Lock7

The lock precincts are always immaculate. I stayed a while at lock 7 and chatted to Phil, the lock master. We waited until two guys in a powerboat came down and I went through the lock with them. Note the Murray flag.

Emu

Look carefully near the bank .

504k

Camp last night at km 724, which means I have done 504kms of the Murray

Paddle steamer

The steam engine of the PV Melbourne, which runs out of Mildura
Draught is tiny, less than 1 metre as I recall

My trail

For new viewers of this blog- my trail can be seen using the following link

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0Td96oYC5yElpJeQBDu7FPq7LD7OIOxfW

Produced by satellite tracker.
Sent from my iPhone

Junction

Junction of the Murray and the Darling, taken as I exit the Darling. It looked to me like the water was flowing back up the Darling from the Murray. It might just have been a surface current caused by the wind.

Early start

Early morning, the river is very still.

Sturt

Memorial for Sturt at lock 9

Lock 8

Lock 8 from inside

2 days

Heavy day into wind yesterday but I managed 30 k and ended up just past Fort Courage. It had a caravan park with poor water access so I bush camped further on.

Today was light winds and I got going at 7 am. This put me at lock 9 at 2 pm. I saw one swimming snake on the way. Light brown and no obvious markings (visible from where I was). I have stopped 6 k past lock 9.

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Darling camp

I took a shortcut into the Darling river, which joins
Murray properly about 500 metres downstream. The
Shortcut put me right at the caravan park, so I get
Bonus of camping beside the Darling. Lock 10 is just
downstream of the junction.

Wentworth

The "Artback" cafe, Wentworth. Slack day today due wind 20gusting35 knots so no point in getting on the water.

Sunset

A flock of Corellas has just gone laughing I their way
up the river. So many, like snowflakes.

Mildura evening

Pretty lively. Friday night about 10.15

Lock11

I describe the build method to Warwick.

Lock 11

Waiting at lock 11

Back on the river

Back on the water. First excitement was lock 11. I went through with a houseboat. At the lock was a lady I met on arrival in the dockside cafe ( Jane ) and her dad, Warwick, plus my support team, which is currently Joy. Warwick was very interested in the boat.

Good start out of the lock but after a while, every direction had a headwind except for due north. I was rowing mostly west!

Stop at km 850 after starting at km 888 before the Mildura Bridge.

Easy run into Wentworth tomorrow, where the Darling joins the Murray.

Time for a post dinner cup of tea.

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Mildura

"Melbourne" in the lock as it fills.

Mildura Fun

Steam driven paddle boat "Melbourne" moving into lock 11 from downstream

Mildura

I rowed into the "dockside cafe" at he Marina here in Mildura around 2.30 yesterday afternoon after a 6.45 am start (before sun up) and a lot of rowing into wind. Damn fine coffee. I also met some cheery locals who were interested in the boat and the trip.

I will slack off here for a couple days. Nice town.

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Camp

Another nice spot. Bottle Bend.

Hospitality

I was passing a houseboat when
A chap on deck made the universal sign for a drink. As it was stinking hot and my water was hot and it looked like fun, I rowed over and had a cup of tea, some iced water and a chat. Ron and Matt and Lyn an Jen were having a few laughs about their luck with fishing. I was a bit sorry to leave their air conditioning so soon but I had picked my camp site and still had 8 km to do. Thanks folks, if you happen to read this blog.

Sunset

Photo by Joy Everett

>

Fwd: Loungeabouts

Me with support crew. Photo by Joy.
>

Mallee cliffs

Km 936 from the mouth. Interesting scenery.

Murray houseboat

Pretty relaxed here. A few lines out.

Progress and tea

A cup of tea provided by Steve Thomas (centre), on the riverbank, accompanied by Chris and Jenny. Just a nice place to camp and fish. Steve also made a donation to the WMRF fundraiser.

Where I am

For those who missed it, I  now tracked by satellite/ gps

Just follow this link to see my location updates:
http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0Td96oYC5yElpJeQBDu7FPq7LD7OIOxfW
If the link doesn't work, try copying and pasting it to your browser's address bar.
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Latest

Been out of touch for a bit due no mobile coverage. Camped just outside Colignan. Picnic dinner with support team. Photos later. Entomologist paradise here. Sounds like it is raining bugs on the tent and some are in here with me.

Yesterday I saw a snake swimming about 2 oar lengths off to one side, opposite direction. It had its head up and neck in an s shape. Brown with some sort of pattern. It later put its head down and swam to the edge. I got a poor photo so it looks like a stick.

