Day 4 and 5 1649km to 1626km

 Sunday 10 May = a forced rest day due to very strong north westerly winds and rain!
Monday 11 May = 1649km to 1626km = 23km
Total distance = 86km

As you can see we had a rest day yesterday due to very strong north west winds up to 25km per hour and gusts well over 50km an hour and also heavy showers in the morning so we decided to have a rest day (the arms welcomed that!) and I was so tired that while lying in the tent listening to the wind and rain I fell asleep at 11am - I never fall back asleep in the morning usually if I was to fall asleep it would be in the afternoon.
So after lunch the weather broke and the grey clouds broke up to let the sunshine through so out came all the solar panels to charge up - while there wasn't alot of sun it was enough that we could read our books tonight!  We have had 3 days of no sun so the battery packs were getting low.
I also managed to wash some clothes as the wind was still blowing they soon dried quickly.

Monday 11 May
we woke to a lovely morning - the wind is still blowing but has swung around to a south westerly.  The clouds have broken and there looks like more blue than grey skies this morning.

Packing up this morning we noticed Kouta seems to be a bit more receptive to moving on in the kayaks today - first he went up to the kayaks and sniffed them and also all the gear as we packed them up then we knew he was back to his old self when he began to follow us around like he does when we are cycling - he follows us to remind us that we are not to forget him and leave him behind ... to really emphasise this point he makes a point of using my life jacket as a sleeping mat and my chair as a pillow - by lying on my life jacket he knows that I won't forget him!

 So just around the corner is where the National Channel is - which is a major artery for irrigation

and here I am a rare photo of me

 Now Neil is a lot better than I am at spotting wildlife - especially birds.  the other day Neil said he saw a kingfisher but they are so small for me that I always miss them but this morning there was one sitting on one of the snags just waiting for me to take a photo and I have to admit I am really happy with this photo ...

 isn't it the brightest blue and orange - it is such a pretty wee bird.
We saw another one this time on the NSW side just around the corner.
Looking at the map today the bulk of the day will be going north west which is good as the wind will be behind us on some parts and we can shelter from other parts when the wind blows - our only hard parts are the bends - they are always exposed to the wind.  We hardly see anyone now - mainly the odd fishing boats but no house boats for the past 3 days.

 as you can see it is a wide river now and there is no river flow as the weir is only about 20km away and there hasn't been any flow for the past 2 days.
There is plenty of sun this morning and you can see I am basking in the sun!
We were making good timing and our lunch spot is quite nice and sheltered from the wind - even Kouta loved the fact that we were in the sun and there was very little wind.  We are seeing a few more willow trees now, not alot but they tend to grow in groups but they are relatively small compared to the gum trees.

 Our lunch spot was about 2km before the weir and we decided that we would go through the weir if they would open it for us.
We get to the weir and our sun has disappeared so Neil tracked down the Weir Master and they say there should be enough water for us to go through.
Now no matter how much Neil describe what this weir is I could not get my head around what was going to happen - this is his description - you go into a lock and the water drops and you paddle out and right next to it is the dam wall sort off!!!!
What the heck is he going on about.

So we front up and all I can see is this wall and I can hear the water

 Neil tells me we are to go between the green and red buoys so here I am paddling and I can see in front of me that there is a section which is called the lock that will open its doors

 they open enough for us to go through
 just after you go through the lock doors you have to duck to go under the foot bridge - they didn't bother raising those since we could go under - but hell I had to kiss my knees to get under it - it was low!

you then pull over to the side and hold on to the rope

 the doors in front of me is where we will eventually paddle out of - in the meantime Neil is holding another rope behind me 
 meanwhile the lock master is above us chatting away and explains what will happen for some strange reason I think the doors will open and we will just drop! but no the water is drained beneath us.  I have this all on a movie and it is great to watch.
If you look back to the last photo - we are at the top of the concrete wall, as the water drains beneath us we go down with it, as it is draining you are suppose to let the rope in your hand slide through but some times I would swing out and hold on for dear life to pull myself back to the wall!
once the water has drained beneath us we have dropped about 10m from our starting point at the top of the concrete wall, the doors are then opened and all the water is swirling and the valves so to speak are roaring with water and I am still clinging on to dear life not wanting to let go - I can imagine that if I did let go it would be like going down a plug hole!
alas I had to release and paddle out through the doors - it is at this point where the doors are it is only 120mm deep for us to go over as when Neil asked them to open it they thought there might not be enough water for us but 120mm is enough for the kayaks - not for house boats or boats!

