Day 4: Barwon River 99-122km, Darling River 122-139km

Thursday 5 August 2021; 41km paddling

Half a bottle of whisky each doesn’t help with an early start, but we managed to still get on the river before 10am, after a breakfast of bacon and eggs. In spite of our late starts, lunch breaks, and starting to look for campsites around 3 o’clock, we still usually managed to paddle over 35km a day. Just paddling down the river gazing at all the large red gums and the contorted roots exposed in the eroded banks after the May floods was a joy. The apparent triple junction caused by the flooding at the Bogan and Barwon rivers confluence was a bit confusing, but following the main flow kept us on the Barwon River proper.

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We reached the junction with the Culgoa River and stopped for a lunch of wraps, hummus, salad and salami. From the confluence of the Barwon and Culgoa rivers the Barwon is referred to as the Darling River, although there is no noticeable difference in the river surroundings. Normally the Culgoa is dry, but based on previous canoeists photos of the dry river bed, the depth of the water in the Culgoa where we stopped was about 5m. This was most likely all backed up water from the Darling rather than any flow from the Culgoa itself.

There were lots of goats, including a large herd close to us on the river bank but an attempt to capture them on video before they bolted failed due to user (me) error. Did manage to get photos of a goat standing on hind legs eating a bush. Ted saw an Australian Hobby (a type of falcon) catching a duck and landing on a log to eat it. Initially he thought it a Peregrine Falcon, but photos of it indicate a chestnut coloured chest rather than the barred chest of the Peregrine. Further downstream swarms of Welcome Swallows were flying out of their mud nests hanging underneath a large log.

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Birds were Welcome swallows, Heron, Darter, Australian Hobby, along with the regular ducks, pelicans and kites.

Ted in the stern was responsible for steering and had finally worked out that following the current line rather than cutting corners improved our speed, which is averaging about 7-8kmh. Straight sections with headwinds required extra paddling effort and some challenges for Ted to keep the canoe heading in the right direction. I just kept paddling, changing sides when told to by the boss at the back.

For the first time we managed to find a campsite on the right hand (north) side of the river. Dinner was a great beef korma curry and rice (I keep telling Ted it doesn’t matter that the packet says ‘chicken korma’, you can add any meat: as long as you add meat).

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