We all say farewell to the ladies as we head out from Mildura. We have mixed emotions as we are keen to continue our trip, but we are starting to feel a bit weary. A short trip of about 10 minutes to the lock to be first boats in for the day. The ladies have driven to the lock to watch what happens. Not real exciting. A bit like being in the bath when you pull the plug out.
The water below the lock is not flowing as it is already backed up from the next lock at Wentworth. It feels like our river paddling is over and we will now be just passing through a series of lakes. As we chat we do not feel that inspired about the prospect.
The scenery today is better than the run into Mildura. There are less dead trees and it is nice to have the green colour back. The river is now very wide and the straights are in kilometres. This is good as we have a tail wind today. Battling up these stretches in a head wind would be very hard work.
Lots of houseboats on the banks and most of them are just being stored there. Some show signs of permanent residences and we chat to the owners on the way past.
A narrow and shallow shortcut allows us to cut 10km from the day. This is very welcome and we hit Wentworth before 4. We paddle through a small channel to enter the Darling river and pull up at the caravan park, very convenient. We are now at the junction of the Darling river. Sturt discovered this in 1830 and a lot has changed since then.
EJ has some snags and bread from the weekend which he cooks up and they go down a treat. We then go to a very nice hotel for a big dinner. The rest of the week will be bush camping and camp food.
We are all eager to go to bed as it has been a hard day. Thomo has recut the schedule for this week to account for less distance being achieved each day due to the lack of flow. We aim to do 50 a day for the rest of the week.
In the lock at 8am
The "river". Find Tony in the photo.
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