Day 37, Tailem Bend – Goolwa, 18 Nov

Tony

Session One: Tailem Bend – Wellington

I start late today after yesterday’s long day of two paddles and the Lions event and I spend the morning remembering everything we’ve seen and achieved over the last five weeks and more. Our start at Hume Weir, the first sausage sizzle at Albury, the outback areas and even the trio of Lions events last week seem like light years passed but at the same time just like yesterday.

I have a warm wind with me, around 5km/h, it’s hot to paddle in but gives me a helpful push. Wellington is a nice little place, I love the old pub and the court house that’s now a café. It’s really quiet here – when I get into the next big city it’s going to feel so loud and hard in comparison.

Session Two: Wellington - Goolwa

Lake Alexandrina, just before the last length of river, is too dangerous to paddle without a support boat. It’s so big and open that the waves would be too treacherous and it doesn’t have much depth, especially now. So we drive across to Clayton Bay near the southwest of the lake so that I can paddle the final part of the Murray. We pass a point of the lake, getting a sense of its vastness, and then the land is varied: small salt flats, empty scrub, cornfields, vineyards and wetlands. The land is flat and you can see for miles which is a novelty for me as so often for the past month my view has been restricted by the banks.

When we get to the boat ramp I meet a father taking his son out on a kayak to fish. He confirms my route from this point, passing Goose Island and aiming for dark trees on the horizon on Hindmarsh Island. Lake Alexandrina is really an inland sea and there are several islands over here near Goolwa.

For 5km the conditions are ok and I paddle well. But as I start to turn the big goose-neck meander rounding Hindmarsh that brings you in to Goolwa, the wind hits me hard. I dig in and go for it. I can see houses and think I must be close to the bridge linking Goolwa to the island but it’s actually further away. I must have some unforgiven sins as the wind is really punishing me - I’m working hard for every metre. I’m glad it wasn’t like this from Clayton Bay! 

“You might as well stop because I won’t give up!” I shout to the elements. But it just batters me harder.

Pan calls and says he’s waiting on the other side of the bridge, the roads around the town and leading to the riverside being too tight to take the caravan down. I’m near the apex of the turn and I’m struggling to make ground but I’m on the island side of the river and should be better off once I cross to the other mainland bank. It’s really painstaking getting across and takes all my energy. Not long after I got over, there’s a sign by a boat ramp saying ‘Welcome to Goolwa’ and that’s my queue! Relieved, tired and euphoric, I pull in, lift myself out and shake the blood circulation back into my legs.

Even though it was great to have our final Lions event and a bunch of great people at Murray ridge yesterday, I’m really pleased to see a familiar face when I land at this, the absolute end of the paddle, and that’s Pan, who I’d like to thank again for volunteering to help on this adventure and going the distance – I wouldn’t have been able to do this without him.

How do I feel? Strange. Thank god I’ve finished! I think of the distance we’ve travelled and everywhere we’ve been. It’s a long way. It’s been a long journey.

Goolwa, 13:45, Monday 18 November, 2013.
Phew!

Pan

After setting up at Goolwa Caravan Park – thanks to Andrew there for donating a site to us - we drive to the beach, put the cruiser into 4WD and slide our way along the length of the bay to the mouth of the River Murray. It feels like all the trials and tribulations have been well worth it when we reach the river’s mouth, which is fairly narrow, and we celebrate in style, happy to see the sea and proud to have reached the end of this epic journey, even if it was impossible for Tony to paddle all of Lake Alexandrina.

On the way back down the beach we say hello to a couple of guys catching pippies – Tony has shuffled about in the sea at Coffs Harbour for pippies in the past, just picking up by hand what he could feel under his feet, but has never used one of these rake & net tools. One fella had loads in his net and I had a go but didn’t have the patience for it. Tony managed to catch some, but it was pretty laborious, especially using those guys’ heavy old tool, not one of the newer aluminium ones like they were using!

As soon as we get back to our park, Tony can’t wait and gets straight into cooking the pippies, boiling them first and then frying them in butter & chilli. We both devour them, I love seafood, and it doesn’t get much fresher than this!

Later, Tony buys us a celebratory dinner at the Corio Hotel, a nice old place serving up real good food. Frank Tuckwell, Lion, Rotarian and Councilor of Goolwa, and bookkeeper of the river register arrives with his records to induct Tony into the ‘Hall of Fame’, as we like to call it! He has lots of stories to tell. He began the register in 1954, two years before a big flood, when he was down at the river fishing and a chap from Texas, Queensland paddled up to him and said ‘Hey, where do I sign in?!’ There was no such record kept at the time, but Frank took the guy’s details down there and then, and so the register was born!

Not many people know about the register so a lot of people arrive and stay the night or leave the area straight away and don’t get their achievement acknowledged, which is a shame. Tony is the eighth person on record to have paddled the river this year, and entry number 256 in the current book. As Frank regales us with a heap of funny tales about other people’s river journeys I, and probably the bar staff too, start to think we might never leave the hotel, but it’s been another long day and we have to get back to the park to settle in for our first lay-in for a while!

