Date: Sunday, 12 March 2023
River: Picton River.
Level 0.72 m
Participants: 37
A very sleepy Ruth dragged herself out of bed at 7:20, after watching the sunrise from bed. Talia spent her morning chopping onions. Josh insisted he was more sleepy and more excited than me. Liam packed the car. Ben turned up. We had an intro trip on our hands.
8 am on a beautiful lightly foggy, crisp, still morning we assembled at the sheds and got to ticking off Intro trippers! All the blues, purples and the angels rolled and ready I insisted I could conjure your wetsuit size and made everyone show me their on river shoes and a helmet that fitted I then decided I could work out the cars. Drivers lined up I nailed the car loads and we were off, heading for our essential fuel stop at banjos.
arriving at banjos, Tom parked perfectly, but where was the Ute?? Talia and Ben, convinced we didn’t have enough paddles had headed back to the sheds to grab more. Joshes counting is pretty off sometimes, so it’s hard to blame you - but we did end up with one or two spares.
Pies consumed, coffees smashed, and a scone in a few hands we did a lil head count and headed back to cars. Magically I had remembered to share the get in location and we all found our ways there.
At the get in I managed to get dressed and dumped my clothes on the ground as I raised enthusiasm for pumping and found pre dressed punters to come along and learn how to pump a raft. Thanks Tom for putting my stuff in the car, what a legend.
With the three spare shoes all in use we were dressed and keen. Rafts pumped, my explanation of two way valves ripped to pieces, a car shuffle done and a safety talk nailed we divided into boats and got on the river. There was a gentle rain that soon cleared and we had beautiful clear weather the rest of the trip, with little blasts of beautiful sunshine.
The Picton looked beautiful, great level with plenty of flow to keep us moving. My boat was enthusiastic and ready to get wet and wild. The general sentiment was on board and keen. Micheal looked particularly good in his kayak, ready to take on the world with his rolls.
The view from my boats at the front was pristine and beautiful, and the trip encouraged less splashing than others. I was very happy. I picked the perfect line every time, Ben and josh did fairly well, losing minor style points here and there. Talia had a lot of fun guiding and hit less rocks than normal, confessing at the end she only self ejected once. Toby was very chatty and looked great.
At the gorge my boat enjoyed their geology tour before the perfect Eddy catch, as I explained that sometimes you gotta let the water take you where it wants to go. We then got to a swimming party, where almost everyone was keen to swim the gorge at least once. Safety was lovely with a tip grip and plenty of throw bags to get everyone into Eddies. We then collectively smashed some chocolate and lollies before doing some big jumps off rocks and josh cemented his title as self proclaimed “cool josh” with his front flip. Suffice to say, we were all impressed.
Faff done and swims enjoyed we got back to enjoying the paddling. In my b oat we all that a go on the guide stick, and I gave confusing somewhat helpful instructions. A few more corners and we were approaching the get out; riveoux bridge. Lines nailed we ahead the boats lined up on the hill ready to rock n roll (mostly roll, no rocks in the rolls please :) ).
A perfectly packed trailer, a little chocolate, and everyone changed we were ready to head back for the bbq.
The bbq was a big success, Talia's anti faff plan went perfectly, with onions pre chopped, and all the shopping done we were good to go. The bbqs warmed as my car beat talia there, we were off without a hitch.
Talia littered the floor with onion in what can only be called the ultimate sausage load.
With all the sausages eaten and 99.77% of the onion gone, we had successfully smashed the bbq and plenty of solos we loaded back into cars and headed for the sheds.
The sheds pack down was mega efficient, getting us done by 5 pm. What a wonderful day on the water! Thanks to Talia and Ben for organising and to all our intro trippers for coming along and getting involved! Hope to see you all soon.
Cheerio,
Ruth!
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