2 SUP girls

Moonee Beach, Mid North Coast, NSW

Reflections Holiday Park at Moonee Beach is a fantastic family holiday destination, expansive sand bars, plenty of shallow places for the kids to splash and swim, surfing and 3 different creeks to explore by paddle.

Tannin stained waters in the creeks which get pushed back with the beautifully clear waters of the ocean on the incoming tides.

Courtesy bus into the Moonee Beach Hotel for dinner or lunch, which is also next door to Moonee Markets.

It was so nice we ended up spending 3 nights here.

Moonee Creek is very clean and amazingly healthy, there is much life both above and below the water.

Station Creek, NSW. Stunningly clear when the tide is and tannin stained waters when the tide is out.

The creek leads straight out into the ocean 🌊

We paddled downstream to the ocean first and then crossed to the other side of the creek and followed a short path behind the headland to Pebbly Beach.

We paddled back upstream to our starting point and then a bit further upstream until the tide had turned and you could see the currents due to the the tannin stained fresh water flowing back downstream through the cleared salt water.

When we got back to Station Creek Campground, the Brumbies were grazing out front of the toilet block.

After years of dreaming, planning and delays Hubby and I finally managed to paddlecamp the Upper Noosa River.

We launched from and left the car and trailer at a booked campsite at Harry’s Hut Campground.

We paddled or more to point sailed upriver to campsite 5 for our first night, night 2 was meant to be at the uppermost campsite 15 but there was no safe access from the boards or to get our gear up to the campsite, by this time it was getting late in the day, so we headed back to the nearest campsite and hoped that no one else was booked there.

We ended up spending 2 nights at this campsite and spent a relaxing day just exploring the side creeks, sun baking and just generally chilling out.

Had a bit of a scare when we could smell smoke and then could see a smoke haze and had ash falling in the river around us. Thanks to the Garmin InReach + we were able to find out it was due to a controlled burn off further south and there was nothing to worry about.

We decided to cut our trip short by one day due to poor weather coming in and had a big paddle day back to Harry’s Hut Campground from the top end of the river with most of it into a head wind.

But was a really great trip and I highly recommend it.

Campsites 1, 2 & 3 have toilets ( composting ) and manmade landing points.
From camp 4 -15 it is natural landing points and no toilets ( must dig 🪏 a hole 45cm deep, at least 50m from water and don’t bury toilet paper, bag it and carry it back out with you )

No fires allowed anywhere, carry all your own water.

The mighty V ( Blackfin Model V ) lives on for another camping adventure.

Some of you may remember that it sprung a leak on the last camping adventure.

Turns out it actually had 6 air leaks 😬 but it’s all patched and adventuring once again 💪

The paddle started out so nice, low wind, no other sounds of humans, just the birds and insects, lots of exploring and then I noticed it went still, the air, the birds.

I looked up and realised it was the calm before the storm ⛈️

Thankfully I made it back and finished tying the last knot just as the first drops began to fall.

Feeling all kinds of triumphant, I said to Mother Nature “do your worst now, I made it back to the car”

Almost instant karma…. I drove straight into a hail storm on the highway 😕
I had that one coming

This time we’re at Cabbage Tree Creek at Shorncliffe.

They have a great setup at the ramp, with two ramps and the pontoon between them. They also have a wash down bay for kayaks, sups etc. just make sure to bring your own hose or bucket 🪣
There’s also clean toilets and a toilet dump point for travelers 🧳

I took Dad for his first trip on the Albert River and he loved it 🥰

Unfortunately it was the dirtiest I’ve seen it in a while but on our return trip we collected everything that we spotted floating in the water and a couple of the things that we could reach on the banks.

Dad scored himself 4 fishing lures for our efforts and for now it’s a bit cleaner.

I took the time to photograph and log all the rubbish with Save The Waves (STW) and Planet Patrol

This time was a trip up the Pimpama River.

I love how the landscape changes as you travel along, it’s so varied.

I had planned on following it up to the highway but unfortunately someone has built a log dam across the river.

On our way back to the car we spotted an eagle 🦅 and a water dragon having a bit of a stand off.
The eagle was on the left side of the river looking down at the lizard and he was frozen, part in the water and part out doing his best to be invisible. He didn’t even blink as I paddled past him.

I hope he got away 😬

The water has dropped so much that the tunnels are accessible once again and dry enough to walk through and explore.

The close up of the tree shows the dark line where the water level was and the last photo shows .russell in his kayak for reference so that you see just how much has gone already.

Albert River upstream from Chardon Bridge, this section requires a fair amount of determination.

I think I need to find access on to the river further up and make this a down stream trip with company.