Brilliant
morning, wind’s gone, but there’s not much current. I come up to a couple fishing
from a tinny, I paddle up quietly and say hello when I’m 10m from them and
scare them half todeath – the lady almost jumped out of the boat! Today is déjà
vu day, every corner looks the same. The river is fairly low and there are
sandbars everywhere and lines of trees rising out of the water in front of the
beaches.
In the afternoon I’m hurting and feel like I’m chasing the kilometres
to the end. I see a goat that seems stuck on the bank. I want tohelp it so
paddle over to help it on it’s way down so that it can walk across the water’s
edge and climb back up but it runs away when I gets close. In the end, a tough
paddling day, and although the 1,000 marker has been stolen, it’s good to reach
the milestone and know there’s less than 1,000 km to the mouth!
Pan’s notes
There were
a lot of roos heading back to their beds for the day this morning as I drove
out of the Murray-Kulkane National Park. Later, when I got to Horseshoe Bend, another
perfect spot to camp in front of a beach, there was a tree blocking the road. I
switched the gears to four wheel drive to pull the caravan around the the left
of the tree off the track and got stuck. Oh god, this must be cock-up #191 on
this trip – I can’t believe it’s got stuck, the ground’s firm, just a bit
slippery. Luckily, the amateur photographer that I spoke to when I arrived and walked
around checking the area comes over to give me a pull in his 4WD. I get through
without any dramas, but Tony arrives just as I get out of the car – I was
hoping this was one mistake he wouldn’t have to see! But all was good, he’d
forgotten to tell me to lock the hubcap screws before putting it in 4WD - I
thought it wasn’t pulling very hard! Tony goes and pulls the tree out of the
way with his car’s winch so I can get through easily in the morning. It’s a
nice evening and I have a swim in the river – beautiful!
Distance paddled: 85 km
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