Day 2 Dartbrook to Bengalla

It is amazing what 20 odd k's can make to a river. Today's leg was from Dartbook to Bengalla which is about 21Km. Although we haven't travelled that far from the mouth of the Hunter it was enough to spend more time in the kayak and less time walking. It was nice to spend more time paddling and getting to know the new Yak. There were still plenty of rapids and trees but there was also enough water to generally stay in the Yak.
Without the need to get in and out as much meant that I could get the average speed up a little more so today's paddle only took about 3 hours which was more like it!
The next couple of days will ramp up a bit with lots of rapids and bigger km stretches (over 30Km each day now for a while)
looking forward to getting some more K's under my belt and watching the river change. Thanks for the comments and support
Phil

Day1 - Nice day for a walk

Well today was the day that all the planning and training came together. I laid awake most of the night listening to the rain on the campers roof and thought this is gonna be nice.
It all started with a quick shower to feel human but soon went pear shaped when I dropped my glasses while undressing. Those that know me will know that I never do anything without my glasses and this is for good reason. I am as blind as a bat. Well the tiles on the floor were brown with dark brown grout so I had no chance of seeing my glasses. Here I am stark naked on my hands and knees feeling around for my specs but do you think I could find them!! Nope – so still naked I check the other two stalls – lucky there was no one else up and using the showers!!! Imagine what they would have thought of a scrawny little nude bloke on hands and knees in the bottom of a shower cubicle!! Eventually I found them hard up against the wall in my cubicle. This was not a good start I am thinking – Lucky I don’t believe in omens otherwise I would have just gone back to bed and pretended that it was only the third of October.
Anyway despite my novel approach to the start of the day the sun actually peeked out from behind the clouds over Glenbawn for the start of Brook to Beaches. Ya!! To my surprise There were a group of family and close friends who turned up (even in ordinary weather) to cheer me off and show their support. Thank you so much to Team Nev, The Bidstrup's and the Boardman’s. You will never know how much it meant to me to see a group of people turn out for the start of my big adventure.
The river was pretty much what I expected for the upper reaches – I did allot of walking and carrying (probably more than paddling for the first 1 or 2 hours ) and there were lots of fences (4 electric and 2 barbed wire) ,fallen trees and general obstructions in those first couple of hours!
The shiny new yak has a couple of new battle scars (sorry to whoever wins it but I will try not to scratch it too much) but I made it to Dartbrook in about 5 Hours so all is well and I am primed for another big day to get through to Bengalla Mine tomorrow afternoon.
Talk tomorrow
Phil

Wish me luck!

Well after 12 months of planning it is finally time to start Brook 2 Beaches. I head off tomorrow morning at 9:00.
Not sure of the forecast for the weather but it has rained here for a couple of days and looks pretty set in.
Check in tomorrow night
Phil

It's Here

It is definitely all happening at this end in the final preparation for the paddle. I picked up the Kayak the other day from Raymond Terrace Boating and what a thing of beauty it is! Thank you BLA the Necky is all I hoped for; sleek, smooth, and what an awesome seat. The Manitou is absolutely gorgeous!
I haven’t had allot of time to give the glamour boat much of a shakedown paddle yet. Just photo shooting for local newspapers etc but it is evident quickly that the Necky is going to be awesome at covering ground in the deeper water. She slices through the water cleanly and tracks nice and straight. We paddled around in circles in a couple of different spots and it has impressed so far that is for sure.
At Newcastle there was a strong run out tide and howling winds in the Harbour yesterday afternoon and she was moving almost effortlessly against both. Not sure how fast I was going as I didn’t have the GPS and as I said they are only first impressions of the boat but I am definitely impressed so far. Sure the Primary stability is not as good as the old Dagger but it is narrower and it shouldn’t take long for me to get used to that – I felt pretty much at home very quickly and I will trade that in a heartbeat for those longer stretches.
The Carlisle paddle is a beautiful thing too – I like the adjustable length and offset , which with time I am sure to get just right. At the moment I have just set the angle and length to what I am used to but I am sure with a little tweaking I will find a new perfect combination.
I feel very spoilt to have such a nice Kayak and paddle to do the trip with and it will be a sad day to hand it over to somebody at the end of the 16th. That said tickets are still for sale make sure to get some. $2 each or 3 for $5 what a bargain – you could buy a whole book if you like and it would still be an absolute bargain (ha ha!!!)
Thanks also to all my sponsors, Jayco Newcastle, BLA, Newcastle Manufactured Homes, Macquarie Generation, Lake Macquarie kayaks, Marine Matters and Ethos Health. We have raised about $4300 so far which wouldn’t have got to sick kids and families otherwise.
Please follow my progress as I paddle down the river – if you see me say G’day and please dig deep and donate for a great cause
Phil

