Day 14 - Are we there yet?

After 13 days and 497km, the last day was finally here. I called a number of places to find accommodation for Saturday night however everywhere was booked out except River Village on the Victorian side outside of Echuca. As it turns out it was only another 6km along the river. That last 6km was less than an hour on the water but it seemed like an absolute eternity. Immediately I enjoyed a long shower, did some washing, put on some clean clothes, then went into town and played tourist. Bec (sister) arrived at 9pm and thus ended my journey. The river experience was great but now I was truly focussed on cleaning off and getting back to the Gold Coast. There are certainly no regrets and I will be back to complete the last 1700km in the not too distant future.

Final hurdle - Hauling all my equipment and kayak up the long staircase

Final night at the river

The final days of the journey

Day 13 - Into the canyon!

I was certainly worried about my equine friends crashing the party and at 3am there was a huge splash and the sound of something large moving through the water. That had me feeling completely edge but relaxed when I came to the realisation that there was nothing I could do regardless. Startling a horse at close range with my headlight could be more dangerous than just going back to sleep. At first light I was up in a shot and sure enough the brumbies were back in the scrub just behind me. They quickly retreated when I appeared. I was happy to be back on the river with less than 75km to my new destination. It was only just over one big day on the river. The first part of the days journey was through 'The Narrows' between the wetlands in Barmah forest. The river and vegetation closes in through this reach so much so that you would swear it was a completely different river. It was perhaps the most tranquil couple of hours of the journey. Immediately after passing through the narrows and after Barmah the river changes completely! Suddenly the river banks go from being approximately 1m high to reaching heights of 5-8m towards Echuca. The now extremely wide and open chasm that was the Murray River became like and oven and in the endeavour to progress a huge distance I was really beginning to suffer from heat stroke. I took another 3pm break to allow some more shadows to spread across the river. The final stint in the afternoon was more pleasant. I crossed paths with the fourth and final snake. Funny coincidence that every one was swimming from Victoria to NSW! At days end I had travelled 58km and had a megre 16km into Echuca on the Saturday. Meanwhile my sister was not to arrive until Sunday! After a few phone calls I finally found some accommodation for Saturday. I thought it might be nice for my sister and niece if I had a thorough scrubbing before they arrived. After 13 days of being almost continuously covered in dirt it was going to take some time to remove.

The river closes in at 'The Narrows'

Barmah wetlands...far more land than wet land!

Expected to see many more emus than this!

Random river shot

Day 12 - Nothing to do but paddle

Today was just another day on the river. With so many twists and turns the river has changed very little over the last few days...until now. On the approach to Barmah forest the river becomes significantly narrower and faster flowing. The water level seems to be quite high with respect to the bank but speaking to the owner of the Picnic Point Caravan Park, the water level is usually only just below the top of bank. Now it is a clear 1-1.5m below. As is the case almost everywhere, the river is extremely low. After several days absent, I finally encountered snake #3. It was swimming across the river and we were on target for a collision so I hit the gas. Looking back as it continued to cross I realised how slow they are through the water. Suddenly I felt a whole lot safer. That feeling of safety evapourated in the evening when I finally found a point to pull the kayak up for the night. Shortly after unloading the kayak and setting up my tent around 8 brumbies came bolting out of the forest straight at me. They came to a sudden halt around 50m away and took a good look at me. I held my ground and slowly approached them and they bolted back into the forest. At many locations there are cattle that graze the banks and drink from the river. Cattle are generally easily frightened and disappear where as horses are seemingly more intelligent and curious. This had me worried as I knew they would be back at some stage. Again, it would be unintentional but a swift kick from a horse would have me in a very bad way. I went to bed with an uneasy feeling in the stomach and planned to be up at very first light to try and leave asap. Today was very productive regardless of the heat covering 49km.

Morning on Day 12 and starting to look pretty rough

Lunch break on another hot sunny day

Progress map to Day 12

Day 11 - Relief!

