Gotta love a down day!

A non-travel day where you can just chill, read a book, have a snooze, go for a walk and generally relax. That was this day.

As my kayak was all set up from the day before I went for a long paddle in the morning. I love it out on the water, it is very calming. I was surprised by the lack of birds, maybe they were all roosting during the day. I did expect to see more waterbirds though.

Whilst out on the water I saw a couple of fishing boats going by and also a couple of ski boats towing water skiers. The water was perfect for skiing.

Back at camp Richard was settled in with a book. While I was eating lunch this beautiful bird flew into the tree near our camp. I love the bright colours. He didn’t seem to be afraid of us sitting close by.

After a rest and a read I went back out again around 5 to have a last paddle on Lake Eildon and captured this photo of some fish including a gold one. I assume it’s a carp. The wind had come up a bit and it was a challenge to paddle into the wind but then I could just drift back to camp.

My inflatable kayak only weighs 12kg and carrying it down to the water is no problem. Carrying it back after an hours long paddle is another thing and I was really grateful that Richard saw me come back and offered to help carry it back up the hill. My arms felt like they were going to drop off!

As we were leaving in the morning I packed up the kayak. This involves deflating it and making sure most of the air is out before giving the inside a wipe out with a towel to remove all the water. Quite a lot of water can get inside dripping off the paddle and from getting in and out. While the deflated kayak is drying the detachable skeg, the paddle (which pulls apart into 5 pieces), the waterproof pouch for my phone, and the deflated seat all get packed into a large bag. My water shoes and gloves get hung up to dry and once dry will go back in a drawstring bag.

The kayak gets folded, rolled up and inserted into a zip bag. The kayak bag, the accessories bag, the water shoe bag, my life jacket and the air pump all get put into one of the outside bins of our motorhome. They all manage to squeeze in with not a lot of room to spare. We used to carry a Weber BabyQ in that bin but found we didn’t use it very much and I get more use from my kayak. If we want to BBQ we have our Biji-Barbie that sits over our fire pit.

Before we retired we packed up our outdoor chairs, table, awning mat, privacy screen and folded up our awning. Doing this the night before makes getting away the next morning a lot quicker.

I did enjoy our couple of relaxing days camped at Taylors campsite on the Delatite Arm of Lake Eildon.