Day 4 Cordola Campground to Castles Landing

Day 4 Cordola Campground to Castles Landing 32

It was still moonlight night.  It would have been possible to paddle the kayaks on the river in the light. Later when the moon had set the stars were all around. A lovely night!

The bird chorus started early just before 1st light. We continue to operate on Melbourne time. We were up and packing at 6:00 am. Coffee and muesli before setting off. Despite the lack of wind we could not get faster than 6 kph. There is virtually no current.

The magic moment for today was seeing an Australasian Darter with a noisy hungry chick in its nest above the river. Unfortunately my camera battery was flat. We drifted past and got a good look. Well spotted Simon! This was on the edge of the Roinka Conservation Reserve.

Earlier I spotted a kingfisher flashing past and landing on a branch. The bird life on this trip has been magnificent. There have been plenty of whistling kites, darters, cormorants and galahs. There have also been parrots although the species has not been clear. We saw swallows nests on the cliffs we past yesterday.

And there are pelicans all along the river but particularly at the Locks. We passed through Lock 1 at Blanchetown after lunch from the General Store. There was a reception committee of pelicans on the other side of the Lock waiting for a feed. The Lock keeper said they were feeding on tiny Brim.

At lunch we researched and found there was a private campsite "Castles Landing" 7 km downstream of Lock 1. It was starting to get hot when we arrived at the camp ground. We walked around and found a site that didn't have rotting carp and settled for the afternoon.

The Map Whisperer