Paddling on the Nepean...

[khiemtran]

Back to the Nepean this weekend, for an early morning paddle with some good friends...



The first thing we saw wasn't very promising. A burnt out car on what used to be a pristine beach...



But once we set off, the river was still as beautiful as last time. Because the river is in such a deep ravine, there's scarcely any wind in the morning.



We didn't see any raptors this time (more on this later), but we did see this azure kingfisher, which stopped to pose for us on a branch. We also saw lots of smaller birds and two channel-billed cuckoos. We managed to hear (but not see) two eastern whip birds very close to the water and an Australian little bittern somewhere far off. And there were tonnes of water dragons.



After exploring as far as we could upstream, we turned around to head back to the launching site.



Back to where we started, we hauled the kayaks down to the beach so we could explore the downstream part of the river (some explorers helping more than others).



Liem having a paddle by himself before we set off for the second leg.



Back in the reflection cave downstream from the launch site. Here you can see the rain had started and we ended up sitting for a while in the shelter of the cave before eventually turning back.

Comments

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

Another lovely trip, but it is indeed a pity about the car. :-/ Will it be cleaned up quickly?

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

I don't know actually. I'm not sure if we're supposed to report it. It did look quite recent, but it's also quite a popular spot, so I hope someone else reported it already.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

The first photo is so beautiful, the perfect reflection, and then! The car :-P

When you say water dragons--are they the same as the sea dragons in my icon?

And the bird in the picture, is it one of the cuckoos?

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

The water dragons are iguana-like lizards (although only indirectly related to iguanas). They swim well and often run on their two legs on land. They can get quite big too - we saw some over 50 cm long, although most of that was tail.

The bird is an azure kingfisher. We didn't get a good shot of the channel-billed cuckoos, even though they flew right over us.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Whoa--they sound science fictional (the water dragons).

And this bird looked like a kingfisher, so that's gratifying!

[soon_lee]

That first photo is absolutely gorgeous!

(The rest are neat too, but that first one is breath-takingly beautiful.)

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Yes, that part of the Nepean seems to get some amazing reflections because there's scarcely any wind at the bottom of the ravine. Even stranger, that photo was taken from under one of the bridges that the Hume Hwy crosses on the way between Melbourne and Sydney. We've driven over that route dozens of times, with only the briefest glimpse into the ravine below. From the highway above, it's impossible to imagine the secret world below.

[soon_lee]

We've driven that route too, with no idea what was just below. So thanks for sharing.