Thursday 12 August 2021; 34k paddling
Another fantastic day on the river. There was early excitement when we saw a goat stuck in the river below a steep bank, with whistling kites circling. It was a nanny goat that was stuck in the mud, with a partially still-born kid. While I kept the canoe steady and not floating away downstream (i.e., did very little), Ted took the painter rope off the canoe, which I attached to the goats horns, then he used ‘truckee hitches’ to winch it up the bank, removed the dead kid, and placed the nanny in the sun to warm up from the cold of the river. No idea if it survived, but it certainly wouldn’t have without our intervention.
We briefly had mobile coverage and Ted’s phone rang. It was a parliamentary colleague seeking advice on how to deal with some rogue party members. Mid-conversation Ted yelled “Got to go it’s an emergency!” hung up, and yelled “Quick Ted paddle hard”. I had no idea what was going on until I saw that what I thought was a log, was actually a wild boar swimming across the river in front of us, and Ted wanted to get close enough to shoot it (with camera of course!). In spite of our furious paddling, well probably mostly mine as Ted was also trying to get his equipment ready, the pig made it to the bank and got away safely. Ted rang his colleague back and explained what had happened. She clearly knew Ted well, saying “Yeah I figured it was something like that.” Of course the front camera was turned off and I was too busy paddling to turn it on, and ted was too busy to turn the GoPro on. So we missed getting on film(?) the wild boar swimming. One wonders what induced it to make the crossing, given the river was 100+ metres wide.
Shortly later the river character changed as the banks went from their usual grey to the vivid red typical of Australian deserts, past a homestead appropriately named “Red Bank”. The Welcome Swallows were busily making or fixing their mud nests above what they hoped (can swallows hope?) would be above the next flood level.
We had intended to camp at what the Kings party had labelled “Isle of Kings Campsite”. However, whatever good camping was meant to be there was now under water and we were faced with either marshy areas or steep banks. We continued on and found an accessible area in a backwater opposite. The area had been previously inundated but the hot dry weather we were experiencing meant that the mud had dried out, just leaving the mud crack patterns.
Hanging in there 
Final campsite before Rose Isle Station
