Well I know I've been pretty slack on this but I finished my two Laker Kayaks about a month or more ago , just never got around to taking pictures of them , two many off days with back pain ,
Finally got to put them in the water last Sunday , put them on the padded rack on the trailer , bad idea , I was using pool noodles cut in half and taped on with duct tape as padding , this was fine on the bitumen road down to the Eurimbula National Park turn off , then it was dirt road , it was even fine on the section to the Eurimbula creek turn off as the road had been graded recently but the 14km track down to Middle creek was just plain bumpy ,
I was down to about 6 km a hour a lot of the way and the kayaks come loose several times , seems the pool noodle foam compresses under constant vibration and the straps come loose , unfortunately as soon as you stop they fluff out again and the straps are tight which is fine except that under the vibration and sway of the trailer racks the foam moves out from between the kayak and the steel rack and the kayak is riding on bare steel , not good , had to sand back and refinish them this week ,
But back to the paddle , we got to Middle creek and the place was packed , all seemed to be from the same group , about 60 or 70 of them , this is a lot for this place , Middle creek is a place where you are surprised to find 3 people let alone 70 , I would have thought the small camp ground capable of holding 20 campers at most , [ not 20 camp site , 20 people ] , they were packed in , if any one there farted the whole lot would have smelt it ,
They had the good sense to leave what passes for a boat ramp clear so it was no trouble to carry the kayaks down to the water , well no trouble except that because of the back problems I can no longer just swing a kayak up onto my shoulder and carry it down to the water , now the kayaks only weigh 20.7 kg [ 45.5 lb ] which is lighter than a plastic kayak of the same size , now I don't consider 20 kg heavy , the Hebel blocks I used to build the house weighed 18 kg each wet , and they were always wet , using the block lifter [ another 1.5 kg ] I used to lift them one handed all day , but the back just won't let me carry any thing much these days with out giving me a problem , but no problem , Shirley is there to take the other end , unfortunately Shirley does think 20 kg is heavy , and since she broke her wrist a few years ago and it didn't heal straight she thinks 10 kg heavy , I said fine just use the other hand , bloody hell you would have thought I'd asked her to kill her grandmother , [ actually she is already dead ] , we had to stop every 10 ft so she could change hands , problem is since the broken wrist and a bit of arthritis settling in her shoulders , elbows and wrists Shirley hasn't had much in the way of exercise except for walking regularly , which is why I wanted her to get into paddling .
To tell the truth the kayaks probably weighed a little more than 20.7 kg by the time they were carried down to the water , seat , paddle , water , a bit of lunch and a few other items do add a little weight , but we got in the water and away ,
The water was beautiful , crystal clear , we had the last of a incoming tide and the slight breeze coming in the same direction as the tide , we just had to paddle against it for about 200 metres until we got to the feeder creek I wanted to paddle , of course as soon as we left the ramp Shirley paddled off in the wrong direction even though I mentioned several times we were going to paddle a creek up to our right , and she reckons I never listen , LOL , I called out and told her she was going the wrong way , she told me I was going the wrong way , she may not be always right but she is always positive , any way she turned around and come my way , she wasn't doing too bad for her first solo paddle .
I waited up at the feeder creek mouth for her , I just sat up near the bank out of the wind that had come up a bit more , Shirley finally caught up and abused me for paddling off and leaving her , ( I was only 50 metres in front of her ) ,
As we set off up the creek I explained that the tide was still moving up the creek and as long as we kept on this side out of the wind [ that was now coming straight across our bows from left to right ] we would have a very easy paddle of it , Shirley whose middle name is Katherine but should have been Stubborn then went ahead and tried to prove me wrong by paddling on the wrong side of the creek , after 5 minutes she decided that maybe my idea was better , and things went a lot smoother , the water was crystal clear and the creek just about wall to wall fish , I could see them every where , there was even a school of Parrot fish in the creek , saw some barramundi in one of the snags and the number of stingray was just too many to count ,
There were two boats fishing up the creek , I asked them how they doing but they reckoned they weren't even getting a bite but they had been cleaning up on the crabs .
We paddled up the creek about 3 km and Shirley reckoned that was enough , I have to say she surprised me she went that far , I really did think she would be stuffed after 1 km , but she did well , we paddled back against the tide but it had slowed and was just about to turn , the last part of the was back was with the tide starting to push us slightly , we used the paddles from my inflatable kayak as they are really quite small compared to a normal kayak paddle , much easier for me to use considering my buggered shoulder , the smaller paddles were probably much easier on Shirley as well ,
Shirley enjoyed her self and that was the main thing , it means she will want to come next time as well , I of course loved it , in the last part of the trip back I was hearing less banging of the paddle on the side of the laker from Shirley but she still wasn't totally in control all the time and now and then I'd hear her call ramming speed , and know to take evasive measures before she run into me , [ which she did several times ] , of course I think it was loss of control , it could of course just been Shirley being playful .
