BAKERS
BEACH TO DEVIOT
27/28
July, ‘85
Planned
to include some night paddling, we met at Bakers
Beach mid-afternoon, packed the kayaks, and carried them over the sand
dunes on
the board walks put in to protect the area. The tide was well out and
added a
further 100m to go, but the day was calm and we were in no hurry. We
hadn’t as
yet decided where we were going to camp the night – with Greens
Beach
and Friends Point being two of the possibilities. From our start to the
entrance of the Tamar River are
two long
beaches broken up by Badger Head half way along, and then West Head
before you
do a right hand turn. A light easterly was not enough to disturb the
surface of
the sea unduly, and about halfway along we rafted up while Ian and I
swapped
boats. I had the SEA LEOPARD for this trip, not fitted with lights but
with an
almost clear hull and deck through which a torch would shine fairly
easily –
not good enough for a real night paddle but as this was to be mainly
inside the
Tamar it would probably do. Ian is a bit shorter than I am and I only
just
managed to pour myself into his cockpit. The Old Greenlander was
certainly
different to paddle and after mainly paddling the Longboat and Sea
Leopard I
seemed to be sitting much closer to the bow than normal. Just before
West Head
the cramped cockpit got the better of me and we swapped back again. It
was now
starting to get dark, and we finally decided to camp at Dark Hollow. We
had to
start about 4.00am in the morning to get the tide up the Tamar to
Deviot so the
further we went tonight the later we could sleep in.
The
mouth of the Tamar is studded with shallow pebbly type
reefs and we touched bottom here or there as we picked our way past
some of
them. There were almost no waves so it wasn’t at all
dangerous, even though it
was now totally dark and our lights were on. Once we were a couple of
miles
past Friend Point we were back in deep water in the channel and
followed the
channel pylons up and around Garden Island
breakwater. It is
nights like this that make night paddling so delightful and help to
obliviate
the feeling of tiredness. We found West Arm and then Dark Hollow
without any
trouble and soon had a good fire going. Dark Hollow sounds a bit grim
but it is
a great little place – set up for the teeming boaties in
summer. It has a big
stone fireplace/BBQ and a few large tables, all on a steeply shelving
shore. It
is only accessible from the water and in the summer there are always
dozens of
yachts and power boats anchored nearby. Camping was a little difficult
due to
the steep slope, and we ended up with one tent pitched on top of the
largest
table and one person bivvying on another. Actually it is possible to go
up the
rather steep ground if you wanted a permanent camp for a few days -
from here
to the mouth of the Tamar would be a good area for a novice group for a
few
days paddling – West Arm is a fairly deserted area, although
possibly not in
the middle of summer.
On
Sunday we had to be at Deviot by 8.00am or wait another 6
hours for the tide to change, so we were on the water by about 5.00am,
still
good and dark – and cold – but of course you expect
that in the middle of
winter. In actual fact I feel that these mid-winter trips are an
excellent
chance to try our your gear in bad conditions – if you are
not warm and
comfortable in our winter then there are going to be times in summer
when you
are not going to be either.
It’s
surprising how easy it is to be disoriented early in
the morning in the dark in an area you haven’t paddled
before, and if ever you
are in doubt you need to pull out a map and compass and work out a
course to
start off on, even if it does not seem to be right. This
wasn’t necessary in
this case as several of us had paddled here before and the lights on
the wharf
at Sawyers Point were easily distinguished from the numerous other
lights in
the area. Some of us took the shortest route up the Tamar, cutting
corners,
while some of us stuck in the deep channel and hopefully the fastest
current.
The sun rose as we passed the woodchip plant up Long Reach and we met
up again
to paddle the last few km under the impressive Batman Bridge
to Deviot Yacht Club. We had only been there a few minutes when
John’s wife
Gillian arrived with the transport. And so ended another well organized
trip,
easy enough as it turned out, but we had anticipated much worse
conditions –
maybe next time.
Paddlers
were:
John Wilde
North
Sea Tourer
Trip leader
Cecily Butorac
Greenlander
Ian McDonald
Greenlander
Jeff Jennings
North Sea
Tourer
Laurie Ford
Sea
Leopard
Return to Honepage