Day 36, Avoca Dell - Tailem Bend, 17 Nov

Tony

Session One: Sturt Reserve – Tailem Bend

We make an early start and the sun is again rising over the river as I leave Murray Bridge heading south-east. I just want to knock this section over and I paddle in a kind of hypnotised state, not really looking around or taking much scenery in, instead reminiscing on the last five weeks on the Murray.

It was an ordinary journey and I never had a break to refuel, just stopping once for the call of nature, and even then I jumped out, did the deed and got straight back in and soldiered on, no messing about! I pass the 100km to the mouth marker, which are now buoys rather than signs on trees, and I wonder – will there be a marker at the end stating ‘000’ or ‘The End’? I think there should be one saying ‘Now get yourself a beer, you awesome, intrepid swashbuckler!’ or ‘Ok, you’ve arrived, now try again paddling upstream, you whimp!’

The wind gave me a bit of trouble for a while near the end, I felt like I might have to pull out early and start further back tomorrow, but a lady said I only had 4km to go so I thought I might as well get there. The bend I was on seemed to last forever, I kept looking just 100m down the river at a time to give myself a series of shorter goals to complete and I think my river advisor had seen that I was ready to get out and intentionally understated the distance to encourage me to go for it – nice move, I’m glad I covered it!

Session Two: Avoca Dell – Sturt Reserve

So, after a lunch break in which I hardly eat anything – I guess it was grand finale nerves in anticipation of my official finish event and our last planned meeting with a Lions club – it’s back down to Avoca Dell reserve in front of our caravan park where I got to yesterday. Hylton of the Lions of Murray Bridge has organized for the club ‘Murray Bridge Paddlers’ to join me on this short stint.

We wait a while watching the speedboats pulling and it turns out my companions today are waiting for me a bit further downstream rather than starting here with me. I get off eagerly, soaking up the speedboat wakes without any dramas but then the steam-paddler Captain Proud is heading straight for me. I remember when Pan almost got chewed up by one in Echuca and it doesn’t seem as funny now! I try to get out of it’s way but it just veers further towards me… I end up missing it by just five metres, If we’d gone any further to my left, I would have been deep in the bush! I guess it was really my fault – I probably should have been on the right side of the river.

With that bit of excitement over, I’m soon at Thiele’s Landing, where there are eight or so people from the club floating in wait. It’s great to have them join me and they tell me about their fundraising club – the women in the club have all survived cancer and now raise money to donate to various charities. Any other ladies in the same boat as the amazing Murray Bridge Paddlers, do get in touch and join them!

Hylton had the honour of drawing the raffle, delving deep into the bin full of tickets, and the winner is… Ollie from Yarrawonga – congratulations, you’ll soon be the proud owner of a well-travelled, Murray-mud-covered, sweaty cruising kayak! You’ll receive it in approximately one working week and the delivery charge is just $9,000 which will make our total fundraising to $20,000. Oh, sorry, did we forget to mention the delivery charge, which you were legally bound to when you bought the ticket? Ha, ha! No, don’t worry - it’ll be hand delivered in the coming week by Tony himself - it’s all part of the service!

I’m quite happy that day on the river is over, there’s so many people carving up my Murray in their speedboats and things that it’s hard to find a flat area of water!

Distance paddled: 30 km

Pan

I’m awake very early, this has become the norm over the last month, and I can’t sleep for properly for hours, then get out of bed at 5:30. I say good morning to Tony and go straight back to my tent to break it down. Halfway through, Tony pops out of the van saying “Pan, we’re staying here again tonight”.
“Yeah, I know”, I reply, which draws a puzzled but amused look from Tony, and just as he’s about to ask why I’m taking down my tent, I look at it, flat on the ground now that I’ve pulled the pegs out, and think ‘Oh, bloody hell!’ It was pure force of habit that made me pull it down first thing in the morning, because we usually only stay anywhere for one night and I like to drive straight to our next meeting point after Toy’s hit the water in the morning. I leave the tent as it is, have a shower to wake myself up a bit and drive Tony to Sturt Reserve in Murray Bridge, where we’ll be meeting the local Lions club this afternoon, but Tony is paddling the section after that now to get the most out of the morning.

We’d like to thank The Murray Bridge Lions Club and the Murray Bridge Paddlers for getting involved, for the food they put on for everyone and for their kind donations.

And the Avoca Dell Caravan Park for donating two nights to us - loved the location behind all the people water-skiing, wakeboarding and jet-skiing and also the crazy golf!

Day 35, Younghusband – Avoca Dell, 16 Nov

Tony

It’s another good morning, the wind didn’t hit me until 11am. I take in the scenery a number of times – great hillsides and much greener than upstream. Unfortunately, the down side is there are long straights and I can’t see the end of some of them!

I stop for my smoko before Mannum at a marina full of houseboats. When I get to the town, I see motor cruiser boats and paddle steamers, including the Murray Princess – what a beauty, and a serious monster, her deck is barely a foot above the water’s surface! I float backwards as I stop to take loads of pictures – great detail on these old machines, you don’t get craftsmanship like that anymore.

