Day 38 – Boundary Bend to Somewhere

From: Boundary Bend
To: Somewhere
Distance: 47km
Total Distance Travelled: 1328km
Distance to Go: 1180km

This will probably be the shortest blog post yet because not a huge amount happened today. It was just a day of paddling.

Before going to bed last night, I got everything I could packed in the boat, ready to wheel down to the river this morning. I knew I had a long day of paddling ahead of me, with forecasted headwinds, so I wanted to get onto the water right on sunrise.

I got up at around 6am and headed into the petrol station to get some breakfast. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was able to get bacon and eggs. Just what I needed to start the day. After my lovely feed, I wheeled everything down to the boat ramp (about a 200m walk) and packed the gear into the boat. I was on the water just before sunrise (at about 7.30am).

The paddle was very uneventful, just slow. Since the Murrumbidgee joined the Murray (yesterday) the river has changed. Today it was a lot wider and a lot straighter. There were long stretches of 2-4km where the were no bends, which is very different from upstream.

At around 4pm, I paddled the 45km that I had planned to do today and a couple of kilometres later I found a nice beach on a bend in the river, with a well sheltered campsite.

The one crappy thing that has happened is that Sydney has gone into lockdown this time. This means that Kath cannot leave the Sydney area. She was meant to be coming down to Mildura next week to spend a few days with me. So she won’t be able to do that. My parents, who also were going to come down, are still able to come because they live in regional NSW. So the current plan, assuming that lockdown eases in time, is that Kath will meet me in Renmark (South Australia) a week later. I swear that the off-river logistics are a lot more complicated that the on-river logistics.

Anyway, tomorrow is going to be a similar day to today. It is about 42km to Robinvale, where I have a cabin booked for 2 nights.

Day 39 – Somewhere to Robinvale

From: Somewhere
To: Robinvale
Distance: 41km
Total Distance Travelled: 1369km
Distance to Go: 1118km

Today was probably the most uneventful day of the paddle.

I decided to start really early to give myself plenty of time this afternoon at Robinvale to do my washing and to get some food. So I packed up the camp and was on the water at 6.50am (about 40mins before sunset). It was lovely paddling as the sun came up… well it was a very grey day so it didn’t really come up.

I put on my audio book and pretty much just paddled non-stop for 6 hours straight.

I reached Robinvale Caravan Park at around 1.30pm and checked in to my “cabin”. The cabin, which was the last one left, seems to be more of a converted construction site office. Despite being like a box in the back carpark and only having a couple of small windows, it is fine. It has a heater, a bed, a fridge a bathroom and a couch. It will serve the purpose for the next 2 nights and is more comfortable than a tent.

So the laundry is now done (well it is drying in my box/cabin) and I have been to the supermarket (and bottle shop) to stock up with some supplies to satisfy this week’s cravings. Now it is time to edit my video and get all the socials updated.

On Monday (2 days from now) I start the paddle down to Mildura, which is about 250km. Tomorrow I need to do some work on my itinerary for the next few weeks, as I have realised some of the distances I had planned to do each day are a bit ambitious, so I need to add a few extra days to make it more realistic.

From: Piambie
To: Boundary Bend
Distance: 41km
Total Distance Travelled: 1281km
Distance to Go: 1227km

Today was a tough day of paddling but there were a couple of big highlights.

Even though the skies cleared up last night before I went to bed, at around midnight it started to rain again. It only lasted a few hours, but it definitely helped soften all the mud a bit more. This morning I had to take my time to load the gear into the boat, because everything was very slippery. It normally takes me about 15 minutes to put the gear into the boat, but today it took nearly an hour. I had to do everything in slow motion so that I didn’t slip or misstep into the mud. Only once did I accidentally start sliding down the piece of carpet leading down to the water. Once I started to slide I knew there was no stopping it, so I unfortunately ended up in the river up to my shins.

Once I was on the water, the wind started to pick up. They were predicting strong North Westerly winds, which was pretty much the direction I was headed. So today was indeed strong headwinds that lasted all day. I would much rather rain than headwinds because they are just exhausting to paddle against and require more concentration. The trick today was to paddle close to the high banks to get a bit of shelter, which was mildly effective but increased the distance I had to paddle a fair bit.

So to the highlights.

The first highlight was that I hit the half way mark. Half way from the top of Mt. Kosciuszko to the sea. My GPS read 1526km at the same time as I reached the point where the 1526km river marker was meant to be. Like most of them, the marker was missing but it was a nice milestone all the same.

