For the past two years we have taken kayaking trips for Ross’s birthday – partly as it is the first time that weather is good for it and partly as a kind of commemoration of the first of his birthdays that we spent together paddling around Vancouver back in 2003. This year we took an overnight trip on the River Murray.
The Murray is 2,575 kilometres long, beginning in the Australian Alps, draining the western side of Australia’s highest mountains and, for most of its length, meandering across the inland plains, forming the border between New South Wales and Victoria as it flows to the northwest, before turning south for its final 500 kilometres. The river has been in the news often in the last few months as it is sick; dying in fact, from lack of flow. There is water in some parts but others have been dry so long that they lack the organisms required to keep a river healthy. Upstream, too much is taken out (for agriculture mostly) and close to the mouth the pitiful remainder provides Adelaide with drinking water. None of it reaches the ocean. More info on the plight of the river can be found here. It is strange to float on a wide, flowing river knowing that none will flow out to the ocean.
Still, the banks are beautiful and we had a gorgeous time. We took a bike in the car with us and used it to shuffle the car to our endpoint, returing to pick up the bike on the way home. Over the two days we travelled about 20km, using print-offs from Google Maps Sattelite Images to tell how far we had come (!!)