Kayak 4 Earth

.Days 81 to 85 - 15/8/07 to 19/8/07 - Downstream of Menindee to Pooncarie

Steve's Report: We had a great morning at the Menindee school, then round to State Water to get the low down from Barry Phelp and then on the river well after lunch so only managed 28.4 km before dark.

The next day though we really made up for it with a huge 66.8km which was 8.00am to 6.40pm. Luckily Jonathan had a huge meal ready and a torch to guide me in. With this behind us the next day was dreadful with 35 knot south westerly winds. None-the-less I got 48.2km covered but felt every bit of it. Saturday dawned a lot better with most of the wind gone so I clocked up 54.4km and then followed it off with 42.3km to the weir at Pooncarie. This was a bit of a tough day with lots of weed, shallow water and the camera battery went flat. All up though, Menindee to Pooncarie was a pretty good effort with 211.6km knocked over in the past four days.

It is back on the road now though for the next 80km until we get to the back up from the Murray River.

Jonathan's Report: The past week has gone by very fast with Steve putting in some long hard days on the river. On Thursday he managed to paddle 66.8km for the day which smashed his old P.B. by 10.4km. We have been camping on the side of the river the past 4 nights since we left Menindee on Wednesday. It has been a good surprise to see flow in the river the whole way which has allowed Steve to paddle the entire distance and into Pooncarie this afternoon.

The weather has been all over the place the past week and it is not unusual to see 4 seasons in a couple of days. At the start of the week with a couple of days around 25 degrees it seemed like winter was over and spring was finally here. After making this statement to Steve the following day the mercury struggled to reach 15 so I guess I am the one to blame for return of the cold weather.

It is not all that bad though as during one of those warmer days I came across a long brown slithery reptile sunbaking in the middle of the road whilst on my run. He didn’t move much when I ran past though so I think they are still half asleep and thawing out. So, I guess the cold isn’t so bad when you look at what comes along with warmer sun.

We have treated ourselves to a motel room for tonight where we had a good feed and a nice hot shower. The shower as you can imagine, after camping in the bush for 4 nights is quite pleasant and we are all clean again ready for the final stint of the Darling with the plan to arrive in Wentworth by the end of the week.


IDinner beside the river. This was a great spot	Irrigation pumps	Promising short cut coming up

The low bit on the left was shown as a cut through on the map	Nope, I was wrong	Yet another bend that looks like the rest

This is the start of what is known as Deans Bend. Dean, I don’t like your bend! It took 50 minutes to reach the trees you can see in the background	This mother has plenty of kids	The paddle is touching the bottom!

An old punt on the bank	Lunch stop	Over the bank

Steve entering the water	Camping on the side of the river	Jonathan cooking up some breakfast

Driving to the river to meet Steve and set up camp for the night	Pelicans in uniform arrangement	Dad arriving at Pooncarie weir Sunday afternoon