A cool and breezy morning as we get up at 6:30. We pack the boats and wheel them out of the caravan park to the river. We have an appointment with the lock at 8am.
On the water and off to the lock. Bad news, the lock has an electrical problem and the lock master is waiting for the electrician. We elect to walk around the lock, a bit disappointing for the last lock. After 45 minutes of pulling kayaks up and down hills we are back on the water.
Our aim today is to do 53km as we need to get to Murray Bridge on Thursday. The southerly wind is still blowing as we spend two hours banging into it. There is no respite from the wind as in other parts of the river as there are no bends and we are heading south.
At 11am the wind eases and we have a lovely clear day for paddling. We pass the Murray Princess, a big passenger boat. The wake behind the Murray Princess was huge, I hope she passes us going in the other direction.
We stop for lunch at Swan Reach. A lovely little town that makes Blanchtown look even worse than we thought it was. A hamburger and milk at the local cafe and the owner throughs in some free chips. We must be looking tired. Another place to come back to for a visit.
We are now in shack country and they appear everywhere on the river banks. It is quite a culture which has built up on the river. Most of the shacks are nice houses on the river bank that are used for holiday homes. We are also in cliff country and we have been following them all day. One set of cliffs was a nesting point for cockatoos and there are thousands of birds.
By mid afternoon we are at The Big Bend, a magnificent cliff face. EJ tries the coolness in a cut away section under the cliff.
The afternoon is getting away and it is 6:15pm when we hit our target for the day. A quick camp set up, dinner, a bath and off to bed. In the middle of this we did enjoy another nice sunset.
The Murray Princess
The Big Bend
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