The second highlight was about 8km downstream. The Murrumbidgee River! My favourite river in the whole World joined the Murray. The Murrumbidgee is the second longest river in Australia (1485km) and starts up in the high country near Canberra and ends at the Murray River. I have done many trips on the Murrumbidgee and you can see lots of videos on my YouTube channel Q or read about it on my other blog. It was nice seeing the Bidgee today… a bit like seeing an old friend.

However, much to my disappointment, my old friend the Bidgee let me down. After passing the Murrumbidgee, the river got wider and a little slower. Also when the river gets wider you are more exposed and the wind increases and the chop gets bigger.

After another couple of hours of fighting against the wind, I finally made it to Boundary Bend, where I planned to camp in the caravan park. I will come to the caravan park shortly. However, as I was checking in at the attached petrol station, a couple of guys dressed in cycling gear were sitting in the shop having some food. One of the guys called out to me and said “Are you paddling the Murray? Are you part of the Murray River Expeditioners? (Which is a FaceBook group for people who do the Murray)”. It ended up that it was a guy called Joe, who had also paddled the Murray a few years ago. When he introduced himself I recognised his name from the Facebook group and he recognised me. He was in the middle of a bike ride from Seymour in Victoria up to Alice Springs and just happened to be stopping at the petrol station for a break and some food. Small world.

So back to the caravan park. It is pretty funny. It is definitely a few stars less than some of the others I have stayed in on this trip. I requested a powered site so I could charge my laptop and various electronics. So I have ended up squeezed between some old caravans and cabins that look like they have been here for years and rarely used. They also had a lot of rain (as did I) in the last couple of days, so there are massive puddles everywhere, and I am surrounded by them (but I am on a dry patch).

There are some added bonuses that I have discovered. Firstly, it is right next to a main road that a lot of trucks drive along (no my tent does not have double glazing to shut out the noise). Plus they just turned the park lights on and my tent is now lit up like a green lantern. I also have two taps next to my spot that are both leaking and dripping away.

The shop pretty much offers the range of food that you would expect in a country petrol station… not much. To be fair, they do offer a range of deep fried delights (dim sims, potato cakes, Chiko Rolls etc.). Their fresh fruit and veg seems to consist of a lot onions for some reason. So I decided to eat some of my food that I have brought with me. However I was able to satisfy some of my cravings by buying a nice collection of junk food.

So even though I sound like I am bagging this place out… It is fine. I am tired. I needed a powerpoint. I am sitting under my tarp and sheltered from the wind by the back of a caravan/shed. And I have earplugs. So I can’t complain. It is functional and that is all I really care about at the moment. It is not like I need a view of the river.

I have about 90km to do over the next 2 days before I get to Robinvale, where I am having my next rest day. I am pretty much going to try and split the day into two 45km days. It looks like there is going to still be headwinds tomorrow, so I am going to leave very early to give me as much time as possible. The shop/petrol station opens at around 6am, so I should be able to get a coffee (of some description) before I leave.

From: Goodnight
To: Piambie State Forest
Distance: 28km
Total Distance Travelled: 1240km
Distance to Go: 1274km

There is not really a huge amount to say about today other than it rained. It rained a lot.

The rain started at around 5.30am and has been going all day. Packing up the gear this morning was fine because everything was protected by the tarp. Getting into the kayak however was very messy. The mud has turned both sticky and slippery (yes it is possible). It sticks to your shoes which then makes your shoes slippery.

The paddle was very blah. Buried inside my gortex hood, I just paddled and appreciated being dry (while in the the boat). I was dreading getting out, dealing with the mud and setting up camp in the rain.

I only had to paddle about 25km because I did an extra 20km yesterday. I am really glad I did that extra distance yesterday, because it would have been miserable doing it today.

After I hit the 25km mark, I started hunting for a campsite in the Piambie State Forest. Much to my delight I say a spot on the bank with a piece of carpet that went down to the water and some stairs cut into the bank. So I took it.

As soon as I got out onto the carpet, I realised how slippery everything was. I promptly started sliding down the carpet and my feet ended up in the river. I then climbed up the bank with some gear and on the way back down, I slipped down on the stairs and promptly slid down them on my butt. I had to do the rest of my gear ferrying using my paddle as a walking stick to stop me sliding.

