Planned in sync with the tide, a classic clear winter's day accompanied by an amendable cool SW combined to create a civilian paddle. Brian turned up with two boats and no company. Damien arrived later carrying a short board. With the board strapped to the foredeck the two groups converged on the
foreshore to take a lift with a rapidly receding tide for Jumpinpin.
With a show of great faith Dean and Chris followed us across a couple of inches of water to explore a channel which comes out south of Whalleys Gutter. It was looking like a muddy retreat for a while but the channel widened into an open expanse, much
broader than the impression given on the chart. Then it was sails up and huddle up for safety in numbers to cross the channel plied by weekend speedsters and environmentalists.
The rest of the group had already beached close to the mouth of the spit and taken shelter behind the dune and casuarinas from the nosy fingers of the SW. Damien was off with his shortie in search of surf - he cut a solitary figure as he disappeared over the dunes. After lunch it was time to check out the ocean. On the way over we saw a group of people were clustered around a quad
bike. Turns out that they had not realised the significance of the signs which marked a total exclusion zone for a migratory and rare bird nesting area. Fortunately it was out of season, although it seemed quaint that birds could read and 4WD still
access this section of the beach. A jetski skimmed along in less than a foot of water, any loss of speed could have been nasty, possibly fatal. Damien was seen from afar and again cut a solitary figure on his return from surfing the break a mile
further south. It was one of those classic intensely blue cool winter days that are so magical in SE Qld. It was so clear that you could see Mt Warning from the beach.
Back over the dunes south of the large notice demarcating the end
of the critical bird nesting area and onto the mud flats it was tiptoe amongst the more immediately endangered soldier crabs. Brahminy kites hung on the SW and it looked like we were in for a gym workout. Yet the breeze dropped away as forecast and the tide took us back to the boat ramp at 8Kph with little or no effort to conclude a positively civilian paddle.
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