Day 10 - Marker 958 to Psyche Bend Marker 904

Another early start with a forecast of 37 degrees. We left our idyllic campsite on the beach at 7.00 am. In the 1st 90 minutes we passed a succession of beautiful sandy beaches. We pulled up on one for stretch and some Scotch Fingers. I lay down in the shade and could really have just stayed there all day.

We pushed on until lunchtime when we had paddled 36 km and pulled up on a boat ramp. There was a picnic table nearby and toilets. Ideal for me to be able to sit at the picnic table without my chair. While we were there a car pulled up nearby. It was a local chap who was catching shrimp for use a bait for a fishing trip he was doing the next day.

He came over for chat and gave us the benefit of his local knowledge including that there were plenty of campsites with sandy beached further on. This turned out to be garbage as the only beach we saw for the rest of the afternoon was opposite Bottle Bend. That was 2 from 2 for bad trip information from locals, The lesson is that if they haven’t actually paddled a kayak on the river they probably haven’t seen it with the necessary perspective to give advice that is sensible for us.

                                     Red Cliffs is a suburb of Mildura we passed late in the day.

We were expecting to see Tim and Sue our neighbours at Robinvale Caravan Park at Bottle Bend but we couldn’t see their van when we paddled past.

                                        You can’t see it but these iIbis were all facing into the wind

As the afternoon wore on the Northerly wind strengthened and we had to paddle hard into the wind on the north-south reaches of the river. We weren’t finding any sandy beaches and the campsites didn’t look great. Eventually we found a boat ramp occupied by locals with young kids and a JetSki and sped boat. We got out to have look for a campsite. Simon was amused at my reaction to the kids asking questions like was my paddle float a tent?

After a look around we decided to move on assisted by a kid who wanted to launch my kayak before I actually got in it..

After 54 km we reached Psyche Bend site of the original Chaffey Pumphouse and pulled up onto a campsite. We have been spoiled by the wonderful campsites we have had on this trip so this site looked poor compared to what we have become used too. It was adequate for our purpose and we quickly had our tents up. It had been a much longer day than we planned and the wind and heat made it very tough. It was still 34 degrees late in the night. It did not cool down until 6.00 am next morning. Very disappointed with the amount of rubbishthat had been left around the campsite particularly as most campers would have arrived but car and have the means to transport their rubbish away.