Since moving to Melbourne we’ve wanted to kayak the Yarra River. Our temporary housing was very near to Sea Kayak Australia’s headquarters and daily we would see people walking their hired kayaks down to the river to launch. We kept saying we must go and do that before we move neighbourhoods as it’s literally right next door to us. Well time went on and we moved and got busy with life and lockdown and there went our boating adventure.

Fast forward one year and my brother treated my daughter to the outing for her birthday knowing how much we wanted to go. SKA offers half and full day boat hires. I know from past experience how tiring an all day kayak outing is, plus we have little people, so we opted for the safer and shorter option. Thank goodness too as my boat mate made little attempt for major rowing after about 20 minutes. Boy, will I be feeling the pain tomorrow – rowing is fun but also some serious exercise.

It was pretty peaceful being out on the water and we hardly encountered anyone else. Aside from a major freak out from a 14 year old steering into coastal trees with spiders leaping into the kayak that was really are only major drama. After being talked back into the boat and removing our 8 legged friends we were free to carry on. We had three hours to make it to our pick up point which we managed in just 2.5.

Misapplication of sunblock. I thought I would let the kids sort out their own sunscreen as they are getting older and should be able to apply it themselves. After all, they are present every time I apply it for them so they know the drill. Plus, we had hats and four of us had long sleeve shirts so we thought if they just sort out their legs and faces we should be ok. Ha! We have one child with rosy red cheeks and another sporting a half red, half white profile look. Oops!

All in all a fun day outing for the entire family.