Lots of reefs and snags but workable

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Camp

Not a bad spot to pull up for the night.

Pumps

I took this shot not long before the Happy Valley stop. Irrigation pump.

Dinner

The roast.

Turtle

Rescued turtle

Dinner

My dinner companions on Thursday evening near Happy Valley. These folk, from Lismore in Northern NSW, very kindly offered me a share of their camp oven roast veal and roast veg. Delicious. They had also just rescued a turtle from being tangled in fishing line as I arrived so I will send a shot of that too. It recovered OK.

Euston lock

Euston lock viewed from within, wile support team
watch

Sat tracker

Back on the river today, tracked by Spot satellite tracker, a point every 30 minutes.

Just follow this link to see my location updates:
http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0Td96oYC5yElpJeQBDu7FPq7LD7OIOxfW
If the link doesn't work, try copying and pasting it to your browser's address bar.

Les

Progress nil

Still too windy here. I would end up going backwards on the river. I have taken the opportunity to throw some varnish on the middle floor of the boat as it is getting a bit worn by my tramping the Murray mud across it.

I expect to get going again on Thursday. Yes, slow slow, but I intend to get there. The next leg is 300km up to Mildura. Some of it is out of phone coverage, and as "support" is a bit concerned about what is happening to me on the river, I have organised a satellite locator device which will report my location on a website every half hour. Thus, when out of phone contact,a) my location will be known and b) it will be easier to use UHF radio at scheduled times as "support" will be able to get closer to where I am (comms distance 10kms). I already carry an EPIRB but that is a "help, big drama, get me out" device and not a day to day tracker.

Sturt had none of this stuff, of course. Some convicts, some weapons and a big bag of confidence and determination.

Support team will be augmented by two more folk as my wife needs to duck away for a week or so. I should point out that there are people going down this river in Kayaks with no support team (but they do have the sat tracker, and somebody watching progress).

So, my sat tracker should arrive on Wednesday.

I am looking forward to going through the Euston lock, and getting on this next section which has a bit of current. The level of the water below the lock is about 43 metres above sea level, and the sea is 1100 river kms away. Not a lot of fall.

Cheers

Les

Progress

Hi Folks,

I have done 100kms of the Murray and we are now in Robinvale. Today was supposed to be a bit easy, but as it was into wind pretty well all the time after about noon, it wasn't.

The rowing on the Murrumbidgee was tricky, because of the obstacles, but progress was pretty swift in the current. On this section of the Murray, basically the Euston weir pool, it is like rowing on a long lake. Into a decent wind, it isn't very relaxing.

A couple of people have asked about my physical state - back, blisters, arm muscles???? So here is a quick summary. The thing suffering most pain is my bum. Even with a cushion on the rowing seat, the rocking motion combined with the fairly skinny nature of the object itself seems to be generating something like saddle sores. Not life threatening. My back muscles are tired, but I have no real back problem. My arm/shoulder muscles are fine. I have blisters on both hands but no great drama there. My finger joints are sore and a couple are a bit swollen. I have avoided getting sunburnt but my feet have gone brown, and it isn't just Murray mud. Rowing is a bit like doing gentle sit ups all day. I expected to get sore abs but that hasn't happened. So I am OK but I will take tomorrow off the river and let these minor issues fix themselves. We can also plan the next leg, up to Mildura.

I intend to eat a large steak tonight and sleep like a log. Got into Robinvale about 3pm after a 9am start. Lying flat on my back is a very pleasant sensation. It feels like all the little pads in my spine are expanding back to their normal shape.

Pretty relaxed scene here at Robinvale. There are a lot of people just sitting and looking at the river, chatting, having a drink.

Cheers

Les

Pumps

Irrigation pumps extract water from the river. This was before the wind started today

Pelican family

Sunday morning

Lovely scene to wake up to

On shore camp

Nice site so I opted for the one man tent.

Progress

Camped at km 1162 after 40 km day. Expect to make Robinvale tomorrow. That rowing seat needs padding.

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Murray day 1

Camp. Got started at 1.30pm . Stop at km 1209. Boundary bend is 1228. Much easier than the bidgee so far

Day 2 continued

Day 2 continued.

After hitting the big snag, I was hailed by some gents on the bank to see if I was Ok. They probably thought it a bit odd that I should be rolling around in the bottom of the boat. They were fishing at the spot where I hit and offered me help, which I accepted. We got the boat into the bank and after a bit of an inspection I was surprised to see no damage. Damn tough, these Chester Yawls.

