Route: Beacon 19 via Murray Mouth to Godfrey’s Landing and return
Participants: Jane and Gary. The others piked due to winter conditions, but check out the dead calm conditions in the photos!
NOTE: Crossing the Murray Mouth is now illegal – please do not repeat this trip until further notice. The Murray Mouth has apparently been off limits due to dredging since April. We were notified by an indigenous Ranger on our return journey.
Despite the above complication this was a fantastic trip. We left Adelaide about 9am with the Storm seakayaks on Gary’s roofracks, reaching Beacon 19 about 10.30 and launching about 11am. The weather was dead calm, although cool. We made good time to the Murray Mouth. It looked somewhat rough out at sea, so we didn’t poke our noses out. However, we did meet quite a few people fishing etc, and an amazing number of sea lions frolicking in the stirred up waters, presumably due to dredging, or maybe just because it was more sheltered than out at sea. We made our way into the Coorong, stopping at Godfrey’s landing for lunch. We also walked out to the ocean beach, and back. There were heaps of crabs at the lunch stop and along the Coorong shore. Then, due to time constraints we headed back, past the dredge and spent a bit more time watching the sea lions.
We were approached by a boat on our way back to Goolwa, and a Ranger told us we had illegally crossed the Murray Mouth and been reported by the dredge staff. He didn’t charge us, but he was not exactly pleased!
We had not passed any signs, although he said there were some on the land side of the yellow floating buoy fence. Unfortunately there were also no signs at Godfrey’s landing, the Murray Mouth itself or the boat ramp at Beacon 19. So, be warned – this is assumed knowledge. If you want to go to the Mouth you can from Beacon 19, but if you want to go to the Coorong you have to start from Mundo Channel or somewhere else that side of the Mouth.
To assist in recovery from this incident we headed back to the Goolwa bakery for coffee and cake, and then back to West Beach. It was about a three hour drive altogether, but well worth it! Check out the photos, those of you who think winter weather is unsuitable for kayaking!
