Day 27 – Emu Bend to Torrumbarry Weir

From: Emu Bend
To: Torrumbarry Weir
Distance: 46km
Total Distance Travelled: 901km
Distance to Go: 1628km

Today was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be, but it was still a very enjoyable day of paddling.

When I arrived last night, there were a couple of shipping pallets sitting on the mud that I was able to use to get out of the boat and then drag the boat over the mud. To get all the gear back into the boat and to get the boat back into the water was not as easy. So I had to spend the first 30 mins this morning extending the mud bridge to the water’s edge. I had to add a pile of leaves and bark to close the gap between the pallets and the water. It was a bit of work, but it paid off in the end because I managed to keep my gear and my feet (and legs) clean.

Today’s section of the river really had 2 parts. The first part was closer to civilisation and had a lot of campsites along the Victorian side. Being that it is the last day of a long weekend, there was a lot of activity on the river and the river banks. I had a number of speed boats rocket by me and I saw my first jet ski. In the afternoon the river entered the second part, which was much more remote parkland and it became a lot more peaceful. This was until I got closer to Torrumbarry Weir, when there we quite a few trail bikes riding around in the bush.

The paddling today was pretty slow, especially as I got closer to Weir, because the river became wide and very lake like. As a result, there was absolutely no flow and I was only paddling between 6.5kmh and 7.5kmh. This is about 1-2kmh slower than the day before, which doesn’t sound like much but it does start to add up over the day.

After about 7.5 hours of paddling (with a short lunch break) I got to the weir at around 3.30pm. It was a short walk with the trolly to the caravan park where I am camping tonight. As I was starting my walk, a friendly guy pulled up and offered to get his trailer to help me, however he quickly realised I had wheels and I only had 100m to walk to the caravan park.

I am hoping that there is a bit of flow on the other side of the weir because tomorrow and the next day I need to do 52km per day. I am going to try and get on the water tomorrow before sunrise to give myself plenty of time to cover the distance and to find a campsite. There is also a cold front coming through the area sometime in the next 2 days, so I am expecting it to be pretty wet as well.