Day 9 - Marker 1022 to Marker 958

Last night we decided to get an earlier start in order to get ahead of the heat hence at 5.30 am we were both already packing up. By 6.40 we were breakfasted, packed and launched.

As always early morning is a special time to paddle. Early on we saw an eagle with a fish on sandbar. It flew off carrying the fish as we approached. We saw emus and kangaroos on the banks and as always lots of different birds.

We made good progress - 16 km after 2 hours and we were approaching Tarpaulin Cutting where the map shows the river doing a loop with the cutting as a shortcut. Both entrances to the loop are now blocked so it really a billabong now but it saved us 8 km on paper.

Our 1st stop was to be Colignan however before we got there past a slipway for paddlesteamers.

The bloke working there was about to drag a steamer up the slipway and there were a couple rusting hulls there. They were massive.

He also told us there was nothing at Colignan and that we could access Nangiloc from the near side of the bend. Turns out he was wrong - maybe he was correct if we were in different boats but there was nowhere for us to put in where he said.

Not long after as we rounded a bend near a sandbar we saw an eagle swooping a duck family trying get a snack of recent hatching. The parent ducks were defending valiantly. It was an amazing sight. We are so privileged.

At lunch we discovered that my chair had vanished. My cargo net was loose and most likely I accidentally sent the chair overboard when I grabbed the binoculars to read a sign. We rang Tony to give him a laugh as I had chair and he didn’t when we crossed the Nullarbor this year.

Eventually we arrived at Nangiloc. We has to walk a kilometre to the shop but it was worth it as we got coke and ice cream and sausages to cook for dinner. After we relaunched and paddled another 4 km to a beautiful beach where we set up on the sand.

Hard to beat such a beautiful campsite. As we sat down to after dinner, Simon mentioned it would have been good to have a fishing rod just to sit by the river and relax. When we tell people about these beaches we stay on I don’t think they understand but these 2 pictures give a good idea. We could happily stay here for a couple of days.