Day started earlier than usual as Alicia had to return to Melbourne for a lecture. Alicia dropped Janice and I at the caravan park to meet the rest of the crew at 6:15. We have breakfast, pack the boats and wheel them back to the river. We are all packed full with fresh food supplies and water for the trip to Swan Hill. We say our goodbyes and head off down the river at 7:30.
We are looking forward to the paddle as it is the Southern 80 ski races on the weekend and teams are practicing on the river. The fastest boat recently set a record at 235km/h with skiers on the back. We are carefull not to be in the middle of the river when we hear one of these things approaching. In a flash they are past. It is like being on a push bike on a race track when the V8 Supercars are going past.
There are lots of people camped next to the river and by tomorrow night there will be 100,000 people camped between Echuca and Torrumberry Weir. That is a lot of bogans.
We keep a consistent pace today as we know it is a long day as we want to get close to Torrumberry Weir. The water is very slow and low as we leave Echuca and only gets slower during the day as we get closer to Torrumberry. The river here still has high banks; however, we are seeing some sand beaches again and use these during the day for our breaks.
We visited a marina an unfortunately the shop had closed down and there was no ice cream to be had, sorry Thomo. We have a test shortly after and EJ finds a pontoon to lay down on for a quick nap. I was also enjoying a nap on my boat before a boat came past and the splashing wakes me up.
We decide to camp for the night so we look for a spot where we can get the boats out of the water and there are no bogans making noise. After 5km Thomo is shown a nice spot on horse shoe lagoon. We pull up have dinner and chat to a guy camped next to us. EJ and Tinky get another free beer. To our delight an enterprising local turns up with his old ute and some fridges selling ice cream and drinks. This was much appreciated y all, especially Thomo.
The peace has now been broken as the bogans have moved in across the lagoon. It will be a long night.
A breakfast visitor
A nice morning on the river
Tony and EJ enjoying the evening
The lagoon from our camp site
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