Bathurst Harbour Day 3B

Forest Lagoon to Bramble Cove: Getting to Bramble Cove

After lunch — and a conversation with a group of paddlers making the challenging journey right around the coast from Strahan to Cockle Creek — we continued our journey westward, this time hugging the southern shore of Bathurst Channel to protect ourselves from the wind which was picking up and avoid the tide which was now against us. The recent rain had also increased the flow in the creeks coming off the hills, and so there were little waterfalls trickling their tannin-flavoured water into the bay, giving it its characteristic brown colour.

We stopped near Noon Point to top up our water supplies from a more substantial waterfall, beaching our kayaks in the shallows, but allowing Tory to get in close to the falls amongst the dark frothy water to fill the water bags (the water is fine for drinking, just dark).

We continued past Mount Parry, decided not to stop at Schooner Cove, and headed northwards around Tonguers Point and into Bramble Cove, which is regarded as being part of Port Davey.

This big bay has a sheltered beach with a particularly safe corner where we could land our kayaks and where a lovely campsite nestles among the trees.

A couple of creeks flow across the beach, one with quite a large dark freshwater pool that was good for a non-salty wash, with Mount Stokes looming behind. 

The seawater is stained brown as well; this is one of the things that makes the area quite unique as the fresher brackish water sits on top and the clearer heavier salt water is deeper, and this combination results in some interesting marine life beneath the surface.

The campsite is cosy and sheltered and it didn’t take too long to get tents set up (the company supplies them, although I’d taken my own — the green one below). I was quite popular because I had a clever fast-working mattress pump for my sleeping mat, which happened to be compatible with everyone else’s mats that they were pumping more slowly by hand.

However, our guides were more popular still, since they had continued to build their reputation for culinary expertise, cooking up an excellent curry for dinner, which we enjoyed around the convenient table.

(Photo above by Roaring 40°s Kayaking)

It is not surprising that folks were so hungry or so ready to head for bed afterwards, since we had managed over 18km during the course of the day.