Kayaking on the Myall River

Kayaking is a wonderful way to see a river.  In a flat-bottomed boat you can paddle into shallow areas and sneak under overhanging trees.  And because you’re right down at the water line you often get glimpses of fish and other wildlife living below.

The Myall River which feeds Nelson Bay, is about 85 kilometres (53 miles) north of Newcastle. The Myall is tidal and therefore a bit different from our usual lake and river trips in Minnesota.  Paddling upriver against the tide, which was going out, was quite a bit of work though we knew the return trip downriver would be much easier.

We paddled up a shallow side-water through gray mangrove trees.

But couldn’t stay long as the tide was going out and the water level was dropping rapidly.  The water was incredibly clear in the mangroves and we could easily see the oysters that attach themselves to the river bottom.

Note the mangrove snorkel at the top of the picture.  Mangroves use these 

to get oxygen when the rest of their root system is underwater.

We saw a variety of birdlife from our kayaks, including two sea eagles, two species of cormorants (called shags in Australia), and pelicans.

This area of the river is known to attract dolphins which come in to feed on fish getting pulled downriver as the tide goes out.  Sure enough, we saw one dolphin on the way upriver and two on our way back.  One of them came up for air just a couple of metres away from my boat.  Very exciting!

It is, however, very difficult to photograph dolphins from a kayak being pulled downstream by the tide. They don’t surface for long and you never know where they will pop up.  So this is the best I could do.