Friday 13 August 2021; 5km paddling
Yesterday had been a fairly exciting day, what with Ted’s phone conversations with various parliamentarians about the state of the nation, rescuing a nanny goat, and a wild boar swimming across the river in front of us, compared to the normal leisurely river activities. Unfortunately our GoPro camera failed to function properly and we had to resort to using the front-mounted Sony camera to record tyesterday’s activities. The nature of the waterproof case meant an extremely poor sound quality for the recording.
Today was a short paddle to our car shuttle destination of Rose Isle Station. We had decided to stay at the Farm Stays along the river rather than the small towns to get a different feel for what life was like for the people that lived on the river.
When we arrived we found out that there had been a Covid-19 case in Bourke and that the shire was in Covid 19 lockdown. At this stage it was just the Bourke Shire and not the whole of NSW. Samantha, the owner at Rose Isle was uncertain about us staying, as she had been turning away other arrivals, even if they had reservations. Since our car was already there, Samantha agreed that we had already checked in and allowed us to stay in the shearer’s quarters at $40 a day each. The quarters were a further 500m downstream from where we had landed at the caravan park, so Ted used the double-bladed paddle for the first time to navigate the to the take-out point.
Packing up camp day 12 
The canoe is moored at Rose Isle Station for 17 days
We drove to Bourke to pick up Ted’s car and boat that Dean had been minding at the Bourke Riverside Hotel. On the way there, the dirt road corrugations caused one of the bolts on the VW roof bars to fall out, causing one of the roof bars to partially come off. Fortunately, we noticed it before it had totally come off and could remove it, ready for repairs when we got back to Rose Isle Station.
In Bourke we got supplies from both supermarkets (not much choice as panic buying had set in), the grog shop (which cost almost as much as the food), and fuel for the VW. Since we had been in Bourke at the same time as the person who returned a positive Covid-19 result, we both had Covid-19 tests undertaken, and spoke to police about our option to move to Louth, 63km further downstream. Their view was that although they couldn’t officially endorse it, they didn’t think we were a threat, given we we were unlikely to meet anyone on the river.
We then drove the 70km back to the shearers’ accommodation at Rose Isle Station to sit out the Bourke Shire lockdown.
