2025-05-31 -33 151
| Sat 31 May 2025 in -33,151: -33.4253019, 151.1707708 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox |
Location
In a mangrove swamp in the Hawkesbury river system, north of Sydney.
Participants
Expedition
Shall we?
A cold draught yanks me unpleasantly awake in our tent. It's the third and final day of a kayaking trip around the Hawkesbury river system, from Berowra Waters to Brooklyn. Last night, we arrived at Gentleman's Halt, a little bush campsite on a little tongue of land surrounded by the river. Five other gentleman have also chosen to halt here: two friendly chaps camped right down by the landing, who promised to keep an eye on our kayak in the face of a rising tide. And three grumpy older men apparently part of a group but spread out as far as possible from each other.
By instinct, I check the geohash, half-heartedly, notice it's 50 kilometres away, similar to yesterday, and roll over and contemplate the day's plan. It's pretty straightforward: paddle across the river for coffee in the little town of Spencer, then just follow the Hawksebury downstream, backtracking on yesterday, until eventually reaching the boat ramp in Brooklyn. As usual, the tides will be against us: we've mastered the art of paddling downstream when the tide is coming in, and once it turns, we then proceed up the nearest inlet, so we can be once again paddling against the tide.
Some time later, the birds are chirping through the drizzle, and KT is joining them: "hey, did you see the geohash?" Turns out, in my grogginess, I'd indeed been looking at yesterday's again.
We take a closer look together: it's only 5 kilometres away! It's almost, but not quite, in the waters of Popran Creek, a tributary to a tributary to the Hawkesbury. Around here, being on land almost certainly means being in mangroves - a seriously difficult bushbashing proposition.
We do the maths: the geohash expedition adds about 13 kilometres to our day. But it's otherwise the shortest day of our trip, and we don't have a firm deadline. Yesterday was 27 kilometres. This would turn 17 into 30 - not crazy.
But best of all, it makes the tides work for us: we'd be paddling upstream with the rising tide, and paddling downstream in the afternoon with the outgoing tide. This could work!
Over coffee and breakfast, as the drizzle eases up, we slowly talk ourselves into it. I'm pretty skeptical about actually reaching the point, something like 30-40 metres from the water's edge, but it's worth a shot. There's a thick fog around us though, and we can't see the town of Spencer at all. How far will we paddling blind, relying just on our maps?
Yes
It's fairly quick to pack, with our reduced food and water supplies fitting much more easily into the kayak than previously. The fog is perhaps thinning slightly. There's no wind though, and it's wonderfully calm. We push out, me steering from the rear, KT navigating in the front.
At first, we're paddling totally blind, but before long we see another boat, and a few markers. The phone shows we're holding course ok, so it doesn't feel too scary. As we cross the main current and start heading up Mangrove Creek, the fog rapidly dissipates and reveals a beautiful day. It's a stunning area - wide river with big hills all around, unbroken bushland with no grass to be seen anywhere.
The Hawkesbury River is, for us Melburnians, a huge river, hundreds of metres across for long stretches, and much grander than the Murray or any river in Victoria. It curves around the west and north of Sydney, with lots of tributaries along its length. It is too wide to have many bridges, and the terran too mountainous to have much in the way of way of towns. Very little of the land has been cleared, and many of the houses that cluster in a few spots are only accessible by boat. It's a pretty magical place that has intrigued me since watching the TV miniseries The Secret River, set during the colonisation of the Hawkesury area in 1805.
Paddling upstream is easy work with the tide pushing us as we hug the eastern shore. On the far side, behind us but gaining quickly, we see another pair in a red kayak. Eventually we end up close enough that we strike up a conversation. Boris and Alice, GPs in their late 60s, live an hour away, and love taking their kayak out for a little adventure whenever they get the chance. They tell us a bit about the region, about kayaking, and it's all very lovely. By chance, they're also heading up Popran Creek.
We don't feel like explaining what geohashing is, so once we're a short way up the creek, we just say we're going to turn around at this point and bid them farewell.
As expected, the side of the river is lined in dense mangroves. But as we pull in closer we see we're in luck: there's solid ground very close to the water's edge, and we won't be fighting our way through waterlogged trunks. But how to get out and secure the boat? Having the boat float away seems like a scary proposition.
KT fashions a rope out of roll of baling twine she's squirrelled away, and I use my life jacket to tie the back of the boat to a mangrove root. We gingerly clamber ashore and start slopping through the mud.
Mangrove mud is a whole ecosystem of its own. It's amazing stuff. It's incredibly goopy, and loves to swallow any footwear it can get its gloop around. KT's reef sandals hold up well. My thongs are a disaster, constantly getting sucked into the mud, until they suddenly snap back with a loud pop, or disappear until I can fish them back out.
We're only 20 metres away though, and feeling pretty good. We slop and clomp and slip through the sludge, doing a very slow-motion geohash dance. Success! What a point!
KT is a pro at mangrove-bashing by now and makes it back to the kayak in seconds, leaving me to try to delicately follow in her wake. We clamber clumsily back on board, me bringing enormous quantities of mud with me. Yeesh.
The only challenge now: will we make it to Spencer in time to stay for lunch? We paddle our hearts out, and against all expectations, make landfall before 12. There's a big group also descending on the only cafe in town, so we don't mess about, scurrying ahead to get our orders in first. Big brunch and a coffee, perfect way to celebrate.
