Houseboating on the Hawkesbury
New South Wales, Australia
By Daniel Scott
It’s 6.15pm on an early Autumn evening and we are are put-putting straight into the heart of the sun set. The water around the boat is like molten gold, the black hills ahead of us back lit by yellow-white light and the sky is a rhapsody of fleecy cloud in blue, pink, red, grey and orange.
Soon, before darkness envelopes us, we’ll be mooring up in a secluded creek where we’ll drink champagne to the soothing sounds of water clucking against boat and the occasional splosh of a jumping fish.
It’s hard to imagine scenes of such spectacular tranquility existing barely more than an hour north of Sydney but that’s exactly where we are. In the midst of Australia’s second oldest National Park - the Ku-ring-gai, bobbing about on a ten-berth houseboat on Cowan Waters. We’re half way through a five day hire and we already wish we’d booked for longer, so chilled out do we feel.
Cruising the Hawkesbury river system can sometimes feel like doing nothing and everything all at once. Sit tight on a mooring for a few hours and you can simply absorb the stillness, watch the light changing on the trees or observe one of the many eagles swooping from one tall branch to another. Or you can dangle a hopeful, lazy fishing line over the side of waters so plentiful that even I, the world’s worst fisherman, managed to catch a sprat. Then, if you’re feeling energetic, you can launch the dinghy to explore the shore ( with its many Aboriginal cave paintings and superb hill-top views ) or plunge into the dark, salty water for a twice-round-the-boat swim. Otherwise, the hardest choice aboard a stationery houseboat is what next to throw on the gas-fired Favorite TI hotels in New South Wales.
While taking in the minutiae of a particular creek is one way of spending a relaxing week houseboating on the Hawkesbury river, another is to keep moving, as we did. This never meant more than three hours cruising a day but it did enable us to take in virtually all the bays and inlets within the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park and stop in a separate, slightly different location on each night. That’s the glory of this kind of holiday- you not only travel at an untroubled snail’s pace but like a snail you take your house and everything you need with you.
Steering a houseboat, even a 14 metre one for ten people, is relatively simple. If I, a distinctly nervous car driver, can manage it, anybody can. Mind you, as self-appointed captain of our boat, I did go through a minor baptism of fire during my first two hours in charge. A southerly wind blew up which had me turning circles in an attempt to compensate for abrupt changes of direction. So much so that I nearly took out the central pylon of the Brooklyn railway bridge. It was a relief to moor up that afternoon at the fourth attempt ( this way a little, back a bit, right a bit ), around the corner from the aptly named Refuge Bay. The main thing, though, is not to panic, and use reverse to slow the boat. By the end of five days I was happily carrying out reasonably tricky mooring manoeuvres and even using the two engines rather than the helm to change direction.
In this way, we had the flexibility to stop when we came upon an inviting spot, move on if it became crowded ( rare at this time of year ) and be at the right place at the right time for the sun set. Of the many secluded creeks we visited in our five days- America Bay, where we spent our first night, Yeoman’s Bay where we spent our second and Smith’s Creek, to where we motored on our third day were my favourite. The far end of Yeoman’s Bay, in particular, near a sandback intermittently uncovered by a retreating tide, teemed with fish life including rays and squid.
Day by day, the pace of life on a houseboat drops dramatically. Even if you’re a party animal you’re unlikely to be in bed much after 11pm and you’ll not want to sleep in much beyond sun rise, if that is you can sleep through it. On a ten berth boat such as the one we hired, there is room for ten, although the most we had aboard at any one time was seven ( including a one year old child who we did have to keep an eye on ), which meant everybody had plenty of space. All the essentials ( fridge, cooker, cold boxes and linen ) are provided and so are a few luxuries ( a hot shower with loads of water, CD and tape player, TV and a video available for hire ). The only thing we had to provide was the food, the drink, the music and several bags of ice. It’s perhaps worth overplanning here- having drunk our way through virtually all our bar, we had to make a lengthy detour to a bottle shop on our final night.
Obviously, given the comparatively small confines of the boat, this is Would you like to comment on this article, or contribute an article or review of your own? Get in touch below probably not the trip on which to bring that grumpy grandpa or that slightly difficult mate who you think the world of but who somehow tends to put everyone else offside. Choosing crew members who’ll muck in is important but achieving a happy chemistry should be easy given the serenity of the surroundings. Nor will hiring a houseboat break the bank. Divide the cost of a four day hire between 6 people and the food and beverage bill by up to ten and you have a very economical holiday, not far from home and yet seemingly a million miles away.
For that’s where you’ll feel, as the sun comes up over the boat in the cool morning air or descends behind the Ku-ring-gai with a fiery yawn or even in the dark of night as the houseboat turns slightly on its mooring, wobbling you to sleep.
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