Grieving for losses: Fire around Genoa River, Mallacoota Victoria

My third tribute to losses from the bush-fires, is to Genoa River, which we paddled in our kayak in 2008. This is how it was then.

After a lazy morning for me and successfully pursing a replacement paddle for John we drove out to Bastion Point for photos of the inlet as the day was, for now, blue and sunny despite the grey clouds building up to the west. The local boating supplier had single paddles and he took the blade off one and riveted it to our empty paddle. John then went to the local hardware shop and bought some expanding foam which he squirted into all the paddle cavities to minimise the chance of them sinking if they fell off.

So, with an increased sense of safety, we drove out to Gipsy Point to launch our kayak and paddle up Genoa River, its anabranch and Maramingo Creek. The owner of the nearby Gipsy Point Lodge was seeing a couple of families off in hired motor boats (one child had a whistle which they blew constantly) and he took an interest in our rig (especially John’s rudder set-up) and kindly gave us a map of the river to take with us.

Our paddle proved to be a return trip of 9 km taking us first up the broad Genoa River then along the delightful anabranch, where we had to negotiate snags, shallower water and close growing vegetation, back out onto the Genoa River and then up through the forest-lined Maramingo Creek that progressively narrowed. We were eventually turned back by a mossy log submerged just below the surface and a scan of the creek ahead showed it was covered with rock shoals. We had been hoping to make it all the way to a ford and 4WD track but calculated we had been very close.

On the way up the Genoa River we had passed a huge Sea-eagle’s nest and we saw a water dragon in the anabranch. A fallen tree right across the anabranch provided some tricky manoeuvring but we successfully passed under it, ducking our heads as we went. In many places Mullet were jumping out of the brown-tinged water. We encountered no-one else until we were on the return journey, having lunched on a grassy, Paper-barked lined bank on the Genoa River near where the creek branched off. Then we passed a canoeing fisherman and a couple fishing from a small motor boat.

Later in the afternoon, we drove back to Bastion Point for a walk along the beach to the mouth of the inlet. It was a lovely time of day and I enjoyed having the lacy waves kiss my legs and feet and bathe the sand from my toes. A rainbow briefly appeared over Cape Howe (the border between Victoria and NSW) and it was peaceful. We had the long beach almost to ourselves, and found that the inlet channel was very deep and wider than the one at Wingan Inlet, and looked treacherous with rips and eddies.

Remember: The simple gifts of a little smile and a little love can make even the darkest day much brighter. Doe Zantamata