Day 22 – Woperana to Honeymoon Bay

From: Woperana
To: Honeymoon Bend
Distance: 45km
Distance to Go: 1824km

Knowing that today was going to potentially be a long day, I woke up early (around 5am) and started getting things packed up. I wanted to be on the water early to allow enough time to paddle the planned 48km and allow enough time to find a campsite.

As I was packing the last of my things it started to rain. Not heavily but just enough to start getting things damp. So I quickly carried everything down to the boat and packed them in the hatches. I have no problem with it raining while in the water because I am snug and dry in my boat and Gortex jacket. However packing gear in the rain always sucks. As I was pushing off the shore I was treated to a lovely rainbow.

The paddle itself was pretty straight forward. I had a nice bit of speed, averaging about 9kmh until the headwind kicked in after the first hour of paddling. The headwind stayed all day, and while it was not really too strong, it became pretty annoying after a couple of hours.

I stopped on a small beach on the NSW side to have some lunch and quickly began to get cold. I realised one of the problems with Victoria being off limits is that the Victorian side of the river gets all the winter sun. The NSW side is permanently in the shade and cold.

After lunch I had another 20km to paddle and at around the 40km mark I started to look for a suitable campsite in the long stretch of the Murray Valley National Park. It started to get frustrating because there were heaps of perfect spots on the Victorian side and nothing on the NSW side. Eventually I found a muddy beach with an ok camping spot and I claimed it.

As I was unpacking my gear, I felt like I was in a bit of a humph mood. I think it was a combination of being tired, hungry (I didn’t eat much lunch because it was so cold) and the dwelling on the lockdown uncertainty. However, after eating half a packet of BBQ Shapes and a cup of tea, I got out of my funky mood and set about collecting firewood.

I now have a lovely fire and I am waiting to go to bed (it is only 6.45 so it is a bit early).

Tonight is going to be a cold one. They are forecasting -2 overnight. I have about 40km to paddle tomorrow to Picnic Point, where I am staying in a caravan park. There is a bar/cafe about 20 mins from the caravan park, so I can see myself ending up there.