Organised Chaos

Gday all
it has been absolute chaos over the last couple of weeks. It seems that there isn't enough time in the day at the moment to train, be with the little man and get all the paperwork done for Brook to Beaches.
I guess any big event has a time were the intensity just amps up to a very hectic pace but never mind.
I have been trying to get organised with an aquatic licence lately (apart from other stuff) which has been kind of trying. To be fair the people at maritime NSW have been very patient and could not do enough in helping me to meet the requirements to host an aquatic event. It's just that I was a little ignorant to the paperwork required and the time frame necessary to get this done. On that note please let me know if you intend to paddle on the last day as I need to have rough numbers ASAP for the aquatic licence. Brett (at Lake Macquarie Kayaks) also needs to know if you intend on hiring a kayak.
Now for the legal blurb - do not forget that paddling is a dangerous sport and if you paddle you do so at your own risk. Camp Quality and myself take no responsibility for your safety - although obviously all care will be taken.
On a more exciting note I have a photo shoot for the papers in the next week and there is even talk about Fitzy getting me onto a radio show for some exposure as well! Cool
Talk soon - wont be long now to start day!

Not Long now!

Less than a month till Brook to Beaches and I am both excited and a little stressed about getting everything done for the paddle.
Wednesday I thought I would take my Dad and Nephew (Benny) out in the Canoe for some training that got them out of the house and on the river. Aberglasslyn to Belmore Bridge was chosen as the trip - 13 Km looked like a good solid paddle in the canoe particularly with an extra body on board. When we got to the river it was evident that it was still flowing pretty hard but I thought that would be good assistance with the trip. Well about 10 minutes in I came around a bend and realised that we were in trouble - it was a tight bend and the water was running hard towards the bend and there was an overhanging tree to top it off. I lent on the oar hard to bring the Canoe around just as Dad and Benny panicked and lent hard away for bank (fair enough with the tree branch I guess!) well in an instant we were all in the drink, which is all good fun except that Dad isn't supposed to get water in his ears after lots of problems and surgery over the years. Luckily everyone had on their PFD's (except the bloke insisting that everyone have one on that is - oops) and we drifted the upturned canoe to shallower water to tip out the water. Needless to say we arrived 2 hours later wet and cold but all OK. Dad still hasn't refused to paddle with me and Benny reckons "it was the most fun he has had in a long time - except for Poppy Gettin Water in his ears of course"
Thursday I hit the water again - this time alone with the YAK - and did Aberglasslyn to Morpeth which is 26 km. It was a nice paddle although it was drizzling/ raining most of the way. It was good to stretch myself a bit more and I must start paddling each day that I am off (as well as cardio at home on work days) I reckon to be fully prepared.
I am finding the cardio during work days hard as I now have an hour each way to travel to work and it is knocking me about more than I expected at the moment. I am sure I will get used to it though in time.
Anyway only one more day of work to hit up before I can get on the water again. See you soon
Phil

Start of Spring Yeh!

Gday all. It was a magic day hear in Maitland so I took a couple of hours out from unpacking boxes to get into the YAK this morning. It has definitely been too long and I was already stiff and sore from playing removalist over the last couple of days.
I didn't have allot of time and there was plenty of flow in the river so I thought I would paddle upstream for 5Km and then paddle back. It is nice to have the river so close and it took longer to load the YAK than to drive to the launch site.
Overall I paddled the 10 Km and will probably paddle from here to Morpeth on the next run off which is a bit over 20 Km if it all pans out.
On the Climb 4 Kids front Pete and Ruth have had to come down from Killi after reaching 4500m as Pete is so sick with altitude sickness. Poor Pete has been crook for a couple of days so he has put in a huge effort. They must be shattered but we are all so proud of them and the whole team. I still have one sister on the mountain (not to mention the rest of the team) so keep it up Jude / guys we are cheering for you!
Phil