Day 10 – Jingellic to Thologolong

From: Jingellic
To: Thologolong
Distance: 63km
Distance to Go: 2273km

I had planned to have a long day of paddling today and I certainly did. Knowing that the water would start to slow as I got closer to Hume Dam, I wanted to knock off as many kilometres as I could today, to make tomorrow’s paddle to the Hume Weir a lot easier. In the end I was on the water for 8.5 hours (with a 45 min lunch break) and ended up paddling 63km (nearly twice what I did yesterday).

This morning was a very foggy and dewy morning. It was about 1 degree when I packed up the tent and the fog and the temperature did not lift until about 11am. It was freezing until the sun broke through the fog. Once the sun was out it was a beautiful day with perfect sunshine and not a breath of wind all day.

The paddle was fairly uneventful, other than meeting a few people at the lunch spot (Burrowye Reserve) and having a good chat about my trip. I did see my first wombat. He was a very old scaly looking fellow (see the photo) but it was still nice to see an animal that wasn’t a cow.

At around 2pm I reached the point where the Hume Dam technically begins, however the dam is only at 43% capacity, it was still a flowing river for the next 15km. The water is now starting to slow down and tomorrow I think I be mostly paddling on non-flowing water.

At around 3.30pm I started looking for a spot to camp. Unfortunately most of the spots near Hume Dam were full of cows. Eventually, as I was starting think I was going to be paddling in the dark, I found a small island that was free of cows. It is close to a road, but there doesn’t seem to be many cars on it. There are a few sheep and lambs in the paddock next to me, so hopefully they won’t make much noise tonight.

I have about 35km to go tomorrow to Hume Weir, where I will be staying at a caravan park just next to it. It will be a long day, but the weather forecast is looking very similar today, which will make perfect conditions for paddling across the dam.