Day 4 Halfway Bend to 1544 Marker

We had breakfast and got on the water at 7.15 am. There was mist rising off the river but this disappeared quickly as the sun came over the trees.   Even if you didn't see anything else on this trip the mist sitting the river as we took off was worth the cost of the trip according to Simon.

  Paddling was easy in the cool morning air. We heard then saw a paddle-steamer and waved as it
went by.

I took a selfie with my camera using the phone as a remote control. Simon asked “aren’t there enough pictures of you already”? How rude!

2 more paddle steamers passed us.This time they were on the wrong side of the river no we had to move in toward the bank and wait while they passed as weren’t altering course for us.

We stopped for a break at 9.15 am ramming our kayaks up the bank to get past as much mud a possible. Even so our feet sank into the ooze.

Scotch finger biscuits and we were back in the kayaks. 2 more paddle steamers passed by but I didn’t get photos because the camera was at the front of the kayak as I was making another selfie attempt.

At lunch we had reached 1568 and we just under half way to Swan Hill. Only cheeses and crackers for lunch and more crackers as we finished the cheese. Although I would have sat out the heat of the day normally we decided to push on thinking we could be finished by 2.30 pm. We did stop for a longer break and although we had covered 46 km we decided that we could keep going and reduce the distance to Barham to under 20 km.

As the afternoon wore on the river went through a very lazy stretch where it was like a lake with little current. It did pick up again later. Just after 1544 we called it a day and pulled into a nice campsite.

For dinner we had Shapes (I got stuck into them) followed by 2 minute noodles and baked beans, It was a beautiful night and we could have paddled through the night because the moon was so bright.