Day 5 - Boundary Bend to Meilman Station

It was very cold this morning - 4 degrees but it was crisp and fresh. We packed up and went into the servo for coffee and breakfast. I had an egg and bacon roll in contravention of my pescatarian diet. It was good! Better than the coffee! The whole servo experience, especially the lady behind the counter with her quick wit was very enjoyable.

We were on the water at 7.40 am and the first 2 hours flew by. The mix of bird life changes each day, today there kookaburras and darters which we hadn’t seen on previous days. We went past some mud swallows nests in the overhang of an old tree trunk. I went up close for a photo - stunning construction. Simon asked how do they do that without opposable thumbs?

At lunch we had done 36 km which left us another 3 hours of paddling to reach our planned campsite.  We slowed to get some pictures of pelicans and I was lucky to a great action shot as they took off.

All day the scenery was beautiful, Eucalpts and high banks all the way. We had the river to ourselves as the only people we saw were 2 maintenance workers standing on a water pump beside the river.

Late in the afternoon we paddled past a couple of great beach campsites. The last one opposite Meilman Station was too good to pass by so we pulled in. The beach was great and we enjoyed a couple of swims before dinner. Pity Simon drowned his watch - I went swimming with my glasses on fortunately I managed to hang on to them. As it happens neither has a working watch now.

With dinner we had a couple of beers that Simon had cooled in the river by putting them in a mesh bag tied to some rope. They were not cold but were cool enough to enjoy with our 3 course meal, Shapes, Pasta & Tuna and Mars Bar.