Leaving Great Sandy Harbour

After finishing lunch near the falls at the bottom of Great Sandy Harbour we paddled the short distance to go check them out.

With all the rain we've had in August the swollen Sandy Harbour River poured over the last hurdle.

We took turns paddling into the current and riding it downstream.  When we had our fill of that it was time to head back to Gulch Pond.

We hugged the south side of the harbour keeping out of the wind until we got near the entrance when we ran downwind.  I kept an eye on my GPS as I was blown downwind noting the wind was driving me along at an average of 6 kms/hr without even paddling.

Exiting Great Sandy Harbour we were fully exposed to the wind and the sea got lumpy.  I paddled offshore catching some excellent surf rides.  They were not big waves but I still managed a top surf speed of 13.3 kms/hr.

Arriving back at our campsite at Gulch Pond we found the tarp had blown down.  Lee took a rest break after ...

... helping get "Big Yellow" back up.  Then it was happy hour and time to cook supper.

The rain arrived with dusk and its arrival meant the departure of our plans for a campfire.  It was hard to leave the wood we had cut.  The tarp was a blessing as we had a few swallies and Hazen popped some popcorn Dean had bought.

It was an early night hitting the tents.  I felt secure from the weather in the tent as I got ready for the sleeping bag, crawled in and was lulled to sleep by the steady stream of water falling on the fly.  It was heaven.

A tour of Great Sandy Harbour

The initial plan was to leave Gulch Pond and go to Bar Haven Island to camp and then the following day it would be a short return to Garden Cove where our cars were.  It seemed a lot of trouble to break camp to paddle a couple of hours and set up camp again.  So, a proposal was made to leave the tents standing and paddle south into the wind to Great Sandy Harbour and have the wind at our backs on the return.

I'll throw the track in here that resulted.

That suggestion was passed by unanimous consent and we were on our way.

There was a bit of wind but nothing challenging, yet.

Without having to set-up camp at the end of the day we had the luxury of taking our time.

As we neared Great Sandy Harbour the wind picked up to 15 knots and dropped again as we entered the harbour protected by hills all around.  We began our paddle into the bottom, some 4.5 kms away, where the Sandy Harbour River pours out over a waterfall.

The topography of Great Sandy Harbour is nondescript - low hills and almost nowhere to take out except near the falls in tis grassy, reed bad ...

... where there was just enough room to have lunch.

Dean asked what was for lunch.  Trick question?  Not really, for the second day in a row lunch for Dean and myself was Mr. Noodles supplemented with a tin of tuna in my case.

I ate my lunch with one eye on the waterfall where we would head after getting going again.