An Early Memory

When I was younger Mum and Dad took us all on a holiday to the mainland, I believe I might have been 8, or turned 8 while we were away. We drove up in the van and there's a couple of things that stood out while we were in Sydney, one was Mum and Dad going to see Ray Martin and we also stayed at this caravan park, that had a river near it. I always remember the river and the track that ran along it and when I first moved up here, I always thought where was the caravan park. I remembered it was the lanecove caravan park, but as I worked around lanecove I couldn't work out where it was.

A couple of years ago I had a delivery for the caravan park and so I knew where it actually was this time, not in lanecove but in north ryde. After buying the kayak I decided i'd one day give this river a paddle and last night I decided i'd try it today. I woke up at 3am and it was pouring with rain and also at 6am, so thought ok, a day inside instead. About 9 it cleared up a little and so I loaded up the car and off I went for a drive.

The river wasn't as clean as others but it was abounding in life. There were fishing jumping and surfacing everywhere, lizards, even an eel was casually swimming along and lots of birds chirping away. I actually nearly jumped out of the kayak once, when a big fish jumped out of the water with a crash not more than 30 centimetres from me.

These two characters must have thought I was hilarious and couldn't stop laughing.

He must have been worn out and hitched a ride, didn't pay a fare though.

I saw these two ducks and wandered on a little closer to them and they took off and look what I found stuck in the leaves, it's not everyday you find a $20 note

I was about 20 mins paddle back to the car when I heard some thunder and within 5 mins it was crashing right above me every 2 mins, there was also lightning flashing and I was considering jumping out of the kayak for awhile, especially since my paddle was part aluminium. I soldiered on and eventually made it back but the ramp I launched out of and there were a heap of people in the boat rental shop and they just all smiled when they saw me coming in all soaked through. I asked someone to take a picture for me of me, but my camera battry had died and now I think it might have been water as well as it will turn on, but thats it, so hopefully it will dry out again and start working properly

I'm actually quite liking just floating along and doing my own thing and just relaxing. I had the river all to myself as most people kayak the other part, which I will try out soon enough.