With another blue sky day , where else would you want to be on a hot day but on the water again . Reflection Warning : - here we go again !!
With so many options available to paddle , we tried a few before finding our final spot - Oxley River. We went to Stotts Island , but couldn't find a spot to put in safely , and it was very windy there as well , back to Rous River , same problem , so headed back out towards Uki and the bridge over the Tweed River - we could put in there !!
So we did , under the road bridge and up about 40m was another creek/river joining the Tweed - it was the Oxley River , so we headed up there not knowing how far we could get . The river twisted & turned through pastures & sugarcane , we got some strange looks from the cattle .
We found a low bridge going over the river , and thought our journey would stop . However ,we managed to paddle through and kept going .
AS we went further , the river narrowed and we found more gravel beds instead of the grass & trees . A small set of rapids stopped our progress - we weren't interested in dragging the kayak up the shallow rapids and go into the next area , so we stopped in the shade and decided to have a sit in the river and give the hundreds of small fish something new to swim around . And swim around us they did - we had stirred all the rocks and gravel up as we got in the water , and in doing so stirred up a lot of their food in the rocks . There were tiny fresh water shrimp , the tiniest flathead I've ever seen - it was about 25mm long , and many hundreds of tiny fish from 10mm long to 50mm long !!
This was taken from under the water - just playing around !!
While paddling , the phone rang , by the time we got to it , it had rung out . It then rang again , Garry & Robyn had stopped for some breakfast and saw our ute , so we paddled back and had a chat to them for an hour or so .
Everything had dried , so we packed up and headed back to the van for some lunch and a quiet afternoon - it was 33 degrees , but the sea breeze had started to come in helping to keep the temperature more manageable .
Here's a map link :- https://drive.google.com/open?id=1JlFdZM0lU5SnJe5LINgaJeUAa7A&usp=sharing
4/12/16
Saturday was another hot day , so we just chilled for the day !!
Sunday , we headed back to Queensland again , there are so many options to drive from here - you can go through to Natural Bridge & Springbrook ; out to Tweed Heads ; through to Currumbin ; through to Tallebudgera . They all involve driving up & over some mountains ( except for Tweed Heads - depending on which way you go !! ) .
We headed over toward Currumbin , views back down the valley toward Murwillumbah were good - there were a couple of opportunities to stop and look .
We stopped at a couple on the Qld side , but one had overgrown trees blocking the view and the other had powerlines running through and over it .
Getting down to the bottom of the valley on the Qld side , we were given a choice , left to Mt Cougall section of Springbrook NP , or right toward Burleigh and Currumbin . We went left of course , there was a sign to a rock pool and the NP , and thought the rock pool would be great for a swim maybe . It was only 4klms up the road , which seemed to take longer than average - maybe it was the narrow winding road ?
Arrived at the pool , but there were many cars there already , so we kept going to the NP - it was another 6klms up the road . There are lots of houses up in the valley and there was also a reasonable sized school just past the rock pool .
We got to the end of the road and there we were , many cars here also , but there were a couple of vacant spots , so we pulled into one , grabbed our water , the camera and headed off . The track up to the remains of an old sawmill is a bitumen track , and has a few information signs on the way up - it was only about 1 klm up .
The walk is beside the beginnings of Currumbin Creek , with fresh clear water running between plunge pools and small waterfalls , all in a rainforest environment - a sea of green .
Arriving at the top of the walk , there is a shelter shed built over the old remnants of the timber mill .
A small track took us down to the creek and some small pools .
Heading back down , we stopped at one of the pools popular for cooling off in the heat .
I scrambled down the rocks , watching some guys jumping off the rocks above into one pool - about a 5m plunge !!
Anywhere there was pool of water , there were people in them - this would be a great spot during the week when school is in !!
We were ready to head off , so I put the camera down for a second whilst putting the backpack on , and click !!
Back to the ute , we drove to Burleigh and then had lunch before heading for home .
Here's another map link :- https://drive.google.com/open?id=1SBCSVZAKy0y_OpBbCLq9VAQ5HDM&usp=sharing
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