Day 6 – Barham to 1462 Marker

I was woken by “flocking” cockatoos as 4.30 am and started packing at 5.00 am. Simon was up and out of his tent shortly after. We packed up and had breakfast before rolling the kayaks on their trolleys down to the boat ramp. Immediately after launching we passed under the Barham Bridge. Built by Sir John Monash it is one of the oldest on the Murray and new bridge is currently being built. (We were told that but couldn’t see any evidence of construction).

Once through Barham we were into the forest. The water level at Barham was about 1.5 meters below the high water mark but once in the forest the water was only about 10 centimetres lower than the high water mark. We past a few houses that must have had water lapping at their front door a few weeks ago. There were also plenty of “Run Offs” where water from the Murray was running into the forest.

We paddled for 3 hours without the opportunity to land as the banks were under water and/or covered in fresh new growth. Finally we reached a spot where we could get out and take a pee. By this time we had already covered 24 km.

We decided to push on to Murrabit where there was a boat ramp and picnic table. We arrived just on 12.00 noon to find the boat ramp closed and sign directing us to new ramp downstream on the other side of the Murrabit bridge. The new ramp was much better but the picnic setting was in the water.

There was a road maintenance crew stopped opposite the ramp. The grader driver came over for chat. He told us he had tasked with grading the road because a mob of kayakers were coming through and would be camping in Murrabit. Simon checked afterwards to find that the Murray Marathon will pass through in few days.

After the road crew left a couple from Queensland pulled up with 2 small fibreglass kayaks on top of  their car. Ron and Nancy (Simon said later they looked liked Ron and Nancy – no idea what their names were, he did all the talking, she didn’t say a word, were looking at the Murray for a possible longer kayak trip. We chatted with them for a while and Simon showed them how filthy his kayak was from the mud.

After lunch we set off to cover another 12 km to reach our target of 50 km for the day but realising we were now getting close to Swan Hill we went further and ended up covering 62 km before finding a campsite on the NSW side at the back of a rice farm. I was surprised Simon was happy to camp there as he usually resists “stealth camping” but it had been a long hot day and we needed to stop.

After setting up the tents I lay down for a rest and quickly fell asleep. I woke up and we had dinner, Shapes, Moroccan Cous cous and some vegetable stew concoction from a can followed by Two Fruits. I also had a coffee and 2 Scotch Fingers.