Unless there is significant rain, in another 10 days large sections of today's paddle will have morphed into a walk. Two Canadians and four TK1s made the journey from Gregors Creek to Barney's Rocks Bridge. The start point was a meet, greet and eat
at the Fernvale Bakery before organising the cars and boats for
the car shuffle. It was a clear fine day with no suggestion that the forecast isolated showers were heading our way.
Tom noted that the water level had dropped around 10cm in 10 days. With it more gravel races were within reach, logs revealed their form and some passages became a walk rather than paddle. However it remained imminently do-able and another great opportunity to visit a usually inaccessible reach of the upper Brisbane River.
There were several notable differences compared with the paddle
from Barneys Rocks Bridge to O'Sheas Crossing a month earlier. No lung fish were seen and Brahman cattle were out in force. On two occasions we had to pull over as herds crossed the river. We only came across one exposed barbed wire fence and avoided it by paddling down the other arm as here the river was divided by a large gravel bank. White bellied sea eagles soared, herons,
kingfishers and an occasional black swan were also around but overall, the birdlife was not as abundant. There were some newbies with ducklings being herded
for the protective cover of the bank.
Resilient masses of callistemon are already taking hold competing for space on the banks and now dry river bed. The low or narrow passages under the mature trees caught the occasional paddle. There was regular spider and brush sampling along the way, and, the occasional swim. Chris found a curious ready made playable
gourd but no other band members.
Morning tea was had in the shade whilst contemplating the best line for the next bend. Lunch with Jay (a prickly sweet pineapple) was shared in the shade of an immature callistemon forest growing in a rocky bed with contour insensitive seating.
The time taken for the car shuffle, to do the ports and cover the 17Km meant that those in even numbered homes were not going to make it time to wash the car or house. However, I don't think anyone was too upset and the upper Brisbane River river could do with all the water it has.
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