Paddle your own canoe

I'm on a bit of a high at present, not due to the amount of Christmas season beverages consumed here, but from a little trip we did the other day. The significant other and son and heir joined me on a kayaking safari with an overnight camp stay. Now you know that I am now a big fan of the 5 million stars rather than the more mundane 5 star hotel so this was a trip I was really looking forward to.

We have been thinking about buying our own kayaks for a little while now and thought this was a good chance to "try before we buy" to see if it suited us, and the verdict is.....

checking out the size of the hatches for our gear

I'm all for it, in fact as soon as we got back I was on the net looking for kayaks for sale and checking out other potential kayaking and camping venues, I think I can confidently say I'm hooked!

GG herself having a swim at our camp-spot

 We rented our kayaks from Kangaroo Valley Canoes who are located in,  funny enough,  Kangaroo Valley,  the service was great. You leave your car there on their property and the bus takes you to your departure point. We did the Bendeela to Tallowa Dam after advice that our first choice the Shoalhaven Gorge would be very crowded, so we took the advice and saved the Gorge for another visit.

We were not disappointed, we saw Kangaroos, Wombats, Possums and even a large goanna who was care-taking our camp site. The National Park people have even put in pit toilets so that you don't have to "rough" it too much.

son and heir showing off his fire lighting skills

getting the fire set, note our tents in the background

the view along the way, nothing except the birds and you on the kayak

"Shall I pitch the tent here?"

we went about half way and then pitched out tents and set up home for the night. We had a lovely campfire and cooked our steaks on it. Bedtime was early as we were all pretty tired.  A few nocturnal visitors woke us up during the night, but that is par for the course when you are camping in a national park.

The next day after breakfast we continued, going to a spooky area which had been flooded for the Shoalhaven Dam scheme in the 1970's and all the trees are poking up from the water, quite eerie.

We arrived at our pickup point ahead of schedule and felt very pleased with ourselves ( especially me) that we did the trip.

Next time I want to do the Shoalhaven Gorge, maybe Australia Day, what do you think?