Ever have a week that just doesn't go as planed , it happens to me a lot ,
this last week certainly didn't go as planed , had intended to spend most of the week paddling the Dawson river in my inflatable kayak but things just didn't go smoothly .
Got out to Theodore about 10.30 am , wife showed me where the Bank Managers house was and then I dropped her off at the bank so she could start work , I then spent the next few hours moving stuff into the house and setting it up , she will be living there during the week for the next few months ,
We have a inflatable air bed where the legs concertina and scissor out , it's very good and very comfortable but the thing we forgot was that it's also very cold , so if you need a quilt on top you will need one at least as thick on the bottom too , we had forgotten this and dam near froze , it had been a warm day but turned cold that afternoon ,
Most of the day was used up setting up gear , cleaning up and repairing things , none of the outside doors locked and most didn't have keys that worked or locks and striker plates that lined up , bank managers are renowned for being lax with house hold repairs , also had to show around Shirley's boss the regional manager for ANZ and a prospective new manager for Theodore , they have trouble getting managers out there because it's only a tiny town and hours away from any bigger , they offered the job to Shirley but she said she would take it only if they couldn't get any one else , so at the moment she is just relieving out there until they get a new manager , she is also going to have to train a new Senior personal banker and retrain the staff already out there ,
Well the first day was a bust as there was just so much to do but the next morning I had my gear all set to go paddling , the cold during the night set my arthritis off and I was stiff as a board and could barely get out of bed , I screwed up my left shoulder and elbow a few weeks ago when I tripped over a clear plastic box in the dark but it had been getting better and I was at the stage where I had almost full movement with it , or at least I could lift the arm shoulder high , but that morning it was so stiff and sore I couldn't even lift my coffee cup with it , but I decided I was going paddling hell or high water , Figured I could just baby it a little .
Got down to the river and inflated the kayak , that was easy enough , got it into the water and then proceeded to paddle up stream , now the Dawson is about 80 metres wide about there and it runs straight for several miles and tends to funnel the wind , normally I would have hugged the banks to try and stay out of the wind but the banks were studded with snags and no place to take a inflatable , to give it it's due the Pathfinder inflatable handles pretty well , it turns on it's own length and is easy to paddle , the down side is that the detachable fins aren't big enough and don't give it enough directional stability in current with a head wind coming in at 1 O'clock , if I stoped paddling for a second I was turned around and going down stream quicker than I'd been paddling up , with the wind coming in from that direction it meant that I had to paddle three strokes with the left hand for every stroke with the right , seeing how the left shoulder was already in pain I got sick of the whole deal after a mile and turned around and drifted back with the current ,
Later that day I talked to a local guy who said he fished from a Coleman canoe and he had pretty much given up on trying to paddle on this stretch of river when it was flowing , reckons the way to go is with a electric outboard , but also said the narrower stretches further up stream are great for paddling but it's better to put in up stream and paddle down with the current , I'm thinking he may be right , they tell me the Nathan Gorge section is a fantastic place to paddle too
These things are dead quite and make no noise at all , I could get up close enough to touch turtles laying up on logs and the number of water fowl who suddenly discovered me right beside them were very amusing with their antics , after packing up the inflatable I got back around midday just in time for the rain to start , it rained the rest of the day and all night , it rained the next day , all day and all night and was still raining Thursday afternoon when we left , I noticed as we left the river was running well and the water was chocolate brown
I got a very sore throat Tuesday night , could barely swallow , Wednesday I was sick as a dog , tried to get into the doctor but he was booked out for the next few days so made a appointment for my doctor at Tannum sands on Friday , got this bloody flu again .
David
this last week certainly didn't go as planed , had intended to spend most of the week paddling the Dawson river in my inflatable kayak but things just didn't go smoothly .
Got out to Theodore about 10.30 am , wife showed me where the Bank Managers house was and then I dropped her off at the bank so she could start work , I then spent the next few hours moving stuff into the house and setting it up , she will be living there during the week for the next few months ,
We have a inflatable air bed where the legs concertina and scissor out , it's very good and very comfortable but the thing we forgot was that it's also very cold , so if you need a quilt on top you will need one at least as thick on the bottom too , we had forgotten this and dam near froze , it had been a warm day but turned cold that afternoon ,
Most of the day was used up setting up gear , cleaning up and repairing things , none of the outside doors locked and most didn't have keys that worked or locks and striker plates that lined up , bank managers are renowned for being lax with house hold repairs , also had to show around Shirley's boss the regional manager for ANZ and a prospective new manager for Theodore , they have trouble getting managers out there because it's only a tiny town and hours away from any bigger , they offered the job to Shirley but she said she would take it only if they couldn't get any one else , so at the moment she is just relieving out there until they get a new manager , she is also going to have to train a new Senior personal banker and retrain the staff already out there ,
Well the first day was a bust as there was just so much to do but the next morning I had my gear all set to go paddling , the cold during the night set my arthritis off and I was stiff as a board and could barely get out of bed , I screwed up my left shoulder and elbow a few weeks ago when I tripped over a clear plastic box in the dark but it had been getting better and I was at the stage where I had almost full movement with it , or at least I could lift the arm shoulder high , but that morning it was so stiff and sore I couldn't even lift my coffee cup with it , but I decided I was going paddling hell or high water , Figured I could just baby it a little .
Got down to the river and inflated the kayak , that was easy enough , got it into the water and then proceeded to paddle up stream , now the Dawson is about 80 metres wide about there and it runs straight for several miles and tends to funnel the wind , normally I would have hugged the banks to try and stay out of the wind but the banks were studded with snags and no place to take a inflatable , to give it it's due the Pathfinder inflatable handles pretty well , it turns on it's own length and is easy to paddle , the down side is that the detachable fins aren't big enough and don't give it enough directional stability in current with a head wind coming in at 1 O'clock , if I stoped paddling for a second I was turned around and going down stream quicker than I'd been paddling up , with the wind coming in from that direction it meant that I had to paddle three strokes with the left hand for every stroke with the right , seeing how the left shoulder was already in pain I got sick of the whole deal after a mile and turned around and drifted back with the current ,
Later that day I talked to a local guy who said he fished from a Coleman canoe and he had pretty much given up on trying to paddle on this stretch of river when it was flowing , reckons the way to go is with a electric outboard , but also said the narrower stretches further up stream are great for paddling but it's better to put in up stream and paddle down with the current , I'm thinking he may be right , they tell me the Nathan Gorge section is a fantastic place to paddle too
These things are dead quite and make no noise at all , I could get up close enough to touch turtles laying up on logs and the number of water fowl who suddenly discovered me right beside them were very amusing with their antics , after packing up the inflatable I got back around midday just in time for the rain to start , it rained the rest of the day and all night , it rained the next day , all day and all night and was still raining Thursday afternoon when we left , I noticed as we left the river was running well and the water was chocolate brown
I got a very sore throat Tuesday night , could barely swallow , Wednesday I was sick as a dog , tried to get into the doctor but he was booked out for the next few days so made a appointment for my doctor at Tannum sands on Friday , got this bloody flu again .
David
