There were going to be several paddlers paddle the Avon River this weekend due to the Avon Descent being cancelled but with the river levels being under 0.3, which is very low, I doubt if many will be taking that challenge.

However the race on Sunday starting from Middle Swan Bridge, and finishing at Bayswater, called The Ramon has 175 paddlers taking part. SUPS, Outriggers, Skis and Kayaks.

The bad news for the Down Wind Paddlers is that The Doctor Race from Rottnest to Sorrento has been cancelled but I'm sure IOP will organise something special for the local paddlers.

 

Last weekend it was slalom training and slalom racing.

I took part in K1 and C1 at the slalom race.
 

 

Wise Ray Smith was 80 years old on Tuesday. His son Matt, behind Ray on the right brought a birthday cake to Ascot Kayak Club where Ray was racing with the AKC Progressive Racing Group and showing us that paddling at 80 is as easy as it was at 50.

Happy Birthday Ray you are an inspiration to us all.

Skills Training

Last Friday night we had a skills training session to lift the skills of paddlers who are looking forward to paddling on white water and join in with slalom training.
 

Some the group giving slalom a go for the first time. They found it to be fun and it improved their skills.
Photo Scott Florisson.
 

Josh Richards full concentration as he paddles through the up-stream gate.

Photo Scott Florisson.
 

Anthony Clarke who is usually racing at a great speed was slowed a little as he tried his hand at white water paddling in short kayaks. He loved it.

Photo Scott Florisson.
 

Sharon Cobley was all smiles when she was able to paddle through the gate without hitting a pole. 

Photo Scott Florisson.
 

The group gathers to start the race.
 

George Pankhurst takes off.

 

Slalom Races

Winter Series #4/State Championships: 9th August, 2020

Winter Series #5: 30th August 2020

Kimberley Kayaking 1982

part 2 - 100 Days Solo

Beagle Bay was 20kms deep and 8 kms wide and in the distance haze I noticed a shape in the bay which turned out being a yacht. It was anchored opposite a shed on the mainland which turned out being the Pearling Station. I felt excited as I was going to talk to people.

I paddled over to the hut and saw people walking around. I pulled in beside an inflatable boat as a man walked towards me. Nearby a couple and two children were running over the sand dunes. I asked if I could camp there the night and Steve who owned the shed, said no problem. It took four of us to lift my heavy kayak onto dry land without unloading it, so we could go for a coffee. Dennis and Annette Ford and their two children were from the yacht in the bay. They were on their way to Darwin. It had taken them 6 months to get here from Perth.

The shed was part of Steve’s Pearling operations. He had pontoons out in the bay and a cray boat anchored around the corner. Later that afternoon when the tide was out Steve and I walked along the mud flats to his cray-boat to drain the bilge which was listed over in the mud. On our return Dennis and young Russell were catching mud crabs in the mangroves and soon after we were heading across to the yacht in their rubber duck for an evening meal. Annette welcomed me aboard and within 30 minutes we were eating the crab for entrée followed by lobster and salad and fruit salad for sweets. It was a hard life for yachties!

Steve's Pearling Shed.

Soon after breakfast Steve and I went to the cray boat. Not only did it have bilge pump problems but it had generator problems as well, but it eventually started. We moved to a pontoon anchored in the bay and Steve started sorting out some of the dead shells that were in hanging wire baskets beneath the pontoon.

The pontoon was made of tree saplings, bound by rope and 44 gallon drums which were keeping it afloat. To balance on the saplings which were a few feet apart, was hazardous to say the least. It would have been less dangerous to be a tight rope walker. Steve said he had fallen off them several times. The dead shells from the baskets were sold but the ones that the pearl had taken were left for 18-24 months to develop the pearl. All the dead shells were later being cleaned by Steve while Dennis, Annette and myself did a spot of fishing, but without success.

Later Steve cruised up a creek to show me the Norman’s Lugger Camp and old boat building yard. In the early days Beagle Bay was a busy place with many boats being built there. We could see old water tanks, anchors, keels and other assorted bits and pieces. For dinner Steve cooked fish balls and we had a great discussion about the Falklands war.

Steve sorting out the Pearl Shells.
 

Steve wore thongs so I imagine they would not be the best footwear balancing on the poles.

Cloud cover had made the temperature too hot to sleep in. My mind was very active thinking about the rest of the trip, improvements to my gear and the hardships ahead.

