Cabbage Tree Basin
Come with me this week on a paddling expedition to Cabbage Tree Basin...
We'll start out early in the morning from Bonnie Vale in the Royal National Park. If we're lucky, the water may be smooth like silver as we head out across the Port Hacking.
We'll round the tip of the Deeban spit, keeping an eye out for visiting shorebirds.
Then we'll follow the channel along the other side of the spit, till we reach the little footbridge and weir that form a gate to the basin. If the tide is right, we can paddle all the way through. Otherwise, we may need to land and portage our kayaks around the bridge.
We made it through! Here you see, some boys are wake boarding in the rapids shooting under the bridge.
Now the water gets very shallow, but luckily the current is pushing us along. It's a flood tide, so we don't need to worry about getting stuck. If we're lucky, we won't even need to paddle, we can just drift gently along.
The mangroves along the sides of the basin are gorgeous in the morning sun.
At last, we'll reach the deep part of the basin. Suddenly, we can't see the bottom any more, and instead, as we peer down, we see only sky.
At the far side, the basin becomes shallow again. If you pass beyond these mangroves, there's a little creek that flows out of the Royal National Park. Another adventure, for another day.
Keep an eye out for fish and sting rays as we cruise along.
Once we're back out past the bridge, we'll take a detour through the mangroves near Bonnie Vale. Did you see that grey bird flashing through the trees?
It's a striated heron, intent on catching some breakfast.
As we pass the Bonnie Vale camping ground, we may see all sorts of craft on the water. The sun is getting high now, so we might just cut across that dune, instead of paddling all the way around the spit.
Back at our put-in site. We'll just take one last patrol around the seagrass before we head in. Keep an eye out for fish and sea turtles!
We'll start out early in the morning from Bonnie Vale in the Royal National Park. If we're lucky, the water may be smooth like silver as we head out across the Port Hacking.
We'll round the tip of the Deeban spit, keeping an eye out for visiting shorebirds.
Then we'll follow the channel along the other side of the spit, till we reach the little footbridge and weir that form a gate to the basin. If the tide is right, we can paddle all the way through. Otherwise, we may need to land and portage our kayaks around the bridge.
We made it through! Here you see, some boys are wake boarding in the rapids shooting under the bridge.
Now the water gets very shallow, but luckily the current is pushing us along. It's a flood tide, so we don't need to worry about getting stuck. If we're lucky, we won't even need to paddle, we can just drift gently along.
The mangroves along the sides of the basin are gorgeous in the morning sun.
At last, we'll reach the deep part of the basin. Suddenly, we can't see the bottom any more, and instead, as we peer down, we see only sky.
At the far side, the basin becomes shallow again. If you pass beyond these mangroves, there's a little creek that flows out of the Royal National Park. Another adventure, for another day.
Keep an eye out for fish and sting rays as we cruise along.
Once we're back out past the bridge, we'll take a detour through the mangroves near Bonnie Vale. Did you see that grey bird flashing through the trees?
It's a striated heron, intent on catching some breakfast.
As we pass the Bonnie Vale camping ground, we may see all sorts of craft on the water. The sun is getting high now, so we might just cut across that dune, instead of paddling all the way around the spit.
Back at our put-in site. We'll just take one last patrol around the seagrass before we head in. Keep an eye out for fish and sea turtles!