A Wanderer's (Paddlers) Xmas Part 2

In quite a departure from previous xmas breaks my stay with Jonathon and Milly included walks around Mt Crosby pump station, Lake Manchester....and canoeing on the Brisbane River and Wivenhoe Lake...almost need a holiday to recover!

Ok this is obviously someones idea of an artistic homage to the old dam...good grief

The new spillway - hmm beautiful 

Okay where's Milly...

Okay enough warm up lets paddle

This starting point Colleges Crossing on the Brisbane River was badly damaged during the floods this year and still bears the scars..as does the river along its entire length..it will take some years for the vegetation to recover however I have no doubt that it will recover, it may not return to what was there before the flood but trees, shrubs and ground covers will re-establish.



Do we look professional....?
 

Others were being quite industrious catching xmas dinner perhaps...

 Time to pull into the bank to name the river for posterity..

and take on some important fluids...beer...

Jon cheating....

The exposed cliffs along the bank reminded me of some of the gorges I have visted in other parts of Queensland and South Australia.

We reached as far as we could get the amount of debris, broken trees, concrete blocks, sand and rocks blocked our way through to Mt Crosby Pump Station....

but the weir was still intact and provided some minor rapids for fun and excitement....

Jon proved to much better at negotiating the rapids than me...but I feel my professional style showed through....

and then it was time to return downstream into the setting sun...

Definately one of my favourite xmas days.