I quickly set up the tarp and got out of my wet gear. The rain started to ease off, so I found some dead branches hanging from some trees (which are normally drier than those on the ground) and managed to get a fire going. The one great thing about River Red Gum forests is that there is always plenty of firewood on the ground. I was just saying to my family that if there isn’t any, all you need to do is just wait and something will fall to the ground soon enough.

Well as I am righting this, I can see the rain is clearing. So I might go set up my tent and start thinking about some dinner.

From: Nyah-Vinifera Park
To: Goodnight
Distance: 55km
Total Distance Travelled: 1211km
Distance to Go: 1302km

Today was a bit of a crazy day. Not necessarily in a bad way, but just crazy.

I had planned to only do 35km today. I was going to camp somewhere near Toolybuc, which is a small town on the NSW side of the river. Being that it was going to be a short day, I took my time getting packed up and having breakfast. I was treated to an amazing sunrise, so I also took some time to take some photos and video of that.

Kath sent me a message this morning saying I should check out the podcast called “The Junkees – Dave O’Neil and Kitty Flanagan”. Dave and Kitty are two of my favourite comedians and the podcast is them reviewing, taste testing and having general hilarious banter about all sorts of junk food (lollies, biscuits, chips etc.). It is an excellent podcast and very funny, however it did cause me a bit of a problem.

Anyone who has ever been on a big hike/paddle/bike ride etc. will know that food cravings are a big problem. When you are living on the bare minimum of food (i.e. stuff you can carry), it doesn’t take long before you start craving weird foods that you don’t have. Normally they are really random things like pickles or chocolate Paddle Pops or Lebanese bread. Just strange stuff like that. However once it gets in your mind, it is hard to shake.

The other thing worth noting is that when you are doing long hours paddling, you have a lot of time to think about things. And when a thought gets in your head, you will dwell on it for hours.

So early this morning I was listening to this podcast and they started talking about Twisties. BOOM! A mega cheese Twisties craving hit me like a tone of bricks. For the non-Australia’s out there, Twisties are an Australian speciality. They are sort of the chip/crisp but not really. They are described as “an Aussie snack icon that has had a special place in our hearts for more than 50 years. Life’s pretty straight without Twisties!.”

So anyway, I had Twisties in my head and I could not shake it. I decided that I had to get some. I had not planned to stop in Toolybuc this afternoon because apparently the banks are really high and the boat ramp is quite a long walk to town. Plus until the Twisties got in my head, I didn’t really need any supplies. However, I was now going to do the hike into town to get a bag of Twisties. It had to be done otherwise I would never shake this craving.

At about noon, I was having a bit of drift, chatting to Kath on Messenger. I was telling her all about my craving and my plan to go to Toolybuc later in the afternoon, when I looked up and over the top of the bank I saw a green roof and the words “General Store”. It was the Wood Wood Caravan Park and General Store. I had not looked at the map today and I completely forgot I was going to be passing the Caravan Park. The bonus was there was a perfect boat ramp across the road from the shop. So I quickly pulled up at the boat ramp and walked across the road, hoping they had Twisties. They did. It was the smallest pack I had ever seen but it was going to cure my craving. I also picked up a coffee and a Roast Beef and Gravy roll.

Once I had eaten the roll, I actually wasn’t hungry so I decided to hold onto the Twisties and eat them when I got to camp. Strangely enough, once I had them in my procession my mind moved off the craving and onto other things.

So for all the people that have been asking me “what do you think about when you are paddling?”… well this is the stupid stuff that goes through your head. One small thing and it sticks in your head for hours.

Anyway, after my wonderful and impromptu lunch in Wood Wood, I continued down the river towards Toolybuc. My planned campsite was about 3km past the town, however when I got there it was a little bit too exposed for my liking. There was a front starting to come through (with a lot of rain forecasted for tonight and tomorrow) and the wind was starting to pick up, so even though it was about 3.30pm I decided I would push on. There was a regional park (near “Goodnight”) in about another 10km, so even though I would be getting there near sunset I decided it was worth going for.

Fortunately the river narrowed a fair bit and became windy, so the flow sped up from the 9kmh I had been doing to 10-11kmh. Once I got to the Regional Park (which is pretty big) I was greeted by massive cliffs for banks, so I had to keep paddling to find a spot I could not only get up but also where I could leave my boat on the bank. About 5 minutes after sunset, I finally found a bank that I could get up (it was a bit of a scramble) so I decided this had to be it. When I got to the top of the bank I found it was really scrubby, so I had to bush bash about 100m inland to where I found a small patch I could fit my tent and put up the tarp. I then brought up the bare minimum of gear so that I don’t need to do too many trips backwards and forwards tomorrow morning in the rain.