I had so much adrenaline and enjoyed it so much that I was willing to paddle to the next lock where ever it might be - although this is lock 26 I don't think all are inoperation and all are not as big as this one!

So we come out of the lock and paddle down stream a bit and I turn to get this photo 

 and you can see the doors to the left where we have just come out of.  To the right is the dam and the water is controlled through there.  If you think about it where the top of the dam is that is where we have just come from at that level and we have dropped about 10m.

From here the flow of the river is swift so we are moving along.  

 Our progress is fast as the wind has almost died down completely we start to look for a camp site and we find a beach but the gum trees are close togther and although there is clear ground there are just toom many gum trees over hanging and it is not a wise idea to camp beneath the limbs of a gum tree so we move on and just around the bend we come across this fella/sheila
 and he/she didn't seem to be phased by us what so ever, usually they bound off but this one just sat and watched us!
It wasn't long until we came across a campspot - this time on the NSW side and the 1626km marker is just around the corner.

We are very close to the waters edge as there is a legde where we can put the tent and the embankment is just behind us.

so tomorrow we hope to do a little more as we now have the assistance of the river flow and it is swift and we are also hoping for less wind as well.
Today we were happy with our progress and the arms were no where near as tired as our previous days - I was glad of a rest day yesterday to let the arms recover.
We are about 102km from Koondrook, Neil is hoping we can do it in 4 days at 25km per day so really it is only an extra few kilometers more than today.
I have to point out it is day 5 without a shower! the river water is cold but okay to wash in!

weak internet

just letting you know we went through the Torrumarry weir this afternoon, very very exciting it was!  internet is down to 2G far too slow to upload any photos so you will have to wait until Koondrook in 4 days time if the arms hold up!

Day 3 1670 - 1649

 Saturday 9 May = 1670km to 1649km = 21km
total distance = 63km

It was a warm night last night and we could hear the wind blowing for the bulk of it which results in a mild 12 degrees at brekky time.
We had a little treat this morning - we saw 2 kangaroos on the opposite bank in NSW.  We managed to get away at 9am again and no soon had we started we saw another kangaroo - can you spot him in the photo below?

 I did manage to get this great silhouette photo of it as it bounded off ...

 so the arms are a little weary at first and the wind is blowing from the west and unfortunately the bulk of todays kayaking is into the wind ...

we tend to kayak 6km first which takes us about an hour and then we get out to stretch the legs, the photo below is a good birds eye view of the loaded kayaks

 our next stop is for a cuppa at around the 12km mark - by this point I am tired and are greatful for a cuppa coffee and something to eat - the river is particularly wide now and there is not much flow as we get closer to the weir

 like yesterday around lunch time it is pretty miserable - very windy and cold and today we had a brief shower of rain - it is warmer to get back in the kayak and paddle!
After lunch the arms were really feeling it fortunately the route of the river changes and there is less into the wind like it was before lunch - but add to that we had some rain and oh my lordy it was miserable!  poor Kouta he should have complained less about his house with a roof and it would not have got wet at all today!
There was more willow trees along both banks and so it was difficult to find a spot to stop and shelter so we continued on in the rain!  Our target today was the 1650km mark - we had to go an extra 1km to find a spot to beach the kayaks.  We are not far from the National Channel which is a major irrigation channel - hopefully I can get a photo of it tomorrow morning.
So this spot is nice - not on a high bank which is a relief so we don't have to carry all or stuff up the embankment.  Clearly this is someones regular spot to camp as it is cleared and lots of handy nails in the big gum trees!
So we had our first Murray river cuppa - out came the filter ... this is Neil filling up the "dirty water bag"

 and we gravity feed it into the pot and our bladders ...

 the water is actually not that dirty but it is best to be safe than sorry!  The cuppa was lovely!
So here is our camp spot for night 3 ...

 there was a big board on the ground so we leaned it up against a tree and it provides us with a wind break ...

 here are where the kayaks are beached and next to it is a makeshift jetty that extends from the bank to a big log - someone has put 2 eyes on the log as it looks like a crocodile!

 not having the bikes we had to come up with an alternative to the trailer to put our collapsible bucket  on and Neil came up with this idea to use the frame of the Helinox chairs - genius!

so we have just had a major shower of rain so we are all in the tent - I wasn't expecting this sort of wind coming from the west - it is a very lazy wind and is cold to be in - I think I would prefer a freezing cold morning with clear sunny skies than this lazy cold wind!  Lucky we have our warm woollen clothes with us.
Tomorrow we will camp just before the weir and go through it on Monday morning.

