Kalbarri - canoe adventure

Monday 28^th April 2008

The clouds were looking ominous today – lurking on the horizon – but we made it to the beach more or less on time to head out on our Canoe Safari down the Murchison River. The other four intrepid paddlers had only a t-shirt and shorts while I was laden with towels, snacks, jumpers, bathers etc. but I had forgotten the raincoats and omitted to shut the camper trailer windows. I tried to ignore the clouds that were gathering darkly in the distance.

We were taken down some serious off-road tracks alongside the river but the big truck never faltered and we eventually drew up alongside a fairly open piece of riverbank just as the sun cleared a big patch in the clouds. Katie took up her position in front of me while Paul and Holly paddled off happily with the rest of the group.

The first part was a 1km paddle upstream to a bridge of the Murchison River homestead, I believe it was nothing spectacular – probably more of a ruse to give John the driver a chance to get breakfast cooked – but Katie and I turned around just as the others headed back so that we had a couple of minutes of being the leaders before once again being relegated to the back. I don’t know if it was my paddling technique or just simply my lack of strength but no matter what I tried and even when Katie did some semi-effective paddling we were still slowest. Katie swung between wanting to catch up and reassuring me that ‘it isn’t a race, Mummy’.

Anway, 4km back downstream we gratefully stepped out to enjoy a full cooked breakfast – bacon, eggs, beans (Katie entertained us all with a rendition of ‘Beans, beans, good for your heart. Beans, beans, makes you fart’), tomatoes and hash browns (why do they taste so good when you know they’ll go straight to your arteries?) under a gorgeous, blue and sunny sky.

Holly wasn’t keen to go back into the canoe but was persuaded with the promise that she could be chief photographer and wouldn’t have to paddle at all unless she wanted to. And she did a great job with the photos while I was pleased to find that when she did paddle our canoe managed a little more speed.

This second bit of paddling was just 45 minutes but seemed so much more and, as the greyish black clouds loomed once more, Katie’s and Holly’s spirits drooped lower. The addition of a headwind didn’t help matters, either – at least I was warm through paddling! John and the other two canoes were waiting round a bend and we all sighed with relief, until we realised that they hadn’t got out of their canoes. Another ten minutes paddling was required with the thunder and lightning every few minutes heralding the imminent arrival of rain and lots of it... As we pulled away from the bank this time Katie was hunched over sobbing (she loves the drama!) so Paul and I launched into all the songs we could think of to keep the two of them distracted. As the rain started to fall, gently at first, not even Advance Australia Fair could rouse their spirits. Luckily, the subsequent God Save Our Queen led to a discussion of the British royal family which Holly was fascinated by and the next bend in the river revealed the other intrepid adventurers waiting in the now heavily falling rain to escort us out of the water.

Back on the bus, John plied us all with lollipops and we watched as the heavens opened wider than I would have thought possible. The water along the track was spraying higher than the car and we reckoned that if we’d left half an hour later some of the tracks would not have been passable. But snug in the bus, we didn’t care!

Back in town, Lisa convinced us to abandon ship (or rather, our slightly soggy camper trailer) and stay at her place. For a while I thought it would be an adventure to stay in the caravan park but half an hour cooped up in the camper with the girls persuaded me otherwise!

Having decamped and stuck on a load of washing, the girls and I went to Rainbow Jungle to check out their large collection of parrots. We had a lovely time there (in between more rain showers) and were impressed by the range of birds and delighted by the talking ones – Bert and Ernie the Green Winged Macaws were very impressive and the girls liked Hot Tuna for his name. He was supposed to be able to say all sorts of things but for us he just fluffed up his feathers and bounced up and down.

Back at Lisa’s the washing went into the dryer – oh the joys and comforts of home (and we’ve only been away four days!) and dinner was cooked for us while I took advantage of a neighbour’s unsecured wireless access to upload Friday’s news and photos and the girls watched Harry Potter. And outside, it rained heavily on and off all evening – we made the right move.

So, four days into our trip and we’ve only actually spent two nights in the camper!