Tony
Even though
we didn’t sleep well – there was a bit of rain and some bugger’s car alarm went
off in the middle of the night, too – I feel great once I slide aboard and yell
out my usual war cry, “Gooooooood morning, world! It’s great to be alive!” and
get stuck in. Strong headwinds this morning for the first few kms, so I ask the
advice of a few people on the water about a canoe trail we’ve seen on our river
access map that follows Wallpolla Creek and Mullaroo Creek and I decide to go
for it.
It’s
difficult joining the trail via Dedmans Creek through a 5m-wide entry but once
I’m in it’s great as I don’t have to push up headwinds and the creeks are much
smaller than the Murray, so I can dodge the wind easier. In places, the creeks
are as wide as the Murray was at my start point below Hume weir, but sometimes
only half as wide – about 20m across. These creeks really snake around and
there are so many tributaries running off them that I take the wrong route
twice but only go 500m before I realize I’m on the wrong bus and turn back.
I have to
get out and skip lock 9 at Kulnine East because the lockmaster’s out and in the
afternoon, I churn out the kms. There’s little wildlife around today in
contrast to yesterday, maybe it’s there but in this wider river it’s more
difficult to spot birds and animals and it’s sometimes too far to paddle across
to the other side of the river to take a closer look – annoying if you spend
the time and effort to do that and they fly or run away before you can see or
take a picture of them properly!
At our
camping area for the night, I take a bath in the river then we go for a walk up
to a shack where I saw people arriving at as I pulled in. It turns out this is
the site of the old Ned’s Corner homestead (the new homestead is further up
near lock 8) but all that’s left is the concrete base where the old house used
to stand and some remains of the water pump. The folks I saw from the river own
the shack and have been fishing here for the weekend – thanks for the stories,
the beers and for buying some raffle tickets guys – great to meet you all. They
had a cracking fire going, too – I still stink of charcoal!
Distance paddled: 51 km
Pan
Today’s
casualty, breakage #104: the radio aerial on the caravan (as I was reversing to
turn away from a no-go track). And the speedo’s stopped working, but hopefully
I can’t be to blame for that one…?!
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