October cycle tour map

October cycle tour map

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Saturday, May 16, 2015

Day 10 1534km to 1524km

 Saturday 16 May = 1534km - 1524km = 10km
Total distance = 188km

Well we made it to Barham nice and early.  Since we did a few extra kilometers yesterday I managed to convince Neil that we don't have to get up early so we can make the most of the day and get to the caravan park early.
so we left our normal time of 9am and it was a sunny and very still day - no wind what so ever.  We reckon that our normal paddling is around 6km per hour and the flow of the river is around 1.5km per hour so we can do around 8km per hour on a day where wind is not a factor - we have found this over the past 2 days.
Plenty of lovely house as we got closer to Barham and we say this lovely paddle steamer house boat parked outside someones house!
 Opposite Barham on the Victorian side is Koondrook and that is where the Gunbower river comes out to join the Murray river - the Gunbower river is the river that runs parallel with the Murray to create that massive island - Gunbower Island that we have camped on the last 3 nights!  This is the outlet where it joins the Murray - and as you can see there is no flow what so ever coming from this river!
 just around the corner is the Arbuthnot red gum saw mill ...
 and the unprocessed red gums ...
 it is a lovely smell as you pass this saw mill, not that Neil noticed anything as he was making a beeline for Barham, or maybe a shower, or maybe a shop that sells real food ...
 this small paddle house boat passed us and created one hell of a wake that we had to ride over!
 here is Neil parking the kayak on the beach at the campground ...
 and here is our rubbish over the past 10 days that I have been carrying ...
we had 9 wrap bags of rubbish.  The wraps come in snap lock bags so we used them to reseal our rubbish and I stored them in the kayak along with the tent poles.  We could have just left our rubbish at our camp spots like some people to but I am rather an anti litterer person and so I chose to carry the rubbish!
So once we portaged the kayaks to our campsite - about 30m or so we set up the tent, sorted out all our dirty clothes - which was nearly every piece of clothing we have and along with our bedding we washed them in an actual washing machine!  Then we had our showers - Neil was first and then me.  Lets just say I had to borrow a chainsaw to shave my legs - it was like an old growth forest on each leg!
Oh and the luxury to have such soft clean hair ... oh la la!
So clean we were, next we had lunch - yes crackers, processed cheese and a jam wrap.  Then Neil went to get some food and came back an said we will have roast chicken for dinner - mmmmmmmmmmmmm!
So after all the skype sessions and just resting and waiting for 5 o'clock for dinner which we couldn't make so we ate at 4.30pm!  Now we have been eating wraps which I like and thought that when we get back to Bayswater that we would cut back on bread and eat wraps for lunch (still have toast for brekky) but once we sat down and had dinner with a loaf of bread and margarine ... well it wasn't a pretty sight at all!  Jeeeesssssh I polished of 6 slices of bread with margarine and I had to stop myself from finishing of the rest of the loaf!  I did have some chicken but oh the bread! well so much for cutting back on bread - I love it too much to substitute it when I don't have to!
Tomorrow we will clean the kayaks - well that is an easy job for me as mine is cleaned each day whereas Neils is just plain filthy and he can do his and I will just sun myself in the sun!  As well as look at the supermarkets as to what sort of food we can get for the next 110km to Swan Hill.  We are here until Tuesday.

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