Day 5 - Finding rhythm

After a very slow and tricky start to the trip it seemed I had built up some real momentum. Today was another example as I clocked up another 51km and pushed through from upstream of Corowa to Brimin where I was meeting Kristian the following day. There was enormous incentive to push through the pain with the carrot being a full day off. Prior to my trip I had only completed approximately 100km of paddling in the last couple of years. Brimin would be approaching 200km in just 5 days. A full day off would prove extremely beneficial in allowing the usually lazy muscles a chance to recover and become stronger. It was an extremely challenging day though. The river become a wider slower channel around Corowa and proved reasonably easy to navigate. It is there I crossed paths with my second snake. This was another black snake but substantially larger than the first. Again it was swimming across the river but I always maintained a keen eye for the moving snag. Approximately 15km upstream of Brimin the river changed dramatically. It suddenly branched off into numerous faster moving channels. The channel I followed was very difficult to negotiate with snags crossing the majority of the channel at many locations. A few bad split second decisions were made but I managed to avoid the big snags and stay dry. It was true to say I had more than a few hairy moments very similar to Day 1! That day truly helped my decision making process with regard to the remainder of my journey. I would speak with Kristian tomorrow to establish an exit strategy.

Photo from the pilot seat

Few friendly Cockies hanging out at the snag

Black snake number 2 (perhaps 1m long)

Lunch break and chance to escape the blazing sun

Finish location for Day 5