Day 10 Belmore Bridge to Raymond Terrace

Another early start this morning starting on the water at 7:00. I decided that this was the best approach with the tides and the weather as it has been lately and was lucky to get the best day of the trip so far! Absolutely magic conditions for paddling. It always astonishes me how awesome it is to paddle early in the morning - as small amount of fog rising from the surface of the river and water that is like glass - best conditions of the trip by far!!!
The other reason for the early start was to finish early which would mean plenty of time to take the Jayco to Stockton - ready for the final day so this meant I was paddling to a schedule a little bit.
Well as I said it was absolutely magic this morning and you could not ask for better conditions to paddle -better late than never (lol)
And to top it off when I got to Morpeth (approx 10 km in) I came across some rowers from the Endeavour Rowing Club What a lovely bunch of guys and girls. They had a quad, tandem and a couple of single skulls (is that the right terminology guys ? Sorry I am a rowing illiterate!) on the river and they were poetry in motion. It was an absolute pleasure to paddle along and watch these guys (even if it was from a distance at times) do their thing for the couple of Km's back to their boat shed! They invited me in and I told them about Brook2Beaches so hopefully they are logging in and checking my progress! They even invited me to stay for Brekky - how hospitable is that!
I pushed on and managed to get to Raymond Terrace, so I am still 10 to 13Km ahead of schedule, with plenty of time to have Macca's with Tim and Sue for lunch. Tim has discovered that Wherever the "chippie logo" is there is also a playground so he was especially happy that Dad was finished early!
We called in to Jayco Newcastle, one of our major sponsors, on the way past and met Damien who turned out to be just as good in the flesh as he sounds on the phone. He kitted us out with some Jayco Hats and gear and even gave Tim a Jayco showbag!! Tim has refused to take off the hat till bedtime and particularly enjoyed the Chuppa Chup. Thanks Damien. I have included the photo! Priceless
This afternoon Tim got to play on the beach and generally enjoyed having Dad around a bit. I think I will go for a reasonably early start again , probably 7:30 at the Terrace, so i can push on if the weather allows and be part of the camping at the beach part as well. It looks like it might even be a possibility of finishing tomorrow if all goes to plan as it is only about 32Km from the terrace to Newcastle so that would be cool. I'd just have to go back to paddle the last 5km on Saturday but would get my day off to get in a bit of fishing while on the coast!! Whoohoo.
Will wait and see what the weather dishes up before I get too excited though
Phil