Safe and sound in Janita and David’s house in Hervey Bay. Will have to take at least one day off to heal my sores…

a break in the middle of a shallow

I got to start my paddling day at 6.30 am, 3,5 hrs before low tide…just the worst time to get into the Great Sandy Strait entrance, known as a notorious bar!

But the entrance itself was flat as a millpond…

Just launching from Inskip Point and paddling close to shore around the corner was a bit of a tidal race with lovely waves – against me this time. I was making only 3 km/hrs ground speed, but enough to get me in. Some nice surf waves would provide an endless playspot – if you wouldn’t want to go anywhere! Paddling across the flatwater later in a ferryglide was nothing special as well – I have heard this entrance could be VERY different! Lucky again…

ferry from Inskip Pointto Fraser island, 4-wheel drives only…

A funny dugong (manatee) was greating me in, making a lazy move like a dolphin, but no doesal fins!

I felt like being in a different paddling world again – but this time almost without ANY noisy motorboats! It is very different to Moreton Bay.

I was gliding along in an imaginal eddy close to shore with about 5-6 km/hr against the tide , watching fish swarms under me passing by in the crystal clear water on an endless beach. I was tempted to jump out for a swim more than once…and I did it eventually here and there to get some relief for my sore backside. But I had to remid myself that my goal was to reach Hervey Bay tonight! I could have stayed here for quite a while…putting up camp here or there…

The GPS showed an imaginal estimated arriving time next morning – I knew the tide will be soon slack and then a bit with me – I hoped…

Plenty of huge turtles stuck their head out of the water, and got scared when I came too close, diving under the water soon. I saw sea eagles, stingrays, smaller and bigger fish, some jumping high out of the water or flying over the surface, and another heavily scared dugong flashing through the waist deep water once feeling disturbed in his privacy…probably as much frightened as I was! I didn’t catch any sight of the believed recently sighted croc there…

juming out another time…the boat parked at the edge of a sandbank

The tide was fully low in mid-strait then, and I noticed I couldn’t even cut across any corners off the marked channel any more. I had even to get out once to drag my boat over a very shallow part for 5 minutes…back to the channel again! Walking on the ground was not really scary with sandals on – nothing strange which I couldn’t see…

follow the channel markers – one green, one red, one green, one red…and you can’t be wrong!

I had to do a curved detour around some corners, and facing a strong headwind eventually…how funny…but it got me from the side again when I could eventually cut across directly to Orangan/ Hervey Bay the last three hours, as the tide was high enough the. You could feel when there was only knee or waist deep water under you…shallow enough to jump out again every now and then to relief my backside!

thousands of little crabs again on the sand banks – they keep on marching in big “armys” once disturbed, but soon are all disappearing in sandholes…

I was freezing the last hours, a clear sign I needed a good rest. When I stuck my hands into the water it felt as warm as a bathtub, but my legs got goosebumps…

No problem to see the harbour entrance from the distance, even when it got dark around 6.45pm the red and green entrance lights were easy to be seen.

I paddled a bit inside the harbour to figure out where to land between all those fancy huge yachts – if all of those boats are floating around north of here soon – oh well! I enjoy being in my self-propelled small boat…but I won’t mind being hosted on one of those big yachts for a night or two… :-)) – and they always mean a possible water source when it may be getting short…

I eventually pulled up the slipway besides the huge boater’s club, well lit like a x-mas tree at night. My contact Janita came soon down to pick me up – THIS was luxury for me! Looking forward to a shower, a real bed, a good dinner and at least a day off! Thanks to Janita and David for hosting me!

I was really paddling with pain at least since that day pushing too hard from Mooloolaba to Alexandria Bay. My backside skin where it rubs against the backrest looks like that picture I previously posted from other parts of my body – plus the sores under my arms. I reckon I have to put on a shirt again on paddling, as the drying salt crystals under my armpits not being soaked constantly by some fabric made the armpits worse instead of non-rubbing! Try and error…

I will fiddle with my backrest, maybe NO backrest is the best solution…again, try and error…at least the skin of my bum where I am sitting on is not sore, just the sitbones can get a rest from the pressure on the hard seat all days.