Merry Christmas to everyone from myself, Ian and the whole AYAC Team!
And welcome back to the Sauce.
Day 18 [Monday, December 20] : Albury-Wodonga to Howlong (70km)
Despite the fact it was a chilly 9 degrees and raining, we were farewelled from Albury on Monday morning by Rowan Privett and Jo Murphy (from the unreal Mitta Mitta Canoe Club).
Ro is a living Murray River legend and it was awesome to finally meet him in person after almost a year of phone conversations about the trip. Ro kayaked the old girl back in 2005 and has been a massive help in getting us onto the water.
We set off at around 8:30am in pretty terrible conditions and had to paddle into the wind for most of the day.
But wait! It wasn't all bad on Monday... Ian caught his first fish on the Murray River. An enthused young fisherman, Ian had previously vowed to "never fish again" if he was unable to catch something in 2 months on the Murray. I maintain that this doesn't count...
For the rest of the day we paddled a solid 70 km downstream to Howlong. As the afternoon wore on, we caught a glimpse of sunshine and started to hope that the bad weather that had haunted us (and hampered a few of our fundraising plans in Albury) was beginning to pass.
That night we bumped into the stupendously good looking AYAC Support Team in Howlong for a quick beer at the pub and an insightful tour of Max's Woodcarving Museum! Check out the earlier posts from the "laconically verbose" Ryan Cropp for all the juicy details of their time in this iconic border town.
Day 19 [Tuesday, December 21] : Howlong to Corowa (just past) (60km)
Next stop on the trip was Corowa.
We slept in through our alarm (again) and worked hard to paddle the 50km to Corowa in time for a meeting with 12-year old cancer sufferer Riley.
For me, this was an inspirational encounter and one I won't be forgetting anytime soon. Riley and his Mum filled us in on all the challenges and seemingly insurmountable obstacles that they have overcome in their fight against Riley's leukaemia. Whilst Corowa and many of the towns along the Murray are beautiful places to live, they lack convenient access to many of the treatment options more readily available to people living in major centres.
It was such a privilege to spend the afternoon with this great young guy (who kept all the support team entertained with his antics on the BBQ) and personally, our meeting together really summed up what this trip is all about. By paddling the Murray Ian and I are hoping to inspire all young people living with cancer to never give up in the face of adversity and if possible, to leave them with a lasting message of cancer survivorship
After a long day, Ian and I were ready to switch off and call it quits despite not making our required distance for the day. But hearing of Riley's resilience and confidence made a pretty big impact upon us both - and so we grit our teeth and paddled on until around 8:30pm. An absolutely brilliant day on the river!
Day 20 [Wednesday, December 22] : 10km past Corowa to Yarrawonga (90km)
Mosquitos. Everywhere.
The major consequence of the recent flooding rains has been the creation of huge pools of stagnant water lining the banks as the river has dropped back closer to its regular levels. Getting out of the tent of a morning has become an insane ritual of diving out the door to avoid the 400 or so mossies that have clustered around the zip overnight.
The river banks are extremely slippery too. Pulling up for our half an hour lunch break has become a pretty dangerous exercise and I've fallen victim to the muddy banks more than a few times this week. There's nothing worse than getting mud in your undies at 9 o'clock in the morning... particularly when you're not even wearing undies!
Our goal for today was to reach Yarrawonga on the far shore of Lake Mulwala. This was no small task as we had to paddle almost 90km to make it there.
For the first time since leaving Albury, the sun and the Summer's heat were out in full force as we paddled around bend after bend into the late-afternoon.
Today, the scenery began to change again too. The river had started to widen again (as it did before reaching Lake Hume) and this brought us into contact with the first few speed boats and jetskis we've seen so far. There was also a noticeable increase in the number of trees fallen into the river as a result of the banks softening under the wet weather.
"Just 2026 kilometres to go"
Around 7 hours later, we paddled around one last bend and caught first sight of the eerily beautiful Lake Mulwala. As Ian put it : "I have never seen anything like this in my entire life". And he was right.
Just like Lake Hume, Lake Mulwala is man-made. It was created by the Murray River Authority decades ago to better regulate the amount of flow downstream for irrigators and transportation. The sacrifice was the flooding of an entire forest beneath its waters and today a graveyard of rivergums remain as evidence of this flooded environment.
Totally wrecked, we pulled into Yarrawonga around 6pm and were warmly welcomed by the Lake Mulwala Canoe Club who put on a barbecue for us and raised some awareness for our cause through the Yarrawonga Chronicle. Huge thank you to Tim and Helen from the club for all their support!
Day 21 [Thursday, December 23] : Yarrawonga to Cobram (70km)
This is how I felt when I woke up this morning.
Yesterday was a killer and the last thing we wanted to do was to get up at the crack of dawn to go kayaking... especially back in the direction we had just come from!
However, the opportunity for Cam and Luke to film Ian and I paddling across Lake Mulwala from an Ultralight aircraft was too much to resist. The guys captured some incredible footage from high above and we'll make sure that it appears in our next post!
Once that was taken care of, the guys in the AYAC Landcruiser dropped our kayaks in the water beneath the Yarrawonga bridge and we set off again for another incredible day on the water.
The photos speak for themselves here. Spectacular sights.
Ian and I have taken the day off to enjoy Christmas Eve with the Support Team but rest assured we'll be back on the water at 8am tomorrow for a full Christmas Day's worth of paddling into Barmera State Forest.
If you like this blog then jump onto www.ayac.com.au and help us raise money for Lifehouse at RPA (The Chris O'Brien Cancer Centre). Thanks for your support!
Chris
