The starting point

The starting point

Thursday, 1 December 2016

1/12/16 Clarrie Hall Dam paddle

Today we’ll start things off a bit back to front , here’s yesterdays sunset after the storm .



   We got some rain , nowhere near what they were getting up in the hills & mountains though !!

  It was paddle time , with the Tweed & Rous Rivers , and a few dams to choose from , it was a matter of where to go . We were up at 7am and had breakfast and headed toward the small village of Uki . Just past Uki is the turnoff to  Clarrie Hall Dam - it is water catchment for town use , but they do allow boating - canoes , kayaks , rowboats , but no petrol outboard motors - you can use electric motors though - you cant swim in the dam - so care must be taken not to capsize !! 

 Now I will warn you upfront , if you don’t like reflections , change pages right now !!! Cause here they come .








 It is such a beautiful place to paddle in , not too wide - but there are some big expanses of water - pristine rainforest covering the hills all the way down to the water .  Mist coming off the water , water lillies line the edges of the dam - more yellow than purple and some small frilly white ones , then there’s the aqautic weed that has small white flowers that forms another band beside the water lillies . dead trees , rocks & grassed areas , then there are a few houses thrown into the mix as well !!!






 It was getting quite warm , with very little shade to get some relief from the sun - it was 30 degrees but we were getting the first of the sea breeze , which helped cool things a little . We did a lap around Snake Island and came back to the boat ramp . Surprisingly , we had been paddling for about 3 hours , and covered about 9klms , possibly more with our zig zagging all around the place .



   Back for lunch and a relax in the shade of some large camphor laurel trees for an hour or 2 . Storms had been forecast for today , it was interesting to watch it all develop over the ranges behind us . 
 This cloud was developing over the scenic rim area to the west of us .


 The grey cloud came from further southwest , straight over Mt Warning and then us .


 This cloud went straight over us and headed toward Tweed Heads .


 All the fuss and bother , and we didn’t get very much rain out of it . However , it did regroup and approached from the northwest , dropping a lot of rain , thunder and lightning . It then cleared and we ended up with sunshine - what a day !!



No comments:

Post a Comment