BT's Murray Adventure 2007: Day 10

Day 9 was an easy nights sleep on a big sand bar just downstream of Cobram but come 3am the wind really picked up so much so that at 4am I was out pushing as many pegs as I could find into the relatively soft sand. It was a most unwelcome wake up call. Unfortunately those blustery westerlies had set in for the day which proved a big issue given my general westerly travel direction. At several straights facing west the waves were well over 1ft and the squally wind turned the paddle into a very undesirable sail. Fortunately Tocumwal was just over 20km away so I aimed for that as a minimum for the day. About 5km upstream the river suddenly became very snaggy and shallow, a common theme of the trip. With the wind and now the snags my mood was quickly souring. I stopped at Tocumwal to get a paper and check the weather forecast. As expected the winds were from a gusty front passing Victoria and that winds would drop quickly overnight. Whilst waiting it out at Tocumwal I took the luxury of a bite to eat and made a few phone calls. Whilst there I bumped into a guy who was going for a quick paddle as part of his preps for the Murray Marathon. He informed me that the river was actually significantly lower the previous week so I guess that is a stroke of good luck. After a long break hoping for a drop in the wind I decided to push on. I passed under the bridges and looked up the barrel of the next straight with white caps everywhere and decided to call it quits for the night. At that site I met a lovely couple, Owen and Karen, who were on their post retirement tour of Aus. They invited me over for a hot drink and then dinner. I also managed to catch the evening news and had internet access. A great opportunity to send a surprise email or two! The company was greatly appreciated as the near complete absence of boats on the river continued.