Wentworth at Last

Well who would have believed it. 1,500 hundred odd kilometres of discovery has so far brought forth myriad adventures and challenges and I have finally reached Wentworth - the confluence of the Darling and Murray Rivers. I am writing this scarcely believing that I have indeed travelled from where the Barwon River turns into the Darling. The last leg - from Pooncarie to Wentworth was a kicker.


I guess I could have really guessed. The second last leg - from Menindee to Pooncarie was far more challenging than any other section. I guess I was just hopeful that I would find that the final leg would be a beautiful, easy finale to my journey down the Darling River. No luck there damn it.


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Within 5 minutes of heading out of Pooncarie I was forced to put my paddle down and hop out of the kayak to drag it over sand bars. The sand bars were quickly joined by some challenging trees which spanned the river. My first hour was slow but then the river opened up and let me pick my way carefully downstream.

"Ripper", I thought. "Hopefully it won't get any worse".

Hah!

A week or so into the leg from Menindee I made a comment in my journal about new weeds which were beginning to encroach upon the river. I thought that they looked like bad news and hoped that they wouldn't span the river, for if they did I could see it might be a nightmare to continue. Well guess what.

After a couple of days paddling a came across a virtual sea of the dreaded reed. A good couple of hundred metres of the stuff. It took me a good couple of hours to get through it all. Well - close to an hour of very hard work anyway. And that was a taste of things to come.

I couldn't tell you the number of times I had to hop out of the kayak to beat down the reeds and drag my kayak through them. I felt like Humphrey Bogart on the African Queen. At times I was waist deep in water - which was pretty darn cold I must say and beating my way threw. Still, in the end I managed to get through and once I was within a hundred kilometres or so of the Murray River the condition changed totally. The water became deep, houses became more common (sometimes I'd see two or three an hour!) and the obstacles became non existent. This was because the Murray river backs up the Darling for miles. I ws pretty relieved I must say. Of course it did feel like suburbia after the remote rigours with which I had been faced.


Dad and Anna joined me at a station called Sturts Billabong for a night or two, and Anna joined me for the final two days paddle into Wentworth, which gave her a real taste for the river and meant that I had somebody helping paddle (which meant I didn't have to paddle so hard).

Tomorrow I head off from Wentworth. Down a new river. A river where the waters of the Darling mix with those of the Murray. A river where house boats are common, the waters are broad and fast boats make their way from one town to another. A far cry from the river of little water, no people (let alone boats on the water) for days or weeks and remoteness unparalleled with towns a novelty rather than a regular occurrence. as such I am treating this river somewhat differently. No need to stock up on supplies for weeks on end. No need to ensure that I am self sufficient for weeks on end either.

The first leg from here - Wentworth to Renmark, is the longest leg on the Murray for me (about 250k's or so) and I am joined by a few people as I do it. Darryl Brander, a property owner whom I met on the Darling River will be joining me for the next couple of days and when he goes Dad will be staying the night before David Wanless, Marcel and Tim Larby will join me at a place called Neds Corner and paddle with me down an Anabranch and into - or close to - Renmark...


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