Days 38 & 39 – Paddle, Paddle Paddle – Boundary Bend to Robinvale
Day 38 – Boundary Bend to Somewhere
From: Boundary Bend
To: Somewhere
Distance: 47km
Total Distance Travelled: 1328km
Distance to Go: 1180km
This will probably be the shortest blog post yet because not a huge amount happened today. It was just a day of paddling.
Before going to bed last night, I got everything I could packed in the boat, ready to wheel down to the river this morning. I knew I had a long day of paddling ahead of me, with forecasted headwinds, so I wanted to get onto the water right on sunrise.
I got up at around 6am and headed into the petrol station to get some breakfast. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was able to get bacon and eggs. Just what I needed to start the day. After my lovely feed, I wheeled everything down to the boat ramp (about a 200m walk) and packed the gear into the boat. I was on the water just before sunrise (at about 7.30am).
The paddle was very uneventful, just slow. Since the Murrumbidgee joined the Murray (yesterday) the river has changed. Today it was a lot wider and a lot straighter. There were long stretches of 2-4km where the were no bends, which is very different from upstream.
At around 4pm, I paddled the 45km that I had planned to do today and a couple of kilometres later I found a nice beach on a bend in the river, with a well sheltered campsite.
The one crappy thing that has happened is that Sydney has gone into lockdown this time. This means that Kath cannot leave the Sydney area. She was meant to be coming down to Mildura next week to spend a few days with me. So she won’t be able to do that. My parents, who also were going to come down, are still able to come because they live in regional NSW. So the current plan, assuming that lockdown eases in time, is that Kath will meet me in Renmark (South Australia) a week later. I swear that the off-river logistics are a lot more complicated that the on-river logistics.
Anyway, tomorrow is going to be a similar day to today. It is about 42km to Robinvale, where I have a cabin booked for 2 nights.
Day 39 – Somewhere to Robinvale
From: Somewhere
To: Robinvale
Distance: 41km
Total Distance Travelled: 1369km
Distance to Go: 1118km
Today was probably the most uneventful day of the paddle.
I decided to start really early to give myself plenty of time this afternoon at Robinvale to do my washing and to get some food. So I packed up the camp and was on the water at 6.50am (about 40mins before sunset). It was lovely paddling as the sun came up… well it was a very grey day so it didn’t really come up.
I put on my audio book and pretty much just paddled non-stop for 6 hours straight.
I reached Robinvale Caravan Park at around 1.30pm and checked in to my “cabin”. The cabin, which was the last one left, seems to be more of a converted construction site office. Despite being like a box in the back carpark and only having a couple of small windows, it is fine. It has a heater, a bed, a fridge a bathroom and a couch. It will serve the purpose for the next 2 nights and is more comfortable than a tent.
So the laundry is now done (well it is drying in my box/cabin) and I have been to the supermarket (and bottle shop) to stock up with some supplies to satisfy this week’s cravings. Now it is time to edit my video and get all the socials updated.
On Monday (2 days from now) I start the paddle down to Mildura, which is about 250km. Tomorrow I need to do some work on my itinerary for the next few weeks, as I have realised some of the distances I had planned to do each day are a bit ambitious, so I need to add a few extra days to make it more realistic.
Well done. Sorry to hear about your rendezvous being scuppered by another lockdown. The inside of that box is like the tardis. Expansive! take care.