Wednesday 9th November – Maiden voyage of the Sea Eagle

Turns out it was a bad thing we didn’t see a ranger last night…. When our local friendly ranger came knocking at our door at 830 am this morning for payment, ouch!  I quickly got rid of him by crossing his palm with $40 for two nights and we returned to our dozy state for the rest of the morning binge-watching the fall-out from last night’s election result.  The Obama and Clinton ‘failure’ speeches were painful and quite emotional – imagine being so confident of a Democrat win to then have to eat humble pie and try to look sincere whilst congratulating Donald Trump.  I had tears in my eyes as Hilary apologised to young females for giving them hope but failing to become the first female president of the USA.   I was thinking of Obama having to hand over the reins of the Country to a man who is going to actively seek to destroy what he has worked so hard on for the last eight years.  But then again, the UK press has given the impression of Obama as an all-popular presidential icon but over here we haven’t met many fans at all!  How was America going to deal with the result?  Only time will tell I guess; though the news channels were showing that there were already people rallying around their local City Hall to protest the result. As such, we decided to stay in the wilderness for the day while it all blew over and normality resumed!  Wusses…. 

Panoramic view of Sangchris lake

The initial idea was a bike ride around the lake.  Nice enough, saw some good bird life and enjoyed the sunshine.  But then we realised we were missing a golden opportunity – we found a jetty by a car park, with no one else about.  Perfect conditions for first-time boaters trying to avoid looking like first-time boaters.  Or was it merely the chance for us to discover how many holes existed in the $50 second hand kayak we’d purchased?!  No – it was a great success!  We drove Harvey down to the water’s edge which made using the electric pump to inflate the boat a breeze – it took literally minutes to get the three main chambers of the boat, the two seats and the splash guards at either end inflated.  Here’s what the Sea Eagle 330 looks like when it’s ready to go:

 We didn’t push ourselves too much, with me in the fore and Simon in the aft seat we just went for a trial paddle. No leaks at all, the boat was as good as new, just as promised by our sellers.  Even better than that, we saw heron, numerous geese and other water fowl as well as terrapins sunbathing on branches by the water.  I went full wildlife geek – sporting not only my Go-Pro camera but also binoculars to maximise the experience.  So what if, on getting out of the water without any capsizing incidents, we discovered we had been using our new pride and joy backwards!  It had worked like a charm none-the-less and we very carefully dried and wiped-down our new favourite investment.  What was missing?  Of course, the kayak now needed a name!  So, where did we go with that?  Of course, Steven the Sea Eagle sounds scarily close to Steven Seagal - renowned American cheesy action film actor….. no?!  Well, we thought so, so that is set – Steven Sea-eagle was born…..

After a successful maiden voyage

Glorious day - here's our campsite for the night....