This is the final blog post about my 4-Day November Adventure. Here are Part One, Part Two and Part Three!
I'd like to think that Nick and I were lucky that the sea kayaking tour got pushed back to meeting at 10.30am instead of 8.30am, as we were definitely conked out from the Kangaroo Island tour. I made eggs benedict for breakfast minus the English muffins, which was pretty alright. I'm pleased with how my poached eggs turned out. It was just poached eggs and sauteed mushrooms and spinach, nothing fancy. I got the hollandaise sauce from Woolies.
Breakfast over, we went downstairs to the lobby to wait for the rest of the UniLodge people so we could head out with Tom, from Toms Tours. We met him earlier in the year when we went to Monarto Zoo. Anyway, we all piled into the van and headed off. There were about ... 13 of us? I'm not sure.
It took us about a half hour to reach our destination: Garden Island and Port River at Port Adelaide. Here I am with Shu Mei, one of the friends I made in my very first week in Adelaide. The view here was lovely, with the water sparkling under the sun and an earlier tour group of kayakers out on the water. We waited about for a while so that the previous group could come out of the water before we could go in ourselves.
Before going into the water, we got a quick briefing on how to use the paddles and steer the kayaks. Nick and I already knew we wanted to partner together, so we 'jus'-ed to see who would take the front and who would be in the back. I got the back seat, which meant I was in charge of the pedals that would steer us into the direction we wanted to go.
Kayak pile-up! We'd keep bumping into each other when we got to close. Within ten minutes in the water, we caught sight of two dolphins moving through the water quite a distance away from us. They didn't come closer, but we saw their dorsal fins bobbing in and out of the water surface. When they vanished, we made our way up the river to where the ship's graveyard was.
Paddling up to the first ship wreck was super tiring. We were moving against the wind, and the current kept pushing us backwards, so we had to work doubly hard to get anywhere at all. When we stopped paddling, we'd drift slowly backwards, and we'd have to fight to move forward again. The view was nice though, and we passed a lot of mangrove trees and random birds flying past or bobbing around in the water.
We got really close to the wreck, which looked like it had been sliced in half. It was pretty interesting. Apparently there are about 40 vessels in the area, all old vessels scuttled decades ago when they went into disrepair. We only got to see two up close.
This is the other side of the ship. It's all rusted through here. It took us quite a while to move around the ship, with the current pushing us back. My arms were getting tired, and my legs ached from working the pedals. We were also covered in salt, from the sea water evaporating in the sunlight, leaving our arms speckled with the stuff.
We followed Tom further up the river to find another ship wreck, though this one was pretty much sunk to the top. What's left of it is just barely jutting out of the water, the deck covered in sand and some trees. We turned around after this wreck, as it was about time for us to return the kayaks. It was much easier going back, simply because the current was in our favour. We pretty much just drifted gently along the river.
Suddenly, one of the girls, Anne called out, pointing further ahead of us. There in the distance were a couple of grey dorsal fins disappearing into the water. We immediately stopped kayaking, and I reached for my camera. Check out the video I took below!
Sorry for the terrible quality. My camera's not that great and my hand was shaking from the waves lapping against the kayak. It was a pretty cool experience, seeing the dolphins moving past us like that. Curious creatures.
Once that excitement was over, nothing much happened. We made our way back to the shore and stashed the kayaks away, not before washing the salt off our arms and legs. Then it was off to Largs Bay for lunch!
Tom went to get us fish and chips while we went off to explore the beach. We saw these people on surfboards holding onto a parasail that took them zooming through the water. A few times, I saw them lift right off the ground, their boards suspended in air for almost half a minute before splashing back onto the waves. It looked like fun! There were quite a few of them too, zipping back and forth from the beach.
Lunch itself was delicious, probably made even more so by how hungry we were. It was very simple though. Tom just bought a big box of battered fish and a whole lot of chips, which we all shared. We each got a piece of fish, which were reasonably sized and tasty.
After that was over, Nick and I went to get some ice-cream. I got myself a double scoop cone, with cookies and cream and macadamia flavours. It was really good! A great way to end the day. Tom took the scenic route back to the city, passing by lots more white sandy beaches and beautiful beach houses. It was a really nice drive, and I napped for a little while because I was so tired. I can't even remember what we did when we got back home, but I'm pretty sure we all had a good rest!
All in all, I enjoyed my 4-Day November Adventure immensely. Not only was it a fantastic experience, it helped me fix my sleeping times too, so I wake up earlier now than I did before I started volunteering. So that's good, haha! I'm glad I had the chance to do all these things, Alhamdulillah.
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