Before I launch into description of all the incredible happenings from the past 14 days, I feel compelled to offer an explanation - as well as a sincere apology - to any amongst our readership who feel they may have been misled or deceived by certain statements contained within The Sauce [Volume 1]...
In the previous edition, I promised that this blog would contain all "the juice that can be squeezed out of two-months sleeping next to Ian Bacon in a poorly ventilated two-man tent"
With great regret I am unhappy to announce that Ian and I are now slumbering separately.
Serious disagreements over the culinary merit of Warnie's "Delicious New Legend Chicken Burger" led to very real tension around camp (we also realised we had spare space in our boats for second tent)
Rest assured, I'll be able to switch this camera to night-mode and hopefully find a chance to creep over and capture as much footage of Ian sleeping as possible.
But let's get down to business.
On Friday, December 10th stage 2 of our 2,500km journey began at Tom Groggin where each of the tributaries of the Upper Murray River converge into the infamous 'Murray Gates' - a series of highly technical whitewater rapids surging out from the Australian Alps
To put this into perspective : we'd heard many stories of whitewater kayakers having to pick up their boats and carry them down the upper Murray due to low water levels in recent years
At the end of the day, we were so lucky to simply have the chance to get ourselves onto the whitewater (huge shout out to Andrew Pearson!) and to survive when the Murray was in flood is even better.
Also. Big thank you again to the omnipresent Steve Boyd for providing the extra ballast needed to properly weigh down our raft
The Swift Water (below Biggara)
The next day we were finally ready to launch our amazing Epic Kayaks below Biggara for the duration of our journey to the Murray Mouth.
Although we were super-happy to have made it in one piece down the whitewater, we still had to contend with 'swift water' : a current racing downstream at over 10km an hour. Whilst this was great news for keeping to our schedule (and meant we could sit back and watch the amazing countryside roll by) we had to be especially careful to keep away from 'strainers' (willows or other trees that strain kayakers in the current like Cameron Whipp's special spaghetti recipe)
As we meandered the 300km down to Albury, we came across some stunning countryside. Incredible hills and flooded landscapes where the river had burst its banks in the flood. After two days we came to the 'backlog' of Lake Hume (eliminating all of our current downstream)
On Wednesday the 15th, Ian and I paddled the final stretch of river below Hume Dam into Albury. We've had a really warm reception in this extremely friendly border town
With great cause comes great responsibility. The media whirlwind surrounding AYAC has kept Cameron Whipp on his TOES. Dancing pixie-toed fervently from reporter to cameraman with the grace of a Russian ballerina handling phone calls and text messages like a P.A to a celeb, Cameron has augmented the obtuse and sometimes deciduous role of Support crew coordinator with aplomb.
Help AYAC, help beat cancer
