Presentation by the Inland Rivers National Marathon Register

The last act of this journey was to record our journey in the Inland Rivers National Marathon Register. I had been trying to contact the coordinator for the register but had not been getting any response. It turned out that my email had gone to junk mail and my voicemail hadn't been heard. Finally I was able to make contact through their Facebook page administrator.

Frank Tuckwell, the Team Leader for Goolwa National Trust who maintains the register rang me while we were paddling down the Lower Murray to Goolwa. We arranged to meet at the wharf the next day for the presentation of the certificates. Getting recognition of our journey was not high on our agenda however it was nice that other people think what we have done is worthwhile.

The register records the journeys down the river of all sorts of watercraft and may not be comprehensive. You have to apply to have your journey registered so it is likely there are some who make the trip but do not register.

We frequently encounter people who say they know someone who have traveled the Murray in a "tinnie" but we haven't actually seen anyone doing that. When we have been on the river we have seen very few people except fishermen. For this reason I suspect the register is probably close to the mark in capturing accurate numbers. I am really only interested in the kayak paddlers.

According to the certificates we received we are the 11th & 12th people to complete the trip from the top of the river to Goolwa in 2019. For the record Simon is the 11th meaning he beat me over the line which is actually correct as he passed under the Hindmarsh Island Bridge ahead of me. There were 22 people complete the journey in 2018. There were 3 other kayak paddlers we know of on the river behind us when we finished.

There is a sense of achievement in being part of such a small group who completed the journey under their own power.