Murray River Trip

Imagine driving along a very picturesque highway bordered on each side by very extensive State forests (each in a different State) whilst relaxing on a sundeck on the top of your car with a cup of coffee in your hand and travelling at around 6Km/hour so you can take in the scenery and the wildlife (without provoking the temper of other motorists) on a very smooth surface which moves calmly in your direction to reduce your fuel consumption. The forest is dominated by massive, old  River Red Gums that are punctuated by a variety of other vegetation types including irrigated farmlands. Every now and again you stop for an impromptu skinny dip or towards sunset you stand on a small deck in the setting sun and have a delightful hot shower. Then at the end of each day (there are nine in total!) you pick a nice quiet spot to pull up on the verge and relax with  a glass or two of wine whilst you prepare a wonderful dinner chosen from the variety of fresh food carried in the frig/freezer on board. The nine days sees you covering a total of 300Km and you arrive totally relaxed!

If you think this is impossible I can assure you that my partner, Polly and I have done it in what we regard as the ultimate off-road vehicle.......”PLONK”! The difference is that our highway was in fact The Murray River......the section we chose for this voyage was from Echuca to Swan Hill which took in The Torrumbarry Weir and Gunbower Island wetlands. “Plonk” is the product of two circuits around Australia in a 13ft, pop-top caravan when we realized that we were missing many very special bits by not being able to take to the water. So nine ears ago I converted the ageing caravan by cutting it from its chassis and marrying it to a very rugged punt which was built to a very tight tolerance and substituting a sun-deck for the pop-top. The result has proved to be fantastic! By adding a tandem axle boat trailer we now have the best of both worlds. By keeping the unit relatively compact we are able to get off onto bush tracks etc., in fact with care we can venture anywhere our trusty old “Troupie” will go.

The start of this trip saw us suffering cold, wet weather through the Blue Mountains area and with a forecast for continuing rain we were afraid that weather on The Murray may not be any better than when I travelled The Hawkesbury River last year. However by the time we arrived at Echuca a couple of days later we were delighted to see a clear sky and lots of sun. We called at the shops and bought our perishable items (we couldn’t carry fruit etc from N.S.W.) and after launching “Plonk” we began loading our heavy items including the outboard motor, fuel (22litres), water (100litres) and our trusty “Cobb Cooker”. As we weren’t able to take our troupie and trailer to secure storage until next morning, we proceeded upstream past the historic wharf and a number of paddle-wheel steamers and as we drew close to a couple of very large house-boats which had folk on board I had them join in as we sang “Happy Birthday” to my “first mate” Polly, and we cracked a bottle of very cold Champagne........nice timing!

Next morning I secured the car and trailer and then discovered that good friends were visiting Echuca and about to head out on a paddle-wheeler cruise for an hour, so we were given a very special send-off for the first leg of our journey. This section of the Murray down to “Torrumbarry Weir” is fairly wide and although there are many snags along close to the banks, these were clearly marked as there was a water ski race about to take place at Easter. In fact the only problem we incurred at this stage was with a type of ski boat called a wake boat! These are deliberately designed  to generate a huge wash for the benefit of the person following on a wake-board but to the detriment of all other water users. This wash is also extremely destructive to the banks of the river........why are they allowed????? Although the wash is not likely to capsize “Plonk” (although it could possibly capsize a canoe etc.) it was very annoying and we had to take special action to secure items when they passed. They often came much too close and this seemed to give them great delight. As a result I lost my walking sandals overboard at one stage........an item you can’t replace along the way!

At Torrumbarry Weir we were required to negotiate a lock in which we dropped 5.5 metres. This lock was huge and “Plonk” looked like a toy. It is truly to the credit of the operator  that he went out of his way to make this a special experience, even ensuring that Polly could  come ashore to take photos. We were able to top up our fuel at this point which was nearly one-third of our way to Swan Hill. Once past the weir the river became much narrower and so flowed somewhat faster (I estimate on average about 2Km/hr), and contained a lot of snags, as the authorities will not permit any fallen trees etc to be removed from the water. Consequently we often had to dodge between snags and also be cautious of obstructions underwater. We have a draft of only 200mm and a beam of about 2 metres so we were able to avoid most of these, but I would not like to put a larger craft through here, particularly as we were often committed to go through with a chosen course due to the little rapids which flowed through the narrower sections. Stopping or turning around were not available options!

Every 2Km along the N.S.W. Bank of the river were markers indicating the distance from the river mouth. These were invaluable, together with a compass, in allowing us to follow the charts (which we obtained before leaving home). We push “Plonk” with a 5hp Tohatsu  4-stroke outboard motor with a high-thrust propeller (more power, less speed) and with the aid of a small skeg which I had welded to the bow of the punt, we had good control at all times. We used about 30litres of fuel for the entire journey. Obtaining potable water is a big issue, but as we could use river water for many purposes we managed to get through on about 100 litres. Hot showers were provided by dropping the immersion pump of our “Hot Water On Demand” into the river. This unit uses a small gas cylinder and is excellent.........nothing better than a nice hot shower, even though the river was warm enough for frequent swims along the way.

Polly loves good food and after our trip around Australia has become very adept at preparing fantastic meals in our rather small galley. We also used The Cobb Cooker to do a beautiful roast dinner which was made unforgettable due to the use of smoke created with twigs and bark from the River Red Gums.....superb! We have on board a 47 litre frig/freezer which is solar powered via a 100 amp/hour deep cycle battery. Lights, radio and TV/DVD are run separately via a 65 amp/hour battery. Apart from a problem with a faulty plug this system worked very well once again. I must point out that we enjoyed excellent weather throughout the trip....lots of sun for the solar systems.

Along the way we visited the historic town of Koondrook where they still have a timber mill. This is adjacent to Gunbower Island, (Australia’s largest inland island), which features wonderful wetlands. Unfortunately we soon discovered that it was “duck shooting season” so we didn’t hang around there. We towed our inflatable kayak much of the way and were going to go for a paddle here but due to the duck shooters thought better of it!

We had an anxious moment on day three when our 10Kg “Bruce” anchor became badly snagged and despite trying every trick I know to retrieve it, we had just about  given up when finally it came free!!!!! Although we carry another smaller “Danforth”, it would have made life a lot more tricky along the way. One disappointing issue was that we did not see as much wildlife along the way as we anticipated. Even the birdlife was not as prolific as we expected, but still very wonderful.

We look forward to a future visits to investigate other sections of “The Mighty Murray River”.