After cooking Steve’s breakfast of fish balls, I washed my clothes in freshwater, checked through all my gear and added a strip of fiberglass along the hull at the stern of the kayak. This was to prevent the kayak from wearing out along that section as I would be dragging the kayak up the beach all the time as it was too heavy to lift. Although I had been away for only 8 days, two of my collapsible water bottles, made in Canada had already split at the seams. Not very encouraging so I was pleased I had bought several different types of water bottles with me.

Dennis, Annette and their two children had left in the early hours of the morning in their yacht Spindrift 111. It was sad to see them sail out of the bay. At lunch time Steve’s sister Judy and an Aboriginal friend Nan arrived with a load of coconut palm trees to plant around the shed.

Steve's crayboat high and dry.

That afternoon Steve made the decision to go into Broome with his sister and friend to conduct some business. He started showing me how to use the power plant so I had electricity when it got dark, but I quickly decided to go as well. I had 30 seconds to gather my gear and jump in the back of his ute. After running to the ute I threw my swag into the spare wheel, jammed in my back side and wedged my feet on the tailgate and away we went. The high powered engine sped us along the rough sandy track, across a flood plain and back again through the bush, with only just enough room between the trees for the ute to fit through. Over every bump the three 44 gallon drums sharing the ute tray with me jumped around quite dangerously.

As the dust flew and branches whizzed passed my ears, the fast bumpy ride was quite exciting. After about 20 miles we came to the main gravel track to Broome, but that didn’t mean the road improved, in fact in places it was worse. At one stage one of the drums tried to jump into my lap as we criss-crossed the road avoiding the pot holes. Moments later the 4 wheel drive slid sideways off the road and into the bush. Steve regained control and stopped. “Are you alright,” he asked, threw me an orange and took off at full speed again.

Within two hours we were in Broome and Steve dropped me off at Bill’s place. Unfortunately Bill wasn’t in, so I bought an ice cream and queued up at the telephone. The telephone system in Broome was awful as there was no direct dialing system and all calls had to go through the operator on a ring back system. There were too many waiting so I walked to Gary’s place to find that Gary and Kathy were at Mary’s art exhibition opening night. I stayed with Gary and Cathy in the week leading up to the trip and Mary and Bob were friends who I met at Camballin when I worked there.

It was about 2kms to the library so I picked up my pack and ran there. I knew it was Mary’s art exhibition opening night, but it was so lucky that Steve had decided to come to town on that night. By the time I arrived I was dripping wet with perspiration.

As I walked through the door, Mary’s face lit up, she was so happy to see me, especially on this night. We met with open arms. In the few years I had known her she had always been like a mum to me. When I left Broome no one ever believed that they would ever see me again, well not so soon at least. But that’s what life is all about, being full of surprises. You can’t imagine how much it meant to me, walking in as I did. The timing was perfect.

The other fantastic thing about the night was that Mary sold 30 of her 40 sketches, at an average price of $150.00 so she was very pleased. She also got more orders to do copies. Mary started sketching in Camballin, east of Derby where I worked, although she had been a commercial artist in New Zealand. After saying my farewells to Mary, Bob and friends I telephoned Jenny. She seemed very relaxed and was coping well without me.

By 5.00pm the following day Steve and I left Indian Ocean Pearls in Chinatown and headed back to Beagle Bay. The ute had a full load and we were pulling a trailer which got a flat tyre 30 minutes down the track. We left it there and headed for the Beagle Bay Community where Steve robbed a tyre from an abandoned car. Steve decided to go back to his camp instead of fetching the trailer and by the time we got there it was 10.00pm. At midnight Steve and I went out in the bay to move his boat on the high tide so it didn’t get stranded on the mud flats as he needed to use it the following day.

Steve went back to fetch the trailer in the morning so I decided to take a paddle on high tide to Alligator Creek to where the old Norman’s Lugger Camp and boat building yard was. I had arrived too soon as the tide had covered most of the derelict pieces so I paddled up and down Alligator Creek trolling a lure in the hope of catching a fish. I was pretty proud when I caught my first fish, looking similar to a barracuda, then I caught another and another. I was on fire and I had teeth and hooks flying in all directions. Being wedged into my unstable kayak, it wasn’t the most ideal place to land such an aggressive fish. When enough was enough I gutted them next to the Lugger Camp.

