Lake Alexandrina

For those who wondered why I did not try crossing
the lake, here it is, pictured on Wednesday from a
spot slightly west of where the river runs on.

Doesn't look like fun.

Wellington

Perfect rowing day. Arrived at Wellington
(Court House museum and restaurant)

Wind

Today I managed 32kms, mostly into wind. I got to a picnic area called Avoca Dell, in Murray Bridge, and have trailered the boat to a Marina where we had arranged to keep it overnight. I expected to row in, but at 3pm I was making about 1kph with 8kms still to go, so It would have been a late night. This means I have taken about 8kms off the distance paddled. I think today's run puts me up to 1110 anyway.

Tomorrow more wind is forecast, and the following days are worse, so I intend to give it a go tomorrow and where I end up is "the end". I hope it will be Wellington. One could sit around here for weeks waiting for the wind to drop.

I had the company today of a kayaker, Joel. He is a Murray Bridge local but has paddled down from Yarrawonga, which is a long way. He also was fed up with the wind.

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Breakfast

Breakfast at Younghusband, with the river across the road

Pellaring Reach

The long straight above Mannum delayed Sturt for 3 days, but for me just 2. The wind eased and I got down to Mannum, 34kms, by 1pm from a 5.30am start. I even had a break for bacon and eggs and good coffee at the Younghusband general store. So the boat is resting at Mannum Caravan Park, to whom many thanks. I will return to it at 5.30am tomorrow.

Pellaring Reach still had a nasty chop and breaking waves. Must be horrible in a fresh wind.

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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Day off

Yesreday, with a 6am start, I rowed from Morgan to Blanchetown, and I am now positioned to pass through lock 1 tomorrow morning. That was a run of around 42 kms. The first 3 hours were without any wind at all. After 17 km I stopped at a "shack" and enjoyed a cup of coffee with some folks we met the previous night in the Morgan pub. I was pleased wth my speed, and happy to get a bit of a break with coffee and good company. Shack is a term meaning weekender by the river, and that was the nature of this one, but closer to Morgan, at Morphet Flat, the "shacks" woukd not look out of place harbourside in Sydney.

When I left this stop, around 10.30, a light Northerly had started, and I had any easy time for a while as my main direction is South. Ahhh, but after not long, the wind started to move to the West, inducing chop and giving me a bit of work when the river turned that way. To add to the fun, as I got closer to Blanchetown, Wakeborders appeared. I have not noticed this brand of nautical fun before, but it consists of towing a person on something like a snowboard behind a fairly powerful boat. Unfortunately, the main part of the fun is to get airborne leaping over the wake. This means a big wake is good, and the boats acheive this by not planing, but pushing along with the bow in the air and the back end low. Some apparently can even take water ballast, to push the back end down. High drag, high power, plenty of noise, and a big wake. Now add 4 big speakers on a bar above the windshield, and some thunpa thumpa music and you are close to the picture.

I like to see people having fun, but the drivers of these boats seem totally unaware of what a drama their wake can be to another boat. They are cheery and good natured, And they come close enough to roll my boat over unless I take evasive action, normally pointing the bow into the wake. This way, I bounce over it, slap, slap, slap, and not much comes on board. Alas, this trick removes any momentum I had built up, so it makes the job of rowing somewhat harder.

As the river approaches Blanchetown, it turns Sothwest. As I turned into this 6km straight, I realised that he wind had coninued the journey around the clock and was now fully opposite my direction of travel. Marg had organised a stop at a caravan park and I intended to get there, but this wind was a big pain. So, it was a bit of a struggle at the end of a big day. I reached the park at about 4.45pm after rowing since 6am, with about one hour break. I crawled out of the boat (failed to fall in the water but came close) and just lay on my back on the grass for a bit. Some blokes nearby (wakeboarders!) gave me a hand to haul the boat onto the bank.

I decided that I needed a day off, some steak, and 2 nights in a bed, so the boat is at Blanchetown and I am at Waikerie having fun. I will go back to the boat early tomorrow and get going.

3 days rowing since I came back from my heart tune up, and I have covered about 100kms, leaving me 200 to go. I think early starts are the go down here as the wind is the main problem. I should still be able to finish in 6 or 7 rowing days. We shall see.

Blanchetown Pub

They don't mess around in South Australia. Here is

the Blanchetown pub, and evidence that the license

was issued only 28 years after Sturt came down the

river.

Lock1

Tea time for the pelicans at lock 1. I stopped just short of it at a caravan park. Last stretch was hard into wind. Day off tomorrow

Track me

For new readers, my locations are plotted on the we page below at half hour intervals wile I am rowing.


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


Sent from my iPhone

Morgan

Caudo winery, on the way to Morgan, an Morgan wharf. Stopped at the marina here and dinner at the pub.

I passed the winery at about 7am so a bit early. However, a little further on, some nice folk on a houseboat offered me a cup of tea and I passed a bit of time with them.

Lock 2

Lock 2 by lunchtime.

Google Earth path: Murray Stops.kmz

An experiment. Below is a link to a shared kmz (compressed Google Earth file) which contains a path whose turning points are the locations of my stops along the river. You maybe able to click on it, or at least copy and paste it into your browser and some representation of it should pop up in Google Maps. Try it.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-NI2NTHouAzTk0zcE8yQTk1MzQ/view?usp=sharing

You might note that I followed the wiggly river and not this exact path. This isn't a flying trip.

Back on deck

Hi All,

I am back in action after a brief stay in Westmead Hospital for heart tune-up.

This morning we went to see the closing ceremony of the Sri Chinmoy Peace Run.
These were the runners we met in Renmark and it was good to see them again after their
successful run. The ceremony also included the unveiling of a fine bronze of Sri Chinmoy in contemplative pose appropriate for this beautiful and peaceful spot an the edge of
Yarralumla bay. For more detail in the images in these posts, just double click (or tap once)
on the image.

For more about the peace run and the aims of the movement, take a look at
http://www.peacerun.org/au/

I hope to be back on the river at Waikerie towards the end of the week.

Support crew

The October 20th blog entry "loungeabouts" included a photo of two of my support crew, Marg (wife) and Gerhard Reubel. The photo was taken by the third member, Joy, and I include her photo here. Joy was solo support as I entered the remote section after Mildura/Wentworth and actually managed to find me a couple of times out there. Thanks mate.

Peace Run.

A lot of folk think I am nuts to do this rowing trip, but in Renmark I met a group doing something I find more remarkable and harder. Take a look at
http://www.peacerun.org/au/
These people stayed at the same hotel we did in Renmark, and I chatted to them at breakfast. They are running from Uluru to Canberra, via Adelaide and the Murray Valley. This is a long way, hot, dry and, in my opinion, the Sturt highway section is scary and not fun. Good luck to them. I hope to be in Canberra when they finish.

Waikerie hotel

The fine hotel - good restaurant, friendly staff
Www.waikeriehotel.com

Water in the river

Irrigation permits groves of oranges, nut, vines

Waikerie

Some photos around Waikerie, including the riverfront where the grass slopes into the water and you can drag a rowboat ashore easily.

Waikerie

Celebrating arrival at Waikerie. Photo by Rachel, who happend to be sitting on the river bank. Upper and Lower Murray flags.