzzled expression on its face, it was wondering who the hell we were and what to do next.

Then the bear, lets’ call it Yogi, decided that we were just too close, so it climbed the bank and walked up the shore a little and into some greenery. I whispered to Ed to paddle to shore so I could get out and have a closer look, but he wasn’t too keen to see me get attacked. Nevertheless he helped me paddle to shore. I jumped out and walked through the greenery about 15 metres from where Yogi went in. There was a clearing on the other side of the 10 metre line of bushes but when I stepped out into it I couldn’t see Yogi. In the meantime Yogi had moved back towards the shore, and when I returned Ed shouted to me that it was close by. I stepped out of the bushes to look Yogi straight in the eyes. We looked at each other for a moment but I could see that he was more frightened and timid than me. Yogi suddenly turned and bolted back through the greenery and across the sand flat and into the forest fifty metres away. Wow! What an experience, I wonder if the bear was thinking the same!

The bear moved into the trees so I got out for a closer look. Minutes later we were both looking at each other only a few metres apart. 

By this time the mosquitoes had latched onto me, as I had spent too much time around the vegetation, so I jumped back in the canoe, killing them all one by one. As we drifted away, Yogi Bear returned to the same spot on Carlo Island or was it Bear Island! We waved and said our goodbyes. Seeing two bears on an island gave us food for thought. Were we really that safe camping on islands?

We pushed on towards the Holy Cross hills, and as the river widened again the current slowed, taking us a lot longer to paddle 10kms. At one point an island, which was located on our map, had been eroded away so much it was hardly noticeable. It just shows you what time and flood waters can do to change a river’s path. The day was now calm and hot. To ensure that we didn’t miss Holy Cross we had to turn off at Walkers Slough. We kept a close eye on the map to make sure that we didn’t overshoot it. As we turned into the slough a cabin stood on the left bank a few hundred metres up. It was circled by a low fence which was quite unusual in these parts, but it was probably there to keep the children and the barking dog from straying. A fish drying rack was also inside the fence with a big toy cart lying on the river shore outside it. We passed between the cabin and a fish trap that was on the opposite bank.

There was virtually no current in the slough but we had to take it to reach the village. A few more cabins were dotted along its shores, most unattended. It seemed to take forever to reach the boat landing where the road led into town. Several boats were pulled up on the muddy shores, and as we landed a guy from an arriving boat said two other canoes had arrived in Graylin a few hours after us. We were quite shocked. It didn’t seem possible that two canoes could be making better time and catching up with us. We had never heard of them before and we heard nothing more of them later.

The town ended up being about 600 metres down the gravel track, much further away than most other settlements that we had stopped at. The gnats were absolutely infuriating with millions of them hanging around, and the mosquitoes were no better. It was really hot and as I walked along the gravel track in my sandals, grains of gravel got under my feet and between my toes. We met two men near a burnt out house and they told us where to find the Washeteria. It was a lot smaller than most others we had seen, possibly because most of the houses had their own showers and washing machines.

I took the opportunity to have a shower but Ed had decided that he now enjoyed washing in the river so he didn’t bother. The hot soft water was just beautiful, the shampoo lathered in my hair, and the soap washed parts of my body that in the river often got neglected. It was nice to get in all those nooks and crannies. The feeling of being super clean was indescribable and it was a mystery why Ed didn’t want to enjoy the experience.

The store was only 50 metres up the hill, so it gave us a chance to gather a few more supplies for our lunches. Within minutes of walking in the hot sun my lovely cleansed body was all sweaty again, but it was still worth having the shower. The shop didn’t have any bread so I walked further up the hill to very small store in someone’s house on the newer housing development and managed to get some bread there. The development was set on a hill side with stunning views of the surrounding countryside. However, the gnats and mosquitoes were still bad so it didn’t encourage me to stay.