By the time Steve had returned to the shed from fetching the trailer that morning I had fried the fish, but Steve wasn’t as enthusiastic as I was about them, he said they were Wolf Herring and were shit fish and full of bones. He was right, they were riddled with bones, but to me they didn’t taste too bad.

A good catch!

When I left the pearling shed it was impossible to see the creek at the far end of the huge bay so I took a compass reading before leaving. From a distance, two pelicans standing at the creek entrance looked enormous, but were a shadow of them-selves when I got up close. With the help of the current I quickly passed them and entered the domain of curlews and other marsh birds that waded on the sandbars and creek edges.

There were also majestic Brahminy kites perched on trees every few hundred metres along the creek as well as fish that leapt from the shallow water and often startling me. Ibis called out as they flocked from the mangroves and white herons darted in front of me. It was a real bird sanctuary so at times I stopped paddling, relaxed and enjoyed my dried fruit lunch as the swift current hurried me along the creek for kilometres.

Spectacular clouds of birds circled overhead and a pelican became agitated as a bank of water, created by the swift tidal current upsurge, raced towards it. Eventually I lost the mangroves and the creek narrowed to a 1 – 2 metre wide ditch that cut through the bare mud flats which crawled with crabs. A large flock of black cockatoos, oblivious of my presence, squabbled and screeched in the trees on the edge of the salt pan a few hundred metres away.

The creek eventually became too shallow to paddle so I had no alternative but get out onto the mud. I then dragged the kayak through the mud and over to the trees where the cockatoos were and where I was to share the night with hoards of mosquitoes before walking into Beagle Bay.

Too shallow to go on.
 

I had to drag the kayak over to the trees in the distance to make sure the kayak wouldn't drift away on a high tide. I was about to walk to Beagle Bay community.

This week I saw the first ducklings of the season.
 

John Breed, Luke Dooley and I were paddling along the Canadian West Coast.
 

Paddling out of Vancouver
 

Paddling towards the mountains
 

A grizzly bear passes through our camp
 

Passing one of the many waterfalls

I should have been in Norway paddling 2000kms along the coast
 

Barracuda Interface

Demo Model (Used a handful of times)

Excellent condition

Length: 5.195 metres

Width: 57.5 cm

Medium volume: 70- 85kg

Weight 19 kgs

Demo Model: Excellent condition. Virtually new: $2300.00

New Epic V14
 

Epic V14 Performance. Usual Price $3995.00.

Special Price New $1800.00. One only

15.5kgs

Meeting Dick Smith
 

When I paddled, cycled and backpacked 24,000km around Australia, Dick Smith of Australia Geographic was a sponsor. I called in to see him at his headquarters just outside of Sydney as I was running through.

Later that year I was invited to Australian Geographic Awards Night to give a lecture on the trip and to receive an Australian Geographic Spirit of Adventure Award Medallion.

WWR #4 Walyunga Race 
and WWR #4 Teams Race. 

8th August

Putting in from the top car park, Teams of 3 will race through the slalom section down the Walyunga Chute in a sprint challenge.

Following the Teams Race, the individual Classic race will be held over a section of the popular Walyunga to Bells run. Competitors follow a winding river consisting of exposed rocks and Ti-trees with the added fun of several rapids and a strong current.

The river level is low so the race may be changed or postponed.

 

Friday 31st July – LUNCH get in quick!!!!!!!

12.30pm  - Marmion Angling and Aquatic Club (MAAC)
 

Open to paddlers and their partners and friends

The menu for the day looks great, the MAAC are also including coffee and chocolates for us as well.
 

No drinks included in the package - purchased at the bar, no BYO.

Michael Booth as offered to do a Q & A for around 15 minutes

See the Webscorer link below for the payment of $40 per person.

Deadline for final payments is Wednesday 4pm
 

Any queries please contact Damien Kelly damienkelly@iinet.net.au and phone number 0419 907 262.

Paddle WA Ski Sprint Trials

How fast can you go in your ski?
 

Come on down to Champion Lakes Regatta Centre on the morning of Sunday August 30 for a special sprint regatta open to all paddlers in any ski (SLSA-spec or downwind)!
 

Racers will be seeded over the three Olympic distances of 200m, 500m and 1000m based on expected performance levels, age, craft and gender. Approximate performance levels can be found at the registration link.