South OZ Adventurers - Adventure, Travel, Expeditions


Point Baker to Nuktui

We finally managed to pull ourselves away from Point Baker around midday, something to do with the warming sunshine? However after only an hours paddling we came into another small community, Port Protection, which no one had bothered to tell us about. Being lunch time we decided to head in for a burger and to have a look around. The look only took us about 5 minutes, but the burgers were great. And watching the fish packers unload the local fishing boats was definitely worth the stop.

Distance was calling us and we had a while to go until we could bed down for the night. About 2 hours south of Port Protection in Hole in the Wall. Which is literaly that. A 20ft break in the cliff line, which you could miss if you weren't looking for it, and were going a little faster that us. We paddled the half mile into through Hole in the Wall, paddling no more the 3 metres from 20 metre cliffs on either side, with crystal clear water and all sorts of small fish and jellies below us. We were considering camping the night but a salmon stream at the back of the bay, which would mean bears, quickly put that idea out of our mind. Instead we contented ourselves to fill up with fresh water and head back out to see what would be one of the best sunsets of the entire trip. That night we camped on a small island watching the moon rise over Prince Of Wales Island.

The next morning we were entertained by dozens of sea otters playing as we made our way for El Cap pass. Having both been to Yosemite and seen El Cap we were both wetting our pants with visions of granduer. We were somewhat let down, however, probably because we had both been envisaging 1000 meter cliffs into the water and semi clad climbers every where. With the sun shining we decided to make up for any half naked climbers and proceeded to strip down and paddle in just out pfd's giving our backs and shoulders a taste of some sunshine. Something which they had been desperately lacking for the last couple of months.

We arrived at El Cap caves around lunch time and ate a leisurly lunch on the public dock, soaking up the sun. With a major cave network right there we headed off to see if there was a possibility of having an explore, if not tour. However the guides were nowhere to be seen and the dark and cold of the caves diminished our adventuring spirit rather quickly. So we walked back down the 400 stairs to our dock and the sun, where we lounged about for the rest of the afternoon. That night the guides came down to the dock and told us about a Totem Pole raising festival that was happening in Craig in two days time. It would be about a three day paddle, but we could probably get to Nuktui (pronounced nuck-a-tee) tommorrow night and then hitch into Craig in the morning.

As seems to happen when we sleep on docks, it was pouring with rain when we awoke. However the paddle down El Cap passage wasn't too long and the rain passed around lunch time. On the way we stopped into Devil Fish Bay. Where a team of scientists had spent three weeks and had officially concluded that the place was haunted. I think that says something about scientists...

Sometime around 6pm we paddled up to an oyster farm. The guys were a bit shocked to see some aussies there and were even more shocked when Kim told them she had never had an oyster before. This was quickly remedied and I almost fell out of my kayak laughing when the oyster came back up....

We finally made it to Nuktui about 7 and set up camp right next to the world famous Mud Bog race track. Mud Bog racing is the thing that Nuktui is famous for, it is sponsored by Budwieser. Basically there is a 100 metre mud track and you throw your souped up mobile at down the track, whoever gets to the end in the shortest time at the end of the day wins. It is like drag racing but on mud.

The next day we hitched into Craig for the Totem Festival