There was an excellent roll-up for the Simpsons Creek paddle last Sunday. Clay, Christine, Bruce, Barbara, Gary with son Josh, Ben and daughter Lucy and Greg for a total of nine boats on the water. Soon after the start of the creek Greg, Ben and Lucy dropped off the back to do their own thing and the rest of the crew continued chasing Christine who had grabbed a head start. Simpsons Creek is normally very quiet but this day the Northern Rivers Bushwalking Club had also decided to explore the creek. There were a quite a large number of them spread out up the creek but, being true paddlers, the FNCCC crew left them in their wash.
There comes a point just behind the Bluesfest site where the creek is totally blocked by logs and fallen trees. Clay had tried unsuccessfully to force his way through a fortnight before and suggested that it was time to turn around. However, Gary, Josh and Bruce decided to try to go further. Clay, Barb and Chris headed back down the creek catching up with Greg. Chris was in a hurry to get back so continued on to the put-in but Clay showed Barb a delightful little channel through the mangroves behind the sand dunes. As they were coming out of there they fell in with the tree musketeers who had been forced to turn back a hundred meters or so further up from the turnaround point. Everyone then headed back to the put-in except for Clay who waited to paddle back with Greg. Most left at that point but Bruce and Barb stayed to enjoy lunch at one of Bruns’ delightful cafes.
The consensus was that Simpsons Creek is very pretty and well worth the effort to get there. Hopefully next time there will be a few more starters so FNCCC is not outnumbered by the Bushwalkers.
