.Days 99 & 100 - 2/9/07 & 3/9/07 - A Quick Dash to the Southern Ocean Steve's Report: Sunday:Kurt entertained the pelican before the lads left for home. It was fathers day and Kurt had bought a mug for his Dad. This was very lucky as we were one short so we all managed a coffee or tea Sunday morning. Jonathan and I set off for the Southern Ocean to see what is there. It was around 800km there and back but well worth it. I now know what I am up against. We saw it on a very good day so I know all we have to do is wait when we get there for as long as it takes to get the right conditions. None-the-less from Victor Harbour around the end through Backstairs Passage is worrying due to the isolation and heavy shore dump with the waves. I will just have to be careful and maybe do the 65km or so in a sprint with no shore stops. But we will worry about all that when we get there. Monday: We did a great interview at 8.30am with Bronwen at ABC Riverland. Jonathan was included and he did a great job. I was quite proud of him and I guess it was one of those rare moments to treasure but there have been quite a few of those over the past six weeks. There was a listener called in about the duck weed upstream so now I know what that horrible struff is called. Ted is a local rower who does lots of marathon rows up and down the river for charity. He was a great guy and we interviewed him on camera. Nothing really unusual about that eh? Ted is 80 years old! After that we did our usual stuff at the Junior Primary School and then with the Primary School. The whole school, all organised in the space of half an hour. Thanks to Sandy and to Fay. Brilliant organisation. The young ones made me put the skirt on that I sometimes wear to keep the water out because they wanted to see a bloke in a skirt (and they thought it was funny). The new phone is playing up would you believe. Anyway, after a fiddle around and some car repairs I hit the water after 1.00pm. We got to Berri though so all being well it will be Loxton tomorrow night. It will be nice if the wind stops. When I am paddling against it I don't mind the effort but I am not that keen on the cold nor getting wet. (I am typing this in wet trousers) Jonathan's Report: Steve has now successfully completed the leg from Wentworth to Renmark and in doing so has passed through 4 more locks and entered the state of South Australia. The first couple of days were nothing out of the ordinary with Steve making good progress down the river. Tuesday however was a different storey. After Speaking to the kids in Mildura in the morning, I dropped Steve off where he had finished the previous day. We looked at the maps and decided on a spot to finish for the day where there was a road down to the river and I would set up camp for the night. I later drove down this road to find the road was actually on the other side of a creek to what was shown on the map. After driving up and down the road trying to find a crossing I found a dry part but there was still water a couple of metres wide. I decided it wasn’t worth it because if I didn’t get through, I was on my own and there was nobody to pull the Navara out. However, as I was turning around the left side of the car started to sink and I realised the ground was a lot softer than I originally thought. I tried to accelerate through it but with the weight of the trailer and both the front left and front back wheels in the mud, I found myself going nowhere. After 2 and 1/2 hours of shovelling mud and filling the tracks I dug with dry dirt and sticks the Navara was finally free and I could continue trying to find away to get to Steve. At this stage I was completely covered in mud and still at square one. I tried for another hour but couldn’t find a track to the river. It was now dark and Steve called me on the Satellite phone to find out where the hell I was. Luckily Steve had met the lock master at lock 8 and the lock master was able to guide me to the river using another track where Steve was waiting and we camped the night. All in all, a very frustrating day but reached the destination in the end. The next two nights were fine camping on the side of the river apart from the 100km/hour wind we had to battle on Thursday night and now we are comfortably set up at the Big 4 Caravan Park in Renmark.