Once the tent and tarp were set up, I was able to sit down and relax a little bit while enjoying my beef ravioli and my packet of Twisties. Even though Twisties have never really been my goto variety of chips, I have to say they were fantastic!

Tomorrow is going to be interesting. It was planned to be a 45km day, but I have already done 20km of that this afternoon. So I am going to see how the weather pans out and decide how far I am going to go. The rain doesn’t bother me too much when I am in the boat, because I am very well sealed up and my Gortex jacket keeps me very dry. It is going to be more of a case how bad the wind is. Anyway, I will deal with that tomorrow… for now I am going to go to sleep because I am knackered.

Oh… if you are wondering why this place is called. “Goodnight”, well apparently there used to be an old shepherd that camped by the river and he used to shout out “Goodnight!” to the paddle steamers as they went by.

From: Swan Hill
To: Nyah-Vinifera Park
Distance: 43km
Total Distance Travelled: 1156km
Distance to Go: 1367km

I had a great day and a half in Swan Hill. After arriving and checking into the caravan park, I got myself a pizza and a bottle of wine and settled down in my cabin to get the latest video edited. With that done, the next morning, after a nice breakfast and food shop at Woolworths, I got to work cleaning all the mud out of my kayak and off all my gear. It was a major operation that took about 2 hours because the clay had dried solid on everything. It involved a lot of chipping with my trowel and scrubbing with a heavy duty scrubbing brush.

Just before lunch, my friend Karli and her mum, Josie, came to visit me. They kindly drove all the way up from Ballarat (about 3.5 hours) just to spend the day with me. We had a lovely lunch at Spoons Riverside and then went to the Swan Hill Cemetery to find where Karli’s uncle (Uncle Alan) was buried. It took a while to find him, because a bunch of old flowers were covering his surname, so all of us walked past his grave numerous times without seeing him.

We then visited Swan Hill’s big attraction… the Giant Murray Cod. You might remember I visited Tocumwal’s Big Murray Cod a few weeks ago. Well Swan Hill has the Giant one.

My lovely visitors then headed back to Ballarat and I got on with packing all my gear ready for an early departure in the morning.

Now onto today’s paddle…

This morning was cold. At sunrise it was 0 degrees (feels like -3). Just before sunrise, I quietly ferried all my gear from the cabin to the small beach next to the caravan park. I had to sneak past a number of caravans in order to get to the bank, but I have found (fortunately) that people in caravan parks seem to sleep in and nothing wakes them.

The morning, despite being very cold, was beautiful. There was a slight mist and as the sun rose, it cast amazing light through the trees. There was absolutely no wind all day, so the water was like glass. By about 9am, the sun had risen above the trees and I started getting really hot. It was only 7 degrees but I was sweating. One of the issues with kayaking (or any water sport) is that you basically have 2 suns shining on you because of the reflection on the water. So you get really hot.

The paddle was really enjoyable today. I did not feel like I was in a rush to get anywhere. I just enjoyed cruising along, checking everything out, without feeling like I needed rush down the river to find a campsite.

I had planned to camp in the Nyah-Vinifera Park, which is a big state park near the small town of Nyah. When I reached the park (around 3pm) I started looking for a campsite. I got out of the boat a couple of times to check out a few spots, which were fine, but I was feeling fussy and kept going. I eventually came across a good spot, with a nice beach and a nice bit of grass to set up the tent.

Just now, I was sitting by the fire, writing this blog, I did have my first run in with nature. In the tree next to the fire, something started screeching horribly. I thought it was a bat, so I walked over and shown my torch at the tree. There are 2 owls sitting there screeching away (not hooting). I recorded some video of them and returned to my seat by the fire. When I played back the video on my phone, they obviously thought the noise was another owl. All of a sudden I looked up and they were both flying straight at me. They got within a metre of me and I could see their big white faces in the light of my head torch. At the last second they both darted off to the side. It scared the crap out of me. Now they are back in the tree screaming at me. Bloody nature.

Well I am sure the title got your attention. Let me explain.