It was such a relief overnight as the winds dropped rapidly as forecast and I enjoyed a reasonably comfortable sleep. Reasonably because the calm winds and clear skies resulted in some very cold conditions once more. The forecast for Wodonga was 2 degrees so we would have been very similar. It was a somewhat late start today not being in the river until 9.45am. With the wind just a whisper compared with the previous day I decided to push on and aim for another 50km in case there was more bad weather to come before the weekend. It was very uneventful on the river. I did see my second fox but they are not particularly exciting. The river has changed somewhat with very few decent sand bars for camping unlike upstream of Tocumwal. Fortunately I did find one that was reasonable and I took advantage of it and set up tent.

Delux accomodation with great river views!

A reasonable sand bar to haul up the kayak

Recent progress map

Day 10 - Hang onto your hat!

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.

A tasty treat from the bakery

The Big Cod at Tocumwal

End of a very challenging Day 10

I even finally got around to doing some washing!

One of 3 Koalas seen just around the camp site

Day 9 - Wet undies!

The decision had been made, my trip would end at Echuca on the weekend. Only 250km to go now. All the lonely time on the river was now a heavy weight on my shoulders and my mood had now slipped from excitement on Day 1 to boredom that bordered on depression at times. There was a whole life waiting to begin for me on the Gold Coast with my beautiful partner Joy and there and nowhere else I wanted to be. The only thing I could do was continue to paddle as whilst paddling I could always feel the end getting closer. During the previous evening I had my first real scare as a big roo came bounding down to the river very shortly after turning off my headlight to get some sleep. It was certainly packing a bit of weight as it thudded across the sand bar. Certainly I was comfortable that there was nothing that would deliberately cause me harm on the river but if a roo like that stumbled into my tent it could be very serious. Day 9 was very hot and the wind made life very challenging anywhere with a sizable fetch to the north west. Regardless of the conditions, I was now on a mission with a defined timeline and I intended to do the hard yards early in case conditions deteriorated further. Overall I covered another 54km and was now within 200km of Echuca. My highlight for the day was taking an unexpected swim. It was late in the day and was starring into the falling sun with a rippled water surface. The glare managed to induce a loss in concentration, mostly due to the fatigue of a long exhausting day, and I simply did not see a huge log in the river parallel to the flow that had about 2m of log showing about 5-10cm above the water level. I rode straight up it and swung perpendicular to the flow. I thought I could salvage the situation like Day 1 but I just could not hold it. I spent the next 15mins in the middle of the river sitting on the snag bailing out my kayak with a 400mm tin can. Considering my water bottle, maps, and thongs were all by my side I am very lucky nothing was lost. Even though initially unwelcome, I guess the trip would not have been complete without one capsize. It was a hot day and cooling off was quite pleasant.

Yet more river around every bend with more snags to negotiate...

Pulling stumps on Day 9 and starting to look very scruffy

Progress to Day 9

Day 8 - Crossing the wall

Early in the morning I came to the realisation that it was closer to 30km to the wall at Lake Mulwala rather than the 20km I had previously thought. This meant some serious energy was going to be expended reaching the wall by 12pm. The deadline was set because Kristian was to meet me there and help carry the kayak from upstream of the wall, along the road, over the bridge, through the caravan park and finally down to the boat ramp (around 500m). We were very happy when that was all over with. The morning paddle fortunately did not prove as challenging as thought. Markers clearly identified the path through the everglades and Lake Mulwala. Fortunately also, although the wind was howling from the west yesterday afternoon it had eased off significantly in the morning. Strong westerly winds would have made for fun with the large open water body. After pushing hard I easily made the journey in time and had plenty of time to push on further downstream in the afternoon. The river downstream of Lake Mulwala returned to a shallow and snaggy channel but the flow was minimal. Very little water was being released from the Lake Mulwala at that time. Overall for the day I managed around 52km. This put me well on my way to Echuca and the end of my Murray adventure...for now anyway.

Curious pelicans as I head from the Everglades to the open lake

Welcome to Lake Mulwala and the drowned forests

Finally, the wall is in sight!

Camp site on big sand bar for night 8