I slipped and slid my way back to the canoe in my sweaty sandals with the stones under my feet annoying the hell out of me. Ed was wearing his trusty head net when I arrived but the gnats were still driving him mad. He said that the mossies were so bad as he returned from the village that he had to run back to the canoe to escape them, but when he arrived millions of gnats descended on him. It was absolutely impossible to do anything without wearing a head net to keep them at bay. We both tried eating lunch with the head nets on, but it was too difficult to eat because every time we put something in our mouths the gnats would swoop in as well. Most of the gnats were so small, they got through the net anyway!

As we were finishing lunch a local, who had spotted us walking around town, came and talked to us. It was pretty difficult to engage in a conversation due to the gnats slithering in our ears, eyes and mouth. He stayed for a while, then as he was leaving, he gave us several packets of egg powder which he thought we would appreciate.

He got into his car, which was a bit of a wreck, took the hand brake off and let it roll down the slope, engaging the gears. It jumped a bit but it failed to start. He was now on a gentler slope, so we went over to give him a push. It failed again. With each attempt the car got closer to the extremely muddy water’s edge. We tried for the third time and within metres of the mud it started. He was relieved and so were we, as we were dying to get back on the river to get away from the gnats!

We paddled along the slough, still accompanied by a bunch of gnats that just didn’t want to go away, and joined the main river again. We were beginning to realise that our time on the river with the plague of gnats was going to make our life a misery. How could we get away from them without committing suicide? We gained a little speed and talked about paddling places free of insects and how lovely it would be to be there. As we dreamed on, we paddled 35kms to the Great Paimuit Island dreading the thought of setting up camp. We landed on a sandbar readying ourselves for the onslaught of gnats, but to our delight there were very few around. We couldn’t believe it, life had suddenly become much better. Committing suicide was not an option anymore.

Five shacks were tucked away in a mountain cove just before we stopped, but it was the beautiful rainbow arching right across the north-east sky that caught our attention. We said all those things you say when you’re a kid. “Let’s go and find the pot of gold.” “Let’s make a wish.” The rainbow must have brightened up Ed’s day. He couldn’t wait to go for his swim and he thoroughly enjoyed it. He was like a kid that had just been on the big dipper, he shouted and jumped when he hit the cold water and cupped his hands and splashed water all over himself. It was good to see Ed enjoying himself – he was having a hard time with the paddling. His most enjoyable part of the day was counting the kilometres after each day’s paddle in fact it was now becoming the highlight for both of us. With only 430 kilometres to go, I rang Jenny and slipped into my sleeping bag at 12.30am.

Birds Along The Way

Great Egret

Two Great Egrets

A Rainbow Bee-eater caught a bee.

You will see these guys downstream from Tonkin Highway Bridge on the western side of the river and around the western side of Kuljak Island and a few other places around Bayswater.

A Sacred Kingfisher.

These guys are at intervals all along the river. Keep a sharp eye out.

Dusky Moorhen

Races Coming Up

1st & 2nd February - WA Sprint Championships

9th February - Pinjarra to Ravenswood Race

16th February - Canning Classic

8th March - City Lights

23rd March - Rod Fry Race 

Register Pinjarra to Ravenswood, 9th Feb

https://www.webscorer.com/register?raceid=377539

2025 Pinjarra to Ravenswood marathon race on 9 Feb 2025

Schedule on Day:

Main Race:

Check in: .............7.30 am
Briefing: ...............8.15 am
Race Start: ..........8.30 am

Guppies, Short:

Check in: ………..8.00 am
Briefing:………….8.30 am
Start:……………..8.45 am [or when Timers arrive]

Check in Locations:

Full course [16.4 km]: .............Henry St, Pinjarra
Short/Guppy Course: ..............Ravenswood Bridge South side
Finish for all:............................Convenient Point Upstream of Ravenswood Bridge

Course Details:

Main Course:

Start at Henry St boat ramp. Paddle to Ravenswood (distance 16.4 km)

Guppies, Short:

Start at Ravenswood. Paddle Downstream and turn under the Ravenswood Bridge. Then paddle upstream around the buoy placed off the end of the jetty at the Murray Street Boat Ramp and back to the start point.

U10s - 1 lap [3.75km],

U12s & Short - 2 laps [7.5km].