Thursday 8 March 2018 Snowy River - Willis Campground to McKillops Bridge Part 3

Early morning mist rising from the river

Here we are, at 7.30am, slightly less bright eyed and bushy tailed watching and waiting for the billy to boil.

Richard and Christian tie down the last of the gear as we think about launching.

We are underway at 11.00am, a slight improvement on yesterday

A quick pit stop. I forgot to mention that we also had a stop for morning tea each day with a variety of muesli bars, nut bars and fresh fruit on offer

 The beginning of another CKC raft up!

I think this was the biggest highest rapid encountered on our entire trip. With Christian taking up position at the top of the rapid and Richard halfway down to bounce off, we all made it safely down. Although I think it was on this one that I forced Richard to go for a swim while he kept me high and dry.

At 1.20pm we stopped for lunch

And today both V&S decide to cool off before lunch

After lunch we wove our way through a rock garden

A heavily laden Christian makes paddling look easy as he seeks a way over the shallows. I think that is the Suggan Buggan River valley coming in from the left right in the distance, approx 1km from our lunch stop.  Richard and Christian pulled in at the confluence and walked a short way up the Suggan Buggan to replenish our water supplies whilst we lazed in our boats.

Through a beautiful pebble bedded section after the confluence.

Looking back upstream. If you stopped paddling in the pools the boats would slowly do a 306o

S in the middle of a 360o

 About 4.45pm we pulled in for the night, approx 5km downstream of the Suggan Buggan confluence. Once some much needed lolling around was completed,  L and I moved our boats and pitched our tent right where he is standing.

After a huge BBQ dinner and lots more talk we made our way to bed. Not long before dispersing for the night the three girls caught sight of a most unusual shooting star thingie. It was low on the horizon and huge, extremely bright with a greenish haloed short tail. Of course the blokes thought we were seeing things.

This time I went to bed prepared - and took my chair - and sure enough when I got up at 2.00am the moon was once more shining brightly upon the valley and the river and I sat in the chair for some time and took in the beauty of the night, eventually being driven back to my cosy bed by the chill in the air.

End of Day 3
Distance paddled 11.8km
5hrs 30 mins