I met some people on their holiday houseboats, a gang from Perth and Phillip from Clayton Bay, where I hope to continue paddling through to get to Goolwa after this weekend to complete the length of the mighty Murray! They all donated to our fundraising - thanks heaps, guys!

With about 10 km to go, I turn a corner and the wind is impossible, I turn to head to the other bank for shelter but I can’t make any headway, so I have to get out there at Sunnyside Reserve. Pan comes to get me and after a coffee and a sugar hit of biscuits, I talk my burning arms out of stopping altogether and get back in at Avoca Dell to cover the distance between here and Sunnyside Reserve in the other direction, heading upstream! It’s still not easy but I go full steam ahead and cover about 9km in around an hour which is good going.

I see another seagull and I dream of getting down to Goolwa, the southernmost point you can paddle to. It’s impossible to go out into the sea as there are barrages blocking the way, which are there to stop the saltwater coming up, maintaining the freshness of the River Murray as far as Wellington.

Distance paddled: 52 km

Day 34, Wongulla Landing – Younghusband, 15 Nov

Tony

I feel like I’m just chasing my way to the finish line today and I pass the marker saying 200 km to the mouth – I can just smell the sea now! All morning it’s tall reeds and willow trees and I have a breeze battling me until midday, it’s only around 15km/h though.

I pass a canoe club but the people aren’t around. When I see the kayaks I feel that sense of pride that you get when you pull up at the lights next to someone in the same car as you! There’s a rock at the water’s edge which I love because it’s a tiny independent ecosystem – slimy algae-like covering, grasses and flowers. It looks like it could push away and float downstream to another location for a change of scenery – hey, maybe it’s the natural flora version of a houseboat! There’s also a cool rock formation that has a hole running right through it – I wonder how that was formed…

There are lagoons running parallel to the river and long straights again. The cliffs of the last week have all but gone and there’s rolling countryside surrounding me – the escarpment is far from the river and I can sometimes see up to 40km across valleys. Youngsters in speedboats fly up and down. Even though they can see that their wakes are playing havoc with my kayak they carry on passing only 20 feet from me. I don’t say anything and paddle faster to get clear of them.

It’s another pretty tiring day and I’m happy to get out at Younghusband, where we camp in front of the river, with a shop and some shacks across the road, and say hello to some fishermen, who confess that they rarely catch much, but just love spending any spare time they’ve got throwing in a line and sometimes a pot for yabbies. That’s what we’ve found from people up and down the river – our Murray doesn’t serve up supper!

Distance paddled: 48 km

Pan

Yesterday evening, at Wongulla Landing (the signs insist ‘No Camping’), a lady that has a holiday home across the road told Tony that sprinklers pop up and come on at about 6am. So he had a look around and saw that there was one right in front of my tent, he grabbed a little table that was sitting nearby, turned it upside-down, lay it over the sprinkler and warned me not to move it. “No problem, I’m usually up by 5:30”, I say and thank him for taking the precaution.

I wake at about 2am, seemingly for no particular reason. Then I hear the rushing of water. I look out of my tent and can’t see any catastrophes yet. I tilt the table towards me to see if the sprinkler pops up - it doesn’t. But the ground around my tent door is wet and I can see another sprinkler jetting out an arc of water over the other lawn, so I unpeg my tent, move it just 5 metres to behind a bench  at the top of my riverside green and put the table out of the way as we don’t want to damage the sprinklers.

A while later, either the sprinkler that I uncovered or another one is raining down on the tent. ‘Bloody hell!’, I think, ‘If it aint the birds, it’s the irrigation keeping me awake.’ Serves us right for camping in a recreational area! But it’s not so bad, there’s some water on the outer sheet of the tent but it doesn’t soak through to inside and the ground draws a bit of moisture up to the sleeping bag… no major drama!

I’m up pretty early to the sound of those damn cockatoos but I’m gifted with a good sunrise over the cliff opposite.

Once Tony’s on the river, I drive to Younghusband via Mannum, stopping to have a quick look at the town, but it’s still very early so nothing’s open yet. I pass a boat builder’s yard and the almost completed houseboat hovering near the launch ramp makes me think of the Jetsons or some other 60s sci-fi TV show.

At our meeting point, the fishermen that arrive in the afternoon have a couple of brilliant eight-week-old pups that lick and bite me to death – I love ‘em! After Tony arrives, I pitch my tent around the corner on a lawn that runs along the river behind an area of high corn. On my way back to the van, I pass the wings and other parts of what looks like an eagle, and then further down, the remains of a much larger animal – half of a spine… what the hell is lurking in that corn?! Maybe tonight will finally be the night that I come face to face with one of the deadly snakes that Australians go on about to scare tourists.
“Tony, if you hear a muffled scream in the middle of the night, run quickly to my tent, will ya?!”

Tony rustles up a good teriyaki chicken and then puts on another one of his chick flicks. It’s good when Tony finishes early and also good to be near towns down here at the bottom of the river - the road navigation is easy and we get a bit of time to relax in the evening.