Easter Sunday for keen rafters should never start with an egg hunt, but instead of course up at the sheds packing a trailer for the mersey!
The two cars departed, both full with 4 passengers and their boots brimming with camping equipment. Overpacked described almost the whole group, with tom winning, later revealing he had brought 4 full packets of muesli and 2 inflatable mattresses for what promised to be a two night trip to the mersey. All of us decided we needed at least a dozen hot cross buns for the getaway, and an awful lot of snacks to share!
Passing through the city, The ute spotted a resurrected Jesus entering St Josephs, a good omen for the prosperity and success of the trip. Ruth took it upon herself to bless him with some heaven sent words of affection (allegedly). A road trip was certainly underway!
We arrived at perfect timing at 11:30 am to get it, greeted by an excited Ben, Josh, and Justin, and a rather shiny Canoe. Josh and Justin, both under the weather, were unable to work, and instead followed Dr Ruth's orders to join us for a refreshing day of light exercise on river. Nik and Janina joined us a mere 20 minutes later.
Modest as I am, the very clever idea struck me that if we moved all the gear into the Subaru then the ute would have an empty cab and tray for all our shuffle needs. Here we gently shoved all our worldly possessions into what became one very full little blue Subaru! Yahoo!
The gang was excited and dressed, and the sun was beaming down; We shuffled some cars, inflated some rafts and got our butts out on the river. We took two new reds, and a new and old blue as well as two packrafts! This made for great R3/2 teams and an amazing chance for everyone to have lots of fun having a go at guiding and punting, trying out lots of different lines!
Our first lap we noticed a lot of new wood, but nothing not easily avoided and fairly easily seen! Everyone had a great play about, and enjoyed watching Justin in his fully squirtastic plastic fantastic Canoe!
At the slalom course we found one of the wires had been damaged and had fallen across the river. With ample tugging, some great signalling and aggressive swimming to cross the river Josh Ben and Nik recovered all the wire as well as the gate and managed to rehang it. Yahoo - onwards and upwards baby!
We continued down with very little strife, before hungry rafters decided that we needed to stop for lunch! At lunch there was many easter eggs consumed as well as Jezs brilliant bars (please see below for recipe) and Ruths very filling Porridge like bars (recipe not provided). Surprisingly to me, both were very popular despite the different in yummieness.
After lunch we did another lap before a few tired beans decided to retire for the day. As we were about to set off for the car shuffle, the age old question popped up “so…. Who last saw the subaru keys??” a quick search was undertaken. Turns out on the roof is too far out of the car for a smart key to turn on. With the keys found and 4 R2/3 teams headed off down river while the rest of the team headed to the Berlin wall campsite to set up and enjoy the beautiful sunny evening. We said goodbye to Josh and Justin, both looking much healthier and ready to return to work the following day.
Arriving at berlin wall after a cracking lap those of us camping set up before making dinner and spending the night star gazing and chatting, with many snacks passed around the circle. An early bed time was well deserved after the long day of driving and rafting we had enjoyed.
In the morning we discussed that the 45 mm of rain predicted over night may encourage usto leave that afternoon rather than the next morning. We decided that sounded very sensible and all agreed we should do this!
Braving our wetsuits we reassembled at the get in, having perfect timing (unplanned) to meet Erin and Luke with their kayaks at the get in. The eager crew did 2 beautiful morning laps, surfing in lots of holes, enjoying the warm water spilling from the low dam. On the second lap, Tom emulated his heroes (Justin) tipping out of his packraft in the left eddy above the get out. Our boat grabbed his packraft and went after his paddle. We made little ground on it as a dead weight (tom attempting to gain entry) slowed us down. Thankfully, Luke in a kayak was able to grab the paddle and we all made the get out no stress!
Lunch was more hot cross buns, easter chocolates, more bars and a mix of salad sandwiches. Amazing how planning allows you to make easy delicious lunches with little to no stress.
After lunch we opted for one more lap where Janina and I had a perfect surf. I guided backwards and blind as Janina instructed me and had a generally beautiful lap. In the get out we practised our boat flipping and re-entry. Nik demonstrated the perfect raft roll and we all packed the trailer.
Back at camp we packed down all our camping gear and finished packing the trailer. Saying goodbye to some friends those of us from Hobart all made our way home and back to the sheds. The rain very politely waiting until we had made our way into the cars and were back on the road. Overnight, Nik reported 65.25mms in their rain gauge, so safe to say we made the right call!
On the way home we played Australian music education for Jeppe in the ute and explored the public toilets of longford (pretty good).
Back at the sheds we had a pretty rapid pack up while some learned how to daisy chain!
Thanks to everyone for coming - a great little crew! It was just the easter getaway I needed. Big love for the Mersey!
Lots of love,
Ruthie
Good info:
~23 cumecs (great level), 15 participants, lots of good boats!
Both sides of the island are cleared to paddle, some new strainers (logs water level) on river right at a few sections.
AWARD Nominations:
Surfs up: Ruth and Janina R2 team, for a 3+ minute surf in the perfect hole on river
Grubs up: Jez for both questionable and interesting food choices (jar of pickles, marmite and shapes, chocolate hotcross bun with Melted marshmallow and peanut butter spread, full 5 kg bag of oranges for a 2 night trip)
Best Roll: Nik for an amazingly tight roll, complimented particularly well by Lukes loose-y goose-y technique.
RECIPE - Jez's Muesli Bars.
1cup rolled oats
1cup dessicated coconut
1/3 cup wheat germ
1 1/2 cups of chosen mixed seeds (you can add less or more as you choose)
1 cup sultanas (Jez forgot these on the trip)
125g butter
1/2 cup honey
1/3 cup brown sugar
Grease and line baking tray (roughly 16x28cm) with grease proof paper.
Fry seeds, oats and coconut (dry, without oil) to tost them.
Combine butter, sugar and honey into a seperate pot and melt the butter then simmer for 5 minutes on low.
Combine the dry and wet ingrediants in a bowl and spread into baking tray. Refridgerate until firm (top with chocolate after refrigeration or it'll melt (which can also be nice)
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