Day 2 1694 to 1670

 Friday 8 May = 1694km to 1670km = 24km
Cummulative distance = 42km

Woo hoo we have kayaked a grand total of 42km and the shoulders and neck muscle (Trapezius to be exact) were aching by the end of the day!
It wasn't cold this morning - around 7 degrees and cloudy.  We got up at 7am after a wake up call by the local Kookaburras at around 6.30 and then a big group of Cockatoos around 6.45am.  It was lovely sitting there eating brekky and watching the calm flow of the river pass by us.
We managed to head off around 9am and barely got out into the flow of the river when Neil spots something on the other side of the river so naturally he has to go over and investigate ... for some reason I didn't think road kill would be an issue on this trip but you all know Neil - in fact we will now call it river kill ... this is what he spotted ...

 it is something you tow behind your boat - some floating thing ... we did think that maybe Kouta might like it to be towed behind the kayak just like on the bike!
He didn't want to get in this morning and ran away when he realised that he too has to go in the kayak!
So being the optimist we are we decided to rig up the solar panels on the kayaks ...

 it is in a snap lock bag but as you can see from the photo it is a very grey cloudy day and it stayed like that all day.
Just up around the bend was a massive rest area on the NSW side and it has a tiered retaining wall and also toilets with a rain water tank so we stopped and filled up the bladders with water from a very slow tap coming out of the tank!
Not too many river boats passing us either way today, so we felt as though we had the river to ourselves.   The arms felt a little tight this morning but up to lunch they were okay - a little weary but still okay to paddle.
Lunch was in a very windy spot but it was a lovely beach around 1680.  Once finished the wind must have been watching us as it really blew as we left the spot and unfortunately for us the river was going straight into it.  Earlier this morning we found some old polystyrene at our camp spot and I have a problem of the water when there are waves (generally when going into the wind the river becomes very choppy) the kayak bounces and water splashes up where the handle is (my handle is rigid whereas Neils is a material one) and it splashes up and into the boat hence I end up sitting in a puddle, so we squeezed the polystyrene into the top half of the handle and it worked a treat but there was a little gap so when it came to the waves the water came in a bit so I tentatively moved it down to cover the gap (I say tentatively as the polystyrene was very fragile since it has been out in the elements for a long time I think!) and to my relief that stopped all the splashing  so tomorrow I hope to have a dry butt!
So with this wind coming from the west comes it is very cold out on the kayaks - I bought along my cycling arm warmers as a back up in case it gets really cold and I didn't think I would use them but I wore them all day! and at times I had my polyprop top on too and my beanie and sun hat to keep the head warm!  funny enough you only have to go around the corner out of the wind and it is warmer - it is just when the river is open to the prevailing wind.
Tomorrow we think the forecast is for very strong wind!
One thing I did see today was this really cute paddle steamer house boat - not sure if it actually works or if they have just planted it there as a holiday home but it looks nice ...

So since we started at 1694 our goal was to get to 1674 before we start looking for a camp spot.  On our charts there was a nice spot just at 1674 but we thought we would continue to the next beach but that was not great and our charts showed that there were no more beaches for a looooooooooong time so by now our arms were very tired and we had to go another 4km before coming across a spot to beach the kayaks and climb the embankment.  Again someone has created some rudimentary steps for us!

at the top it is a really nice clear area and we are the only ones here ...

there is a house opposite us - you may be able to see it in the photo below ...

so day 2 without a shower and although it is cold I really wanted a warmer bath today so I braved it and fortunately the wind died down this evening so it wasn't painful when having a wash.  We are arriving a bit late at our campsites so I haven't been able to wash clothes and not having the bikes to act as a washing line is a real bummer so I have taken to using the bushes and decorated them with towels!

Dinner tonight was creamy dahl curry and rice.  Tomorrow we pass a marina that has a small store so maybe we might get some hot chips if it is cold!  