“Adventures like these are like turtle sex. It is slow and then it ends”

Justin “Jonesy” Jones

This is a quote (probably misquoted) that explorer Justin Jones said in the podcast that I discuss later in the is post. What it means is that when describing an adventure like this, it is not about adrenaline or risk taking. It is all about just dealing with the slow grind of getting to the end. And that certainly feels like what this week has been.

It has been enjoyable but it has been hard work.

Day 31 – Murrabit to Somewhere

From: Murrabit
To: Somewhere in the bush
Distance: 46km
Total Distance Travelled: 1085km
Distance to Go: 1439km

Once again it rained overnight, but by the time I got up it had turned into a misty fog.

Paddling in the fog is always a bit like paddling in a dream. It is still, quiet and you are really in tune with the things around you.

However, today was a pretty uneventful paddle. Just lots of bends and mud cliffs and river red gums.

The weird thing that did happen was that I was listening to an old episode of Dave Cornthwaite’s podcast “Self Propelled” where he was interviewing Justin “Joneys” Jones. Let me tell you a bit about both of them before I talk about the weird thing they happened.

First Dave Cornthwaite. Dave is sort of the inspiration for me doing this trip. He is an English adventurer that paddled the Murray about 12 years ago and he recorded it on YouTube. After watching his videos I decided that one day I would do the Murray. I think I mentioned Dave in an earlier blog because he was the guy that got snowed in at the source of the Murray and was what made me decide not to repeat his ordeal by riding down to it in bad weather. Anyway Dave has also done a lot of big adventures over the years, including skateboarding across Australia, paddling the Murray, SUPing the Mississippi, swimming the Missouri River and many more. Dave also set up the Yes Tribe which is a community of people that SayYesMore. He has also been very encouraging of my trip via Facebook. Anyway Dave also started a podcast last year where he interviews other adventurers. You can check out his site and podcast here.

So then there is Jonesy (Justin Jones). He, along with Cas (James Castrission), were the first people to kayak across “The Ditch” from Australia to New Zealand. They also achieved the first ever unsupported and unassisted ski expedition from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole and back. They both also went to James’ school (many years before him).

So anyway, in this podcast interview, Jonesy tells Dave the story about how they came up with the crazy idea of paddling to New Zealand. When they finished school, they decided to paddle the Murray river. He distinctly remembers that on Day 31, while sweltering in the 40+ degrees heat (they did it in Summer) and Cas suggested they paddle to New Zealand. At the time he thought he was insane but 5 years later they did it.

The weird thing was that here I was on Day 31 of my Murray trip, thinking about what my next adventure in life will be, listening to a story about someone on Day 31 of their Murray trip thinking about their next adventure. Freaky. (Note: I am not planning to paddle across the Tasman Sea).

Anyway, back to my paddle. I made it to my planned campsite area (it is a big state park) and checked out a couple of potential campsites. Finally I settled on one that was up a muddy bank. However it was a different mud this afternoon. It was full on sticky clay. My booties collected about an inch of clay and I could not climb up the bank, so I took them off and went bare footed. It then took me about 20 minutes to scrape the mud off my feet and clean them.

I have to say that today I am a bit over all the mud. Everything is muddy and the inside of my kayak is disgusting from all the mud from my feet. Fortunately I will be in Swan Hill tomorrow for a couple of days, which will give me a chance to clean everything thoroughly.

So tomorrow is going to be pretty easy. It is only 28km to Swan Hill, where I have a cabin booked for a couple of nights. So I should be down there before lunch and can go and check out the “other” big Murray Cod.

Day 32 – Somewhere to Swan Hill

From: Somewhere in the bush
To: Swan Hill
Distance: 28km
Total Distance Travelled: 1113km
Distance to Go: 1410km

Today I was tired. I think my body knew that I was coming up to a rest and it just shut down. Everything was hard this morning. Packing was hard. Getting things down the bank to the boat was hard. Getting into the boat was hard. Paddling was hard.

My muscles have not been sore at all during this trip, but my body definitely starts getting tired by the end of the week. A lot of it will have to do with the lack of calories I am consuming versus the amount I am burning.

It was a shame that I couldn’t enjoy this morning’s paddle more because it was a beautiful sunny morning with a nice cool breeze.

