Albany Sea Kayak. Jan 26 to 28 2018.
Rob, Indi, Bryan.
Day One (click for map – then choose google on down arrow bottom right, then satellite on top left)
We left Emu Point at 9am after staying in the Caravan Park which was annoyingly almost but not quite at the put-in (we should have just slept on the beach). This day had the best weather forecast of our planned 3 day trip to Waychinicup, and it turned out to be perfect paddling weather — calm and warm, but not hot. We had thought to start at the whaling station, but transport logistics made it easier to start at Emu Point, so we paddled across Frenchman’s Bay past a tiny island (“Seal Island”) for a very short rest, then to the northern end of Flinder’s Peninsula. (I think there are or will be 2 or 3 really good looking Trad climbs here that I am keen to check out another time). The next leg was to Michaelmas Island where we paddled along the rocky seaward shore, very aware that this would not be so friendly most of the time. Today we saw lots of the most wonderful large grey sea-birds with very slender wings. They would swoop and glide along the sea surface coming very close to us. I am pretty sure I have seen them before, but not in such large numbers, and I don’t know what they are called. This was definitely a highlight for me!
The amazing sleeping rock
There was nowhere to land a kayak on the south side so we rested on the leeward (northern) side for a bit and had a swim from the boat. The last leg was across to a very small east facing beach on the mainland at the western end of Nanarup beach where we had a decent sized lunch. We contemplated the long crossing of this beach to take advantage of the good weather, but thought it was better not to overdo it on the first day although we all felt pretty good after about 25km of paddling in just over 3 hours. I slept under this amazing rock in case it rained, but insects were a problem! I also had some fun making a barrier to the waves like I used to when I was ten.
The forecast was for 25 knot S to SW winds by noon so we got our shit together and were paddling by 745. On the first 12k crossing the wind picked up to 20 knots or so and was an almost tail wind. This made it pretty easy going, but I found it hard to keep directional control at times. It would have been hard (impossible?) to going into the wind. We stopped briefly in the shelter of a cool rocky island with *amazing* cliff jumping potential (Tarky), and then scurried for the shelter of the headland, where the wind continued to be extremely gusty varying from nothing at all to 25 kts. We stopped at the first beach we could which is apparently called “Waterfall Beach” and setup camp just as it started raining.
Waterfall Beach
Another amazingly beautiful un-spoilt campsite with clear warmish water, perfect white sand and rocks to cook on. Paddling in it was disappointing to see a large resort building – jarring in this otherwise remote feeling location – but at least it was out of sight of our camp. A bit of napping was needed after a quite tiring paddle. 22km, 4:15 in the boats.
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