Day 4 Moorook to Lock 3 23 km

Joe was up early to a 10 km run. Starting in the dark he ran down the road for 5 km before turning back. At one point he ran past an animal shelter that had lots of dogs barking. Always a worry when running in unfamiliar territory that you might get confronted by a dog, the volume of dogs barking was a bit unnerving.

Back at camp we packed before heading into the general store for bad coffee and toasties. The plan was to do a short 16 km to Kingston On Murray and then push on late in the day another to 8 to 10 km. It was 38 degrees so even on the water it was hot.

We stopped at Cobdogla and went looking for a shop – there was none but we were able to get a coke at the caravan park. We spotted the sign on the river pointing to an entrance through some willows but we missed the entrance and landed near a big irrigation pump. We quickly saw our mistake as there was a nice marina just 30 metres away as we walked passed the willows.

The marina  - Bruny Bay, Cobdogla

Back on the water we got to Kingston On Murray in time for lunch. The shopkeeper at Moorook had bagged the shopkeeper at Kingston On Murray saying she only opened when she felt like it. Turns out the lady running the shop was pretty much running the busy shop by herself and made us really good burgers with the lot. There is much else happening in Kingston On Murray.

We retired to the shade for afternoon but stayed too long. When we finally got going we had a leisurely paddle for 4 km only to “discover” Lock 3 in our way. We were too late to go through and despite our reconnaissance we could not portage around the Lock.

We spotted a potential campsite on the other side of the river and hopped back in the kayaks and paddled over. There was lots of fallen tree debris and the ground was a bit rough but otherwise it was a great spot. 

Joe’s tent on the road opposite Lock 3

Joe set up his tent on the gravel road that ran down to the Lock. He wasn’t worried about a truck running over his tent as there was a large tree branch across the road so it was obvious there was very little traffic on this road. This was confirmed the next morning on his early morning run when he ran into a very large secure gate blocking the road. We were camping in the Banrock Station Feral Animal Exclusion Zone. Fortunately Simon was able to go undetected.