Nornalup Inlet

A holiday within a holiday, myself, Simon, Zoe, Joel and Kathryn made an escape from the massed ODCers staying at Crystal Springs to explore the Nornalup Inlet for two days.

Zoe arriving at The Depot

The boats stowed for the night

Our camp

After a picnic lunch at Nornalup we packed up the kayaks in preparation for our little adventure. Kathryn and Joel were paddling their Finns, whilst the rest of us were in plastic sea kayaks. The Finns only have limited storage so the other three carried the majority of the kit. The storage space in the Dagger Exodus (paddled by me) and Dagger Cortez (Simon and Zoe) is vast, whilst still being sleek through the water and handling well.

Loaded up we put in and made our way steadily down to where the Frankland River feeds into the Nornalup Inlet. It was about time for a break so we squeezed onto a tiny beach for a snack and leg stretch.

We continued around the western shore of the Nornalup Inlet and making excellent progress to the river mouth, where we did some snorkeling and hunted around for a suitable campsite. In the end we plumped for The Depot, some wooden decking at the foot of a walking track over the hill to Shelly Beach. Completely sheltered from the wind, we were sat above turquoise waters where we watched rays cruise in and out and the feeding dolphins in the river mouth.

After a good night’s sleep under the star filled sky we packed up and went for a play in the surf. We quickly discovered that fully laden sea kayaks handle a little sluggishly. All good fun.

With a light breeze out our backs we started to make our way back around the other side of the inlet stopping to explore future campsites. At the mouth of Deep River we headed upstream returning down a different channel which turned out to be a dead end. We added our footprints to the many bird and animal prints over the short portage and were soon back underway.

In the narrow channel through to the Walpole Inlet we stopped for a gourmet lunch before cruising the final stretch back to Walpole to complete a very relaxing and great fun little expedition.

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