.Day
74 - 8/8/07
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Out & About in Wilcannia
Steve's Report: Wilcannia is full of great people.
We visited the school, the mission school, went to a catchment management authority meeting, interviwed Sam from the DPI who gave us a really good scientific perspective, talked to Chris from the paper, did an interview with Andrew from ABC radio in Broken Hill, welded the frame, drilled a hole in the new harness frame and fixed the steering bush again.
On top of that we had a great discussion with Steve and Bill at the National Parks base and even had a beer with Mike from the local school when we went to the golf club again. I think the Principal, Peter, is doing a great job and is making a difference here.
My feet feel fine again so time to get back on the road tomorrow. The rough roads are a worry as they are taking their toll on body and equipment so to tell the truth I will be very glad when we get to permanent water.
I'm expecting
contact to be poor until we get to Menindee in about a week.
Jonathan's Report: Today was a fully packed day in Wilcannia. First off we went and saw the park ranger who we met on the road the day before to arrange a time for an interview. After deciding on 4:00pm, it was off to the mechanic to weld the trailer up. It was a successful mission and the modified trailer is now ready to take on the open dirt roads of the Australian outback again.
At 10:00 we headed over to the school where Steve did his usual presentation to the kids about the kayak on wheels, the trip and sustainability. From there it was off to the CMA (Catchment Management Authority) meeting which we coincidentally happed to arrive in Wilcannia when it was on and listened to the current environmental and political situation of this section of the darling and ended up interviewing one of the speakers who worked for the DPI.
Once the meeting was over we headed straight down to the river (which had next to no water in it) and talked to another group of younger kids who attended a separate school. They were very impressed with Steve’s Kayak but I don’t think they listened much to the sustainability part. Something tells me he lost them at “Here is my kayak”.
Steve then had a radio interview with Andrew from the ABC who does the rural report and finally it was time to go back to the National Park ranger to carry out the arranged interview.
All in all, it was a very busy but successful day.
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This break on the trailer canopy was
serious and needed welding |
Upstream of Wilcannia. Not pretty |
Looking downstream from the same point.
You can probably see why I am not paddling |