Monday 30 August 2021; 41km paddling
After 17 days in lockdown at Rose Isle Station, we were finally back in the canoe. We started the day with our morning talk to camera, followed by a paddle past the Go-Pro set up on shore. Unfortunately the chip in the GoPro failed and the footage was lost. It was great to be back on the river again, although the water level had dropped about 10cm from the peak of a few days ago.
We had been warned about the dangers of ‘Weir 28’, but with the ongoing high water levels and our experience with the weirs further upstream, suggested it would not be a problem. Similar to the previous weirs, it was difficult to locate, apart from some engineering works on the river banks and slightly more turbulent water as we passed over it. We were grateful that we hadn’t had to portage around any of the weirs on the river. Shortly after leaving Rose Isle Station, on the left bank was a very large and very new house on the neighbouring property ‘Clover Creek’, possibly ‘carbon farming’ at work. There were the usual variety of birds, including a flock of Emus, tribes of goats and flocks of sheep. We passed three or four sounders of pigs, whereas it had been unusual to see a single sounder or boar previously.
At lunch, both Teds independently decided to record their location and managed to film each other playing the fool. Ted of course was excited by the number of pigs we had seen, a large wasp, and his Bundaberg Lazy Bear.
The young ducks trying to get away from the canoe by diving and then resurfacing just in front of the canoe kept us amused, along with the antics of parent ducks trying to lead us away from their ducklings, or trying to round up their offspring as we sent them diving in all directions.
We camped in a backwater with a lone pelican, a flock of sheep and a mob of 4 kangaroos that came down to feed at dusk. The roos were cautious about us but didn’t immediately bolt, so gave us an opportunity to watch them grazing while enjoying our dinner and wine. While admiring the river and selecting a tent site I managed to stand on a giant nest of meat ants that crawled up my legs and attacked me ferociously. They had me dancing all around the campsite in an attempt to get them out of my pants, much to Ted’s amusement.
Emus 
Kangaroo and joey
Great Egret 
Red-tailed Black Cockatoos
Whistling Kite 
Welcome Swallows
A fantastic sunset made for the perfect end to our first day back on the river.