I know there aren't any pictures and there would have been , I took my camera , I put new batteries in it before we left and I bought spare batteries with me , but the camera has developed the annoying habit of turning off when ever I go to take a picture , will take some next time at Middle creek , if of course my camera is working
Ordered a set of Thule roof racks and two kayak carriers from ARB down at Bundaberg , will be down to pick them up week after next , then back down to Middle
David
Finally got to put them in the water last Sunday , put them on the padded rack on the trailer , bad idea , I was using pool noodles cut in half and taped on with duct tape as padding , this was fine on the bitumen road down to the Eurimbula National Park turn off , then it was dirt road , it was even fine on the section to the Eurimbula creek turn off as the road had been graded recently but the 14km track down to Middle creek was just plain bumpy ,
I was down to about 6 km a hour a lot of the way and the kayaks come loose several times , seems the pool noodle foam compresses under constant vibration and the straps come loose , unfortunately as soon as you stop they fluff out again and the straps are tight which is fine except that under the vibration and sway of the trailer racks the foam moves out from between the kayak and the steel rack and the kayak is riding on bare steel , not good , had to sand back and refinish them this week ,
But back to the paddle , we got to Middle creek and the place was packed , all seemed to be from the same group , about 60 or 70 of them , this is a lot for this place , Middle creek is a place where you are surprised to find 3 people let alone 70 , I would have thought the small camp ground capable of holding 20 campers at most , [ not 20 camp site , 20 people ] , they were packed in , if any one there farted the whole lot would have smelt it ,
They had the good sense to leave what passes for a boat ramp clear so it was no trouble to carry the kayaks down to the water , well no trouble except that because of the back problems I can no longer just swing a kayak up onto my shoulder and carry it down to the water , now the kayaks only weigh 20.7 kg [ 45.5 lb ] which is lighter than a plastic kayak of the same size , now I don't consider 20 kg heavy , the Hebel blocks I used to build the house weighed 18 kg each wet , and they were always wet , using the block lifter [ another 1.5 kg ] I used to lift them one handed all day , but the back just won't let me carry any thing much these days with out giving me a problem , but no problem , Shirley is there to take the other end , unfortunately Shirley does think 20 kg is heavy , and since she broke her wrist a few years ago and it didn't heal straight she thinks 10 kg heavy , I said fine just use the other hand , bloody hell you would have thought I'd asked her to kill her grandmother , [ actually she is already dead ] , we had to stop every 10 ft so she could change hands , problem is since the broken wrist and a bit of arthritis settling in her shoulders , elbows and wrists Shirley hasn't had much in the way of exercise except for walking regularly , which is why I wanted her to get into paddling .
To tell the truth the kayaks probably weighed a little more than 20.7 kg by the time they were carried down to the water , seat , paddle , water , a bit of lunch and a few other items do add a little weight , but we got in the water and away ,
The water was beautiful , crystal clear , we had the last of a incoming tide and the slight breeze coming in the same direction as the tide , we just had to paddle against it for about 200 metres until we got to the feeder creek I wanted to paddle , of course as soon as we left the ramp Shirley paddled off in the wrong direction even though I mentioned several times we were going to paddle a creek up to our right , and she reckons I never listen , LOL , I called out and told her she was going the wrong way , she told me I was going the wrong way , she may not be always right but she is always positive , any way she turned around and come my way , she wasn't doing too bad for her first solo paddle .
I waited up at the feeder creek mouth for her , I just sat up near the bank out of the wind that had come up a bit more , Shirley finally caught up and abused me for paddling off and leaving her , ( I was only 50 metres in front of her ) ,
As we set off up the creek I explained that the tide was still moving up the creek and as long as we kept on this side out of the wind [ that was now coming straight across our bows from left to right ] we would have a very easy paddle of it , Shirley whose middle name is Katherine but should have been Stubborn then went ahead and tried to prove me wrong by paddling on the wrong side of the creek , after 5 minutes she decided that maybe my idea was better , and things went a lot smoother , the water was crystal clear and the creek just about wall to wall fish , I could see them every where , there was even a school of Parrot fish in the creek , saw some barramundi in one of the snags and the number of stingray was just too many to count ,
There were two boats fishing up the creek , I asked them how they doing but they reckoned they weren't even getting a bite but they had been cleaning up on the crabs .
We paddled up the creek about 3 km and Shirley reckoned that was enough , I have to say she surprised me she went that far , I really did think she would be stuffed after 1 km , but she did well , we paddled back against the tide but it had slowed and was just about to turn , the last part of the was back was with the tide starting to push us slightly , we used the paddles from my inflatable kayak as they are really quite small compared to a normal kayak paddle , much easier for me to use considering my buggered shoulder , the smaller paddles were probably much easier on Shirley as well ,
Shirley enjoyed her self and that was the main thing , it means she will want to come next time as well , I of course loved it , in the last part of the trip back I was hearing less banging of the paddle on the side of the laker from Shirley but she still wasn't totally in control all the time and now and then I'd hear her call ramming speed , and know to take evasive measures before she run into me , [ which she did several times ] , of course I think it was loss of control , it could of course just been Shirley being playful .
I know there aren't any pictures and there would have been , I took my camera , I put new batteries in it before we left and I bought spare batteries with me , but the camera has developed the annoying habit of turning off when ever I go to take a picture , will take some next time at Middle creek , if of course my camera is working
Ordered a set of Thule roof racks and two kayak carriers from ARB down at Bundaberg , will be down to pick them up week after next , then back down to Middle
David