Mick, Mick, Joe, and Charles (whose real name was Andrew), offered to help me get the boat out at "the 17 Mile" a travelling stock reserve a couple of bends downstream, as they had a broken boat and intended to get it out there too. I accepted a tow and was glad I did as the launching ramp (dirt) was completely invisible from upstream due willows.

I decided that further fun on the Murrumbidgee would probably break the boat, so made the choice to extract and head down by road to the Murray. If I get time I will come back and do it later, maybe in a kayak.

I later consulted Ian Hardy, who runs canoe tours out of Narrandera and his comment was "good call, with the current river height". I completed about 60kms of the bidgee.

Thus we trailered the boat down here to Boundary Bend, on the Murray. The road trip was not without issues. A drum containing a lot of my stuff leapt off the trailer somewhere between Narrandera and Hay, resulting in a trip back to Narrandera and then a side trip up to Griffith where the police had it, after finding it on the road. A bit later the light bar also fell off the back of the boat and smashed up, so I have had to replace that. After leaving Wagga at 9.30 am, we got in here after midnight.

Yesterday we did a bit reccon, and went and checked out Euston weir, and today I hope to get back on the water. 1230 river kms from here to the end.

Day2 track

Day 1 track

I cannot post the kml, but i can post an image of the track on day 1 Wagga to Yarragundry.

Bigger image

Of the snags

Snags

The stuff at right is what they look like. Past this one no trouble on the other side.

Day 2

A pleasant start after camping on dry land. Before long I was just a couple bends away from Kohlhagens Beach and had a brief chat with some guys fishing. Just after that, in a moment of low concentration, I banged straight into a nasty clutching snag mid river. I pushed the boat passed part of it but a piece of it took out my rear (actually forward) view mirror and then looked like it was going to get a grip on the back of the boat and tear a bit off, but I jumped up the back and pushed away. We floated free and I said a few choice things as I rowed clear. The inside of the turn actually had a nice sandy beach backed by a grass bank, so I pulled in there to check the damage.

The mirror was still on board, but the rubber mount had pulled off over some screw heads. I got the swiss knife out and extracted the screws and then re-assembled the lot and stuck a bit of tape over it for strength. There appeared to be no other damage apart from to my nerves, so I had a bit of a break and then set off.

As I passed Kohlhagens beach, a couple of blokes came out in a canoe, wished me well, and said it sounded like a great trip and they would love to do it too. I thanked them and felt a bit cheered. Because it is a holiday weekend, there are lot of people camping on the banks and they all give a wave.

After Kohlhagens Beach, the next big landmark is the departure of Old Man Creek. This diverges from the river and rejoins quite a bit later. Of course, a pile of water goes off down this waterway and the river becomes shallower, narrower and faster. I didn't really understand this until I had got past it. I had planned an easy day with an early stop, but in this bit of the river the banks are steep and the river is pushing along at quite a rate through lots of snags, which is a bit wearing. To add to the amusement a stiff breeze had sprung up which made handling the boat a bit harder. On the plus side, the speed of the current meant i was covering some distance.

On a fairly straight stretch a collection of snags appeared ahead. On the left, a submerged fallen tree with lots of branches sticking up, and on the right, a pair of isolated stumps. I went right as there appeared to be more water over there. This was a poor choice. As I approached the things, i could see they were just right for jamming the boat if hit broadside. To late now to pass to the left of them, I pulled on the oars and aimed between them, caught a bit of current and BANG hit the left hand one head on, hard enough so I fell off the seat. More bad language.

To be continued in a later post..

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Day 1

Did not quit make my aim of kohlhagens beach. Stopped a couple of k short a Yarragundery. Sleeping on shore. Lots of snags in the river but the depth and flow are good.

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Lunch stop

On the river

A little east of yarragundry. Progress ok

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Epoxy and Varnish

I just learned something, so I thought I would share it.

I decided to apply fibreglass to one higher plank seam on the boat to beef it up a bit. I did this OK and applied two coats of epoxy with sanding in between coats. Subsequent to curing, or what I thought was curing, I applied marine varnish over all the varnished areas in the boat, including this new epoxy. I sanded it before the varnish.

The varnish dried in the normal time everywhere except on the new epoxy. Even days later it remained tacky. After some research on the web, I found others had seen this problem and one recommended fix was to apply more varnish containing "cobalt driers". I obtained some of this and brewed up a mix of varnish with a few drops of the driers in it and gave it a go. The result is fine. All dried and no tackiness. Eckersley's Art suppliers in Canberra had the driers available.