Last Sunday I had an awesome experience kayaking with my boss and three other guys from work down the Yarra River. I'd never really been kayaking before, but I've been canoeing a fair bit, so I fared pretty well. This was definitely my first time being skirted into the kayak, and dealing with rapids. There were a few close calls, but I managed to stay upright for the whole trip. Once while nearly tipping I put my hand down - a mistake - and scraped my wrist on a rock. At one point I managed to hit a stove that someone had abandoned in the river (beyond that, it was fairly pristine, though the water is murky from farm runoff). I also had a seriously dopey fall, just after finishing, climbing the rocks up to the carpark, where lost my balance, pirhouetted dramatically in my thongs, fell and scraped my knee and arm.

The wildlife consisted most of ducks, but a few cockatoos and kookaburras as well. My boss said he's seen platypi there, but we were a noisy bunch so no surprise we didn't see one.

He said to expect it to take about five hours; I didn't really believe him - but we were indeed on the river for five hours and five minutes (with two ten minute breaks), covering 19.16 km; here's the route.