If you want to see this in Breeze magazine, it's worth a visit. A beautiful magazine. http://issuu.com/breeze-mag/docs/issue_8?e=3466652/6944682
Adventure is as easy as a kayak and hat.
 |
| Under the mammoth Mooney Mooney Bridge |
Chasing it down I realise can be a balance of effort, timing and timetables, so mini adventures can be the way to go. One only has to drive over the familiar Mooney- Mooney Bridge, in any direction and glimpse the Mooney -Mooney Creek to activate that curious sense of adventure. The creek appears to disappear behind sandstone cliffs and dense forest. ‘The unknown’, I say. I’ve rattled the question in my head, ‘What lies behind that fold in the creek’?
Ten minutes from Kariong, down the Old Pacific Highway, past the Reptile Park, take a right at a dirt road, straight after the Old Mooney Bridge, stay on said little dirt road, this will run parallel to the river, watch out for the dry docked houseboat and this is roughly where you need to be.
Located within Brisbane Waters National Park, The Mooney- Mooney creek is best tackled as close to the actual Mooney- Mooney Bridge as possible, if you are going upstream. There are plenty of spots to launch from, about 50 metres down from the Bridge we parked our cars, applied sunblock, grabbed the camera and threw a bottle of water in, and away we went.
The launch off is as easy as you like, the rivers pretty wide here, still very much part of the Hawkesbury with a vastness that is every bit Hawkesbury river. The intimacy of a creek here is to be discovered upstream. The waters a touch muddy and just for good measure the rocks are brown, slippery and muddy as well. Don’t stand on them, you’ll take a bingle. It’s a fairly non- descript entry point but the distractions are a little further on.
 |
| Mammoth Bridge aka Mooney Mooney. |
 |
| What an amazing tree! |
Inescapable as you begin your paddle, the Mooney- Mooney Bridge is an improbable piece of engineering. Its size, at water level is monstrous, demanding your admiration for the aesthetics of the thing. Nature rallies as best it can, employing thick forest to soften the brute, running trees like lumpy, green, woollen socks up and against the hard concrete. There’s no menace to the bridge and it’s far from ugly, just an odd engineering and nature unison that somehow works, but a contrast that makes you lose your place in the river for a while. Once we remember where we are, our mission is to paddle to where it becomes impassable, some 3.5 k’s north- west, around 5 or 6 bends we understand, where it becomes squeezed by boulders, rock pools and adorned by nature.
Once past the bridge, you begin to commune with your surroundings. The dabbled sweep and gentle movement of my paddle is only broken by the ridiculous hyper orange- red of my kayak. Companion in paddling, Adam, points out that his Kermit-green, mixed–forest, Pot Pouri –kayak, is far more wildlife friendly and insightful. Brash and bright, my plumaged kayak is a disgrace and likely to scare all living things out of water and land. With shoulders still engaged, heckling over, we continue.
After some 45 minutes paddling, the muddy waters begin to appear more brackish, lighter and a narrowing of the waterway begins. The waterway begins to take character, broken tree limbs are strewn across sandbanks, startled movements reveal birds and water dragons scurrying to safer vantage points. The Eucalyptus forest inches into the higher parts of the bank and we see rainforest trees like Coachwood and water gums becoming more common. The further we go, the more diverse the paddle becomes.
 |
| Kinda comes to an end. Need shoes and a map. |
If you want to see this in Breeze magazine, it's worth a visit. A beautiful magazine. http://issuu.com/breeze-mag/docs/issue_8?e=3466652/6944682
No comments:
Post a Comment