Snoskred – Life in the Country

(I started writing this post a couple of weeks ago – finally have the time to finish it!)
For the last month, every single day off that the other half had has been gorgeous blue skies, but evil winds which made kayaking a bit scary – making big waves on our little waterway. We were suffering from serious kayak withdrawal.

So despite the fact that most of the day was already gone, it was somewhat windy, and clouds were on the way.. it was time to just do it.

As we paddled out we found the two black swans who have been rearing a couple of swan babies not too far from our backyard. We saw them the last time we went kayaking – they have grown a lot since then!

The parents were squawking up a storm, and the little swans were paddling as fast as their little legs would paddle. Seems they find the kayak a little scary.

One thing I find about kayaking when the sun is not out – you can’t see into the water. It makes it difficult to know the depth of the water and when you’re in a new spot where you don’t really know the terrain you want to try and keep away from the “edges” so to speak. Which is a shame because I would have liked to get a bit closer to have a look at this spot. It is a reserve, so we’re going to head back for a walk around there.

As we headed back home, the sun got lower in the sky creating some awesome reflections on the water.

When we got back, we found out we were pretty wet from kayaking out into the waves. I know it doesn’t look wavy but it never does in the photos. When we went out today I took some video footage so people will believe me about the waves – maybe this will get posted here in the future.

The great thing about the shark skin for me is that I do not feel the wet or the cold – until I stand up. Then all the water which has collected around my butt runs down the inside of my shark skin towards my toes.

This happens with the bungs in or out, I can’t seem to win – if we leave them out it won’t be wavy and they don’t need to be out so I could have gone without wet butt – if we leave them in the waves will crash over the bow and leave a puddle of water which creates extra wet butt!

I can’t imagine life without the shark skin now. I love them. I can imagine so many uses for them besides kayaking – the windproof aspect of them is the most awesome. I can be warmer being splashed by waves out on the kayak with a big wind blowing right at me than I am sitting here in the house with a rug on. Sounds unbelievable but it is true.

So, I mentioned a while back that our new place had something awesome about it. We’re almost all moved in now, and today we took a little time off to enjoy the awesomeness. What is it?

It backs onto a gorgeous body of water, and we have our own private boat ramp. How awesome is that?

So this morning instead of putting the kayak on the car and driving it 10kms or so, we pulled it out of the garage and walked a very short distance. We were not out for too long, but long enough to absorb the awesomeness before heading off to the old house to pack up the last stuff.

This week I will get stuck into cleaning the old place before we hand the keys back, and then we can relax, and unpack.

We are planning a summer of kayaking, exploring the local waterways, and having way too much fun. Yay!

No, I’m not brave enough to try it – but Freya Hoffmeister is currently kayaking around Australia. I have been following her blog – you should too! You can find it here – Freya’s Blog. Right now, she has not seen land in almost a week – she is crossing the Gulf of Carpenteria. She will hopefully see land again this Friday.

Only one other person has successfully kayaked around Australia. It will take approximately a year. I have to say I admire Freya greatly – I cannot imagine the courage and strength it takes to do something like this.. I find it hard to get organised for one four hour trip out on the local creek, I cannot imagine planning ahead for spending over a week on the water – sleeping on it too!

I think our kayak might be ready to take the winter rest, sadly. It has been so cold here the last few days – it is snowing in the Australian alps again.. at night time it is getting down to less than 5 degrees! If the sun comes out again, we will go out for a final trip.

All the times we have been kayaking, and the other day out was the first time we saw these guys.

Beautiful little blue crabs with orange legs. They seem to travel in packs. When we pedal by, they run away.

In other news, some sick twisted person decided to play a Sopranos marathon over the weekend. Easter weekend! Shouldn’t that be illegal or something?
Regardless, I was glued to the teevee. Still am actually, there’s like 50 eps I recorded on the Mystar. Plus they had Dexter season 3 on all day today. It’s not exactly “wholesome” teevee, but I have to be honest, I like it that way.