Bongil Birthday

Sara's birthday yesterday. We'd decided to do something Australian that we hadn't done before so we went kayaking in the Bongil Bongil National Park.

The park is just outside Coffs Harbour and covers more than 4,000 hectares of various kinds of forest, swamp and beaches, and some fine creeks. We'd arranged the outing with local firm called Liquid Assets and just after 8am we were picked by a cheerful bloke called Michael driving a ramshackle mini-bus. He happily admitted he'd done no canoeing at all until a mate of his father's offered him the job some months ago.

There's a boat ramp just off the road on which I was attacked by that malevolent magpie and pretty soon we were standing in steady rain - yes, rain - in shorts, thermal vests and spray tops with our kayaks bobbing up and down beside us. Ours was a double and Sara opted for the back seat, presumably so she could supervise the paddling. Much as the time we went swimming with dolphins in a leviathan-infested trench off the coast of New Zealand, Michael didn't ask if we could swim. But we needn't have worried as the creek, in most places, was only a few feet deep or less.

It was a fine trip. First we went toward the sea and beached near a tern colony and then visited an old fishing hole, where we could see oysters on the rock walls. We went back to the launching site for a hot drink and some breakfast and then headed inland to some mangrove swamps past flocks of pelicans, a splendid sea eagle, and a couple of cormorants. The terns plummeted into the water around us - whatever they were catching was too small for us to see. A pelican struggling to get airborne when you're at water level and possibly in the way, is an interesting sight.

There was only one other person on the water, a fisherman sitting solemnly under the awning on his tin boat who waved as we paddled past. Apart from the noise of the surf, drifting over the dunes, it was perfectly quiet.