Day 5: Murrumbidgee River from Gundagai 99-155km

Saturday 25 September 2021; 56km paddling from Gundagai to Wantabadgery

The two old Teds spent Thursday afternoon and Friday in Gundagai restocking for the next stage, cleaning clothes, having great coffee at The Coffee Pedaler, and fabulous meals and quiet ales at the Gundagai Family Hotel. Friday also required the 160km there and back car shuffle to drop the van off at the Big4 Caravan Park in Wagga Wagga.

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The challenge Saturday morning was where to launch the canoe. Where we had landed the canoe directly outside the cabin at the Gundagai River Camping & Caravan Park was too steep. This left either the downstream end of the park, near the old railway bridge, or the upstream end near the old road bridge. We opted for the latter, as it was closer and had less Willow trees to deal with. We headed off, then circled back to shore again so I could retrieve the GPS from a packed bag. Finally we were floating under the old railway bridge and then NSW’s third longest bridge, Sheahan Bridge and the Hume Highway.

Shortly afterwards we passed what looked like the remains of an old road bridge, although there was no evidence of a road there, or any infrastructure on the northern side of the river. Perhaps it was an old paddle steamer wharf.

Both before and after lunch the swiftly flowing river and numerous submerged logs ensured that we needed to be far more aware than we had been while floating down the Barwon-Darling Rivers. Fortunately we had learnt our lesson on the Tumut River and avoided all the dangers. Both Teds kept their PFDs on anyway.

The Murrumbidgee River banks were regularly changing. Where the river cut through hilly ridges the banks exposed the underlying rocks. Where flatter, the green farmland and farm animals were visible, with occasional sandy beaches. On one corner we encountered high red-soil banks. The trees were river red gums and other Eucalyptus trees, Casuarinas and, to Ted’s disgust, the ubiquitous Wattle. Much of our conversation hinged around the pros and cons of establishing a government funded Wattle eradication program.

Farm houses, some of them more appropriately labelled ‘farm mansions’ were regularly passed, with a huge one as we approached Wantabadgery having a superb outlook over the river. Others were closer to fishing shacks, with one showing the results of some recent sambar deer hunting.

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We passed Limekilns Reserve, the recommended first night campsite shortly after lunch. This was way too early to be setting up camp so we decided to push on until later in the afternoon. We kept an eye out for campsites, but although fishing campsites were previously common, we saw no more.

Wantabadgery Recreation Reserve (also called Sandy Beach Reserve) was the place we would have liked to stop. We knew this had easy boat access, public toilets and tables with shelters. However, it was a Saturday night and when we got there it was chock-a-block with 4WDs, caravans and campers. We probably could have squeezed in somewhere, but spending the night in the middle of noisy humanity didn’t appeal.

There was a flat site at the end of the reserve, but the bank was steep and muddy. Unloading our gear would almost certainly have resulted in one of us slipping in the mud. Nor was there any firewood available. So we continued downstream, investigating sites on the way.

Finally after 8 hours of paddling and 1.5 hours of looking for campsites, a beach complete with cows looked appealing. It was a little exposed, but around the next bend was a lovely grove of trees. At slightly higher water levels this would have been an island, with the beach with cows the bed of a branch of the Murrumbidgee River.

We were both very exhausted, but happy to get our tents up, the fire going (with plenty of driftwood available) dinner (green chicken curry) on, and a rum and ginger beer Lazy Bear by the fire.

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