Progress

If I seem to have gone quiet, it is because I have been pretty well stuffed at the end of the day.

I have got as far as Bowhill, between Swan Reach and Manum. At Swan Reach, I camped at Punyerlroo Caravan Park, which was fine. Last night was at Walker's Flat (Hettner Landing) where I camped by a council sign saying "No Camping". Tonight, the boat is camping beside a "shack" and I am camping in a nice hotel at Murray Bridge.

It is a feature of the last few days that the final few kms is straight into wind. Today was no exception and I ended on a SW facing reach with a SW wind pushing me back. I was rowing into wind most of the day but not like this stuff at the end. I still got along OK and ended with 104kms to go to Wellington.

Marg negotiated the right to tie up at this shack. There is a lot of private property down here which makes it difficult to row to one's limit and then just lob onto the bank and camp. In fact, I suspect there are more "private property, keep off" signs than there are trees. More of this later.

I don't plan to row tomorrow as the wind is forecast to be more of the same. A day off will do no harm. The next leg involves Pellaring Reach, which is long and SW-NE, noted for throwing up white caps in a SW wind. It even delayed Sturt in 1830.

The river down here is wide and also floods many lagoons and wetlands. It would be interesting to know what the evaporation rate is from the total exposed surface of the Murray and the associated lagoons in South Australia, and how it compares to the flow delivered across the SA border in the Murray.


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