It only took me about 3.5 hours to cover the 29km to Swan Hill this morning. I was fortunately able to check early into the cabin I had booked at the caravan park. I must say, as far as caravan parks go, the Big4 Riverside Swan Hill caravan park is excellent. The cabin is nice (even though it was one of the cheapest they had), the grounds are nice, the staff are friendly and they have a coffee shop (with good coffee) that is 30m from my door.

I am in Swan Hill for 2 days. Tomorrow my friend Karli and her mum are driving up from Ballarat for the day to visit. So it will be nice to catch up with some people I know. As much as I love talking about river levels and environmental flows with the locals, sometimes you need a bit of your own normality.

So the laundry is now on, I am showered and the gear is all drying. Time to eat and consume some calories.

From: Barham
To: Murrabit
Distance: 38km
Total Distance Travelled: 1039km
Distance to Go: 1485km

Once again it poured with rain overnight. By the time I got up and out of the tent (around 6am) it had settled down to a light drizzle.

My first job for the day was to go to the bakery, which opened at 6am, to get a coffee and some bakery treats for breakfast. I had a good chat to the bakery owner about my travels and he was keen for me to promote his bakery… so if you are ever in Barham at 6am and need a bakery, go to the Barham Bakery. There you go… I have done my job of promoting them.

This morning I was tired and motivation was lacking. I think the last couple of days of long distances had taken its toll a bit. However, I eventually got everything packed up and I was on the water by 8am. I think the coffee kicking in helped the motivation.

It pretty much drizzled all morning and it was a very grey sort of day. Fortunately I only had about 38km or so to do today, so I just cruised my way down the river. To my delight, the river got a bit narrower and the flow had increased, so I was doing about 10kmh for most of the morning. That meant by just after lunch I was already approaching my planned area (near Murrambit) and it was already time to find a campsite.

As I was getting closer to Murrambit (which is about 3km from the river) I saw a spot on Google Maps that looked like it might be a boat ramp within some parkland. As I approached it, it was indeed a boat ramp, but I noticed some warning signs up the top and I was worried they would say “no camping”. Fortunately they were just signs about fishing limits and it was a good spot to camp.

So here I am… an early afternoon, sitting by the river under my tarp to keep the drizzle off, enjoying a relaxing afternoon by the river. The best bit is my feet are dry and nothing is muddy. Well they are still muddy from the last few days, but no new mud.

The next 2 days are also going to be fairly cruisey (I am probably jinxing myself). Tomorrow is about 40km and then then about 35km the following day to Swan Hill. Swan Hill is the location of my next day off and video edit.

From: Perricoota
To: Barham
Distance: 51km
Total Distance Travelled: 1001km
Distance to Go: 1524km

I don’t know why but today feels like it was the best day of paddling have had on this trip.

After going to bed at around 7.30pm last night (I was tired), I was woken up at around 1am by a heavy downpour of rain. At around 2.30am a thunderstorm rolled through. I am not sure when I got back to sleep but there were a lot of hours of listening to the rain, dreading having to get up and deal with the wet and the mud.

At around 6am, I got all my wet weather gear on and crawled out of the tent to find that the skies had cleared and there were stars. It had to be the most perfectly timed storm ever. As I slid down the bank to the kayak I found that the river had risen about 10cm over night. That doesn’t sound like much but that is a lot of water. It also meant that my mud bridge, which was a bit average, actually reached the water and did not need extending to get the boat in the water.

I was on the water at 7.30am and was treated to a beautiful sunrise. I had 51km to paddle today to get down to Barham, where I was going to be camping in the Barham Caravan Park. So I put my headphones on and started paddling.

The weather was perfect. It was sunny, only a little bit of wind and a nice temperature. For some reason I felt really in tune with the river. I was appreciating every small detail of the river. The birds, the trees, the way the water moved around the logs. I was totally in “the zone”.

At around 11.30am I hit the halfway mark and found a nice little beach in the sun to stop and have lunch. I was able to sit there in bare feet (my booties were still wet), eating my cheese and crackers and just chill out for half an hour. Again I don’t know why, but it was the perfect moment. I was in the middle of nowhere, I hadn’t seen another human for 1.5 days and it felt like the moment I had been seeking for a while.

The afternoon was just as enjoyable, although I was starting to get tired. At around 3pm I arrived at Barham and set up camp in the caravan park. It is in a great spot on the bend of the river and a very short walk to the shops and the pub (where I might be sitting as I write this).

One extra highlight of today was that I reached to the 1000km mark. That is 1000km from the top of Mount Kosciuszko.