Rowing on the Yarra

[khiemtran]

Come with me this week to Yarra Bend, right in the heart of Melbourne. It's hard to believe we're just short walk from the CBD of Australia's second largest city...



We'll hire a row boat and have a bit of a paddle. Rowing is a fun skill...



Although you may need to put your back into it.



Or your might prefer to sit in the back and take photos.



The key thing is to make sure we always head upstream, so we can ride the current back.



And to make sure we stay well away from the falls...



The Yarra, as you may have noticed, is a very brown river. But that doesn't mean it's polluted. The colour actually comes from suspended clay particles. And, funnily enough, the colour actually indicates the water is fresh rather than brackish. As the river meets the sea, the colour disappears as the salt makes the particles clump together and sink.

Comments

[puddleshark.livejournal.com]

Lovely! But very murky-looking... I wonder how the herons find their fish!

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

I guess it works both ways: it's harder for the herons to spot the fish at a distance, but also harder for the fish to spot a lurking heron until it's too late. We were keeping a sharp eye out for platypuses and we did see lots of ripples and bubbles on the surface that might have been from fish below. No sign of any platypuses though.

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

That first pic looks like a painting; such lovely light, colors, and composition.

Too bad about the platypuses.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

It's really rare to see a platypus in the wild, although there is a place in Victoria when you can take a canoe tour to go see them with a 90 per cent success rate. I was thinking of doing that last summer, but the bushfires put an end to that idea.

[heliopausa.livejournal.com]

Oh, lovely, muddy, ineffably precious Yarra! Wonderful to hear about your day's enjoyment.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

It was a great morning! I live Sydney for its waterways, but Melbourne certainly does have its own special places.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

The heron seems to be doing its best to look so thin as to be invisible!

I'd be nervous about accidentally going over the falls. Is the current very strong?

PS--Had no idea that salt makes the clay clump together--now I'm wanting to test this at home....

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

It wasn't that strong, but it could be tricky for someone who hadn't learned how to row straight yet. Fortunately, the falls are quite distance from the boat hire place, so there's plenty of time to learn...