Recce at Warumbul
Feb. 14th, 2015 07:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
khiemtranSaturday afternoon, and Liem and I have driven to Warumbul, in the Royal National Park, to look for a possible launch site for our expedition up the South-West Arm...
The good news was the site was reasonable accessible by 2WD, although it did involve some rough driving. The bad news was the carpark was still a good distance above the waterline, so there'll need to be some portage involved if we're going to get a kayak into the water.
The nearest access from the carpark is a set of steps that along seem to make it halfway down. They don't look like a good option with a heavy kayak and the rocks below don't look like all that good a launching site either.
Next to that, there's a pretty steep drop down to the waterline. A person could climb down quite easily, but getting a kayak down would be a real problem.
To the south, lies a narrow trail that heads towards the beach.
Getting the Big Blue Yak down here just might be possible, although it will be a struggle getting it back up.
From the beach, we can just get a glimpse into the South-West Arm.
To the north, meanwhile, there's about a hundred metres of grass to cover, and then a low rock wall at the edge of the Hacking. This way is smoother, although launching (and recovering) over the rocks is far from ideal.
While we're making our observations, someone else is observing us...
Another white-bellied sea eagle. If I ever move away from Sydney, I think these are the birds I will miss the most. Absolutely magnificent.
Having adequately surveyed the site, we take a moment to enjoy the local wildlife. Across the wide expanse of Port Hacking, we watch cormorants, gulls and terns hunting for fish.
When I went on the sea kayak eco-tour, the guide told us there's also a sea eagle that likes to swoop on fishing boats to catch discarded fish. Liem and I spotted this bird swooping a boat across the river, but it looks too small to be an eagle.
And that was that. The net result is that the beach trail seems to be the best option, but only if we have someone else to help us carry the kayak. Otherwise, we might have to find a more convenient site further away and then paddle in.
The good news was the site was reasonable accessible by 2WD, although it did involve some rough driving. The bad news was the carpark was still a good distance above the waterline, so there'll need to be some portage involved if we're going to get a kayak into the water.
The nearest access from the carpark is a set of steps that along seem to make it halfway down. They don't look like a good option with a heavy kayak and the rocks below don't look like all that good a launching site either.
Next to that, there's a pretty steep drop down to the waterline. A person could climb down quite easily, but getting a kayak down would be a real problem.
To the south, lies a narrow trail that heads towards the beach.
Getting the Big Blue Yak down here just might be possible, although it will be a struggle getting it back up.
From the beach, we can just get a glimpse into the South-West Arm.
To the north, meanwhile, there's about a hundred metres of grass to cover, and then a low rock wall at the edge of the Hacking. This way is smoother, although launching (and recovering) over the rocks is far from ideal.
While we're making our observations, someone else is observing us...
Another white-bellied sea eagle. If I ever move away from Sydney, I think these are the birds I will miss the most. Absolutely magnificent.
Having adequately surveyed the site, we take a moment to enjoy the local wildlife. Across the wide expanse of Port Hacking, we watch cormorants, gulls and terns hunting for fish.
When I went on the sea kayak eco-tour, the guide told us there's also a sea eagle that likes to swoop on fishing boats to catch discarded fish. Liem and I spotted this bird swooping a boat across the river, but it looks too small to be an eagle.
And that was that. The net result is that the beach trail seems to be the best option, but only if we have someone else to help us carry the kayak. Otherwise, we might have to find a more convenient site further away and then paddle in.
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Date: 2015-02-14 07:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-02-14 07:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-02-14 10:13 pm (UTC)(And this is all your ahead-of-time planning, right? You didn't actually take out the kayak on this trip.)
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Date: 2015-02-15 03:20 am (UTC)Yes, this is all planning ahead for our next expedition. South-west Arm will be a major undertaking as it goes right into the heart of the national park, where it ends at a set of waterfalls (if the conditions are right). Unfortunately, it's quite far from the normal launching spots we use, hence our reconnaissance mission to Warambul.