Mud, Mud, glorious Mud – how could you deny it on a day like today ?
Lapped by turquoise waters. Lagoons encircled by bleached coral shoals. The silence of whale bones. A place where turtles and shovel nosed sharks swim in the dappled shade of themangroves. We thought we have no company until David pulled upthinking that he had missed the start. His choice of day to visitthis misnomer of the Bay was superb.
It was already over 30C when we made direct for the mangrove passage. It was fascinating to see that the scum showed the direction of inflow did not change until a mere 50m from theopening into the Bay. Not only was David seeing the Bay from a new angle, he had been through the mangrove passage pretty much at the limit of its accessibility.
Our trip across to Mud was into a gentle 5Kn NE. A bevy of four black swans beat their exit. The water was broken by the silhouette of an occasional turtle as we made for one of the two southern creeks in search of the whale carcass. It was around 18 months ago when oil coated the water and the stench was putrid. Thistime there was no smell. The trail of bones lead to a silent jumble of what was once a gargantuan creature. The mossies took hold of their preferred paddler and proved to be persistentcompanions as we slipped along the inside of the coral shoals. The direction of flow has changed at the mouth of the eastern creek. Access is through a cluster of dead trees rather than an open mouth flanked by a coral shoal bank. The creek itself remains a surprisingly wide expanse of sheltered water with beautiful reflections. However, it is not that remote and the pandanus camping area had an abandoned tattered fly and tent. I collected a green boogie boardfrom the mangroves while David collected various ropes hitched inthe mangroves or from the campsite.
Mark and I had packed our snorkelling gear with the idea to have snoop around the NE lagoon. To my dismay the entrance was wide open to all traffic, hardly the shallow shoal that only let the turtles escape. A quick dip suggested a muddy bottom and the murky water soon kyboshed the idea of snorkelling. The tide wasso high that the coral shoal rim to the north was submerged leaving a somewhat squitty exposed bank. We left that one for the cormorants and headed in to park up on the inside of the southern rim.
After lunch the NE was starting to pick up to the 10-15 Kn as promised. It delivered a gentle sail back with some scooting rides on the swell. Coming in around the SE corner where the reef extends off St Helena was a short fun paddle through a smalltidal race. Riding the small waves while the water rushes by has you feeling like you are surfing 12Kph not single figures.
Being a fairly full tide, we had enough water to sail and/or paddle in a hurry across the muddy flats in a foot of water. We were not privileged to the shovel sign, although asked David to keep a look out for as soon as they appear, it means you areabout to have a long unpleasant walk.
David had often wondered why a sailing mate of his insisted he visit Mud. Today showed him some of the reasons why this misnomer is one of the best places in the Bay.
