Next week I will finally be doing (part of) a kayaking trail that I have been wanting to do for years. There is a 7 day route on the Murrumbidgee (one of the major tributaries feeding the Murray River) that goes from just below Burrunjuck Dam (near Yass NSW) and winds its way down to Wagga Wagga. I have done the first leg of the trip (see post) as a day trip. However since then I have been looking for the time or an excuse to do more of the river.

Click for Full Trail Guide

I will be doing the trip with an ex-colleague of mine, Scott, who has recently taking up kayaking and done a number of short trips with me around Sydney. It is going to be a good test of our fitness. This will be the first time Scott has done such a long trip before. I certainly haven’t done anything like this since the early 90s.

We have given ourselves 4 days of paddling and a day of messing around doing car shuffles etc. Originally we were planning to start at Jugiong (second leg of the trail) but the water levels above the Tumut River (i.e. the first 1.5 days) are looking really low because they are not releasing much water out of Burrunjuck Dam yet. So we are now going to do the last 4 legs of the trail, starting at Gundagai and finishing at Wagga Wagga. The total distance of the trip is 125km, with the longest day being the 3rd day which is about 41 km.

The route.

At this stage I have all the equipment ready and just need to sort out the food for the 4 days. We are planning to do a food and water drop at the second night’s camp site. Being our first multi-day paddle, I figure we can give ourselves some luxuries (i.e. some extra food and water) to help us work out what we need and don’t need for this type of trip. Plus we drive right passed the campsite during the car shuffle, so it would be silly not too.

Scott and I are getting together on the weekend to finalise who is carrying what and check we have everything sorted. Then we head down and spend the night in Wagga on Wednesday to drop off one of the cars.