The internet is very slow along here and takes a great deal of patience when doing this blog ... Neil can't go on the internet while I am doing this blog as it slows us right down!

til tomorrow!

day 1 1712km to 1694km

To understand these maps you follow from the start where the green line ends it will have a letter - take note of the letter and find the letter on the next map and continue on from there!  (remember because we are counting backwards in distance we are also going backwards alphabetically)

Thursday 7 May = 1712km to 1694km

todays distance = 18km / total distance = 18km

Dear Diary,

who the f#@k had the idea of paddling the Murray river!  lol just joking!  It was a good days paddling!

We left Bendigo at around 8.30am and drove the 80km or so to Echuca ... Leanne took great joy in announcing that it was 1 degree outside ... Neil and I are both in shorts!  In fact it wasn't too bad as there was no wind and as long as you stayed in the sun it wasn't so silly to be wearing shorts!

Arrived at Echuca near the information center and found a good place to launch.  It took us around 1 hour to put all our gear in ...

if you look around where the kayaks are you can see that there are alot of foot prints ... in fact it is really muddy and soft so we were ankle deep in mud

in this photo if you look at Neil he is about 1/2m from the waterline and almost knee deep not in water but mud!

kouta hid in the car for most ot the time while we packed, eventually we got him out and he clearly shows his enthusiam towards kayaking by turning his back to us pretending we don't exist and really he is here simply to wave us good bye and will go back with Leanne to Bendigo ...

until Neil picks him up and puts him in his tub ...

and we are off, it is a lovely clear sunny day, the kayaks are loaded and are carrying about 30kg each 

a few paddlesteamers also were leaving the same time as us and what surprised me was that they don't create a great deal of wake which is good as we had a few pass us today ...

to keep track of how far we travel each day there are 2km markers on the NSW side and sometimes they are missing and we can only guess that we have come a certain distance ... the start was at 1712km from the mouth of the river in South Australia so the number will be going down as we go along as we are getting closer and closer to the mouth of the Murray.

As we are paddling along the wind is blowing and since the river winds its way along sometimes you have no wind, sometimes it is blowing a gale and sometimes it is behind you!  So it was a mixed bag today and we had a bit of everything!  

Plenty of house boats about and we reckon around 20 passed us and they were going to Echuca.

We did see alot of houses along the river near  Echuca and in this photo up on the embankment is a Holiday park and below are all house boats for hire ...

What really surprised me was the wind on the river, I thought it might be a bit more sheltered but it wasn't and at times it was like kayaking on the estuaries along the coastline of Victoria, luckily the river isn't straight so you only had to go around the next bend and the wind would be coming from another direction to what you are paddling.  At times the wind is strong and the river had a fair bit of chop and some water came into my Kayak so I had a wet butt for most of the day!

Not far from Echuca we come across where the Campaspe River joins the Murray and you can see the difference in the water where they join - the calm is coming from the Campaspe while the Murray has little waves!

at around 6km we take a cuppa break and pull up on the Victorian side - knowing that the Victoria side has the 3 chain rule (or Queens chain for you kiwis) with the river and NSW doesn't we seem to stop and camp on the Victorian side as NSW is full of private property signs and there was one section along the Victorian side that did have private property signs and Neil questions that as some had really nice embankments that were perfect to camp on!  So here is our cuppa spot ...

as the day progress the clouds start to build and our sun disappears and the wind is really blowing now and it is a little cooler especially when you stop, at one point I took this photo thinking that it might just rain!

there is plenty of places to stop and camp and most of the edges are like this ...

you can see that there is a little beach and above it is an embankment which is about 5m high.  Some places have a lovely big beach and the embankment is easy to walk up, or someone has made some clay stairs.  Generally the big beaches have some whopping great big house boat taking up space and generally these big beaches also have the better easier to walk up embankments!  Speaking of house boats we came across this one just before we decided to stop and it is a real nice one!

so the 1694km sign was missing so we guessed it is around here somewhere so we decided to camp here tonight - there was a small beach and up in the embankment we could see someone had made so rudimentary clay stairs - where Neil is standing ...

once up on the embankment it is flat and spacious and perfect for the tent.  Clearly this site has been use before as there is an old fire pit and also a 4WD track - hopefully they won't turn up tonight looking for their campsite!

this is the view from where we are camped looking back in the Echuca direction and down on the kayaks which are pulled up futher to the base of the embankment.

We are both weary in the arms and are happy we did the 18km today - hopefully the arms will recover to do it all again tomorrow!