Continuing on downstream. The boats, tho' large, cumbersome and heavily laden were easier to paddle that I'd imagined.
Another traffic jam
Beautiful water, fantastic scenery
The birthday girl, just slipping down a rapid, easy as!
From memory, Wednesday's paddle comprised mainly of long beautiful pools, each ending in an easy straightforward little rapid.
We wouldn't be the CKC if we didn't raft up for a chat and relax occasionally
.
About 1.40pm we stopped for lunch. In no time at all Christian had laid out a selection of cold meat, salad items, cheese and dips with which to make our own wraps, followed by sliced fresh fruit.
While lunch was being prepared S cooled off with a swim
Just over an hour later we were back on the water, leisurely paddling onward
Around 3.30pm we came across one of the few flat grassy river banks that haven't been destroyed by brumbies and it was universally agreed that it was too good a camping site to pass by. We lolled around in the shade whilst Richard and Christian set up camp - postponing the erection of our tents until it cooled down.
In between nibblies and dinner Richard took L, V&S for a short walk up the hill behind our camp to to look for signs of Aboriginal habitation. Walking around and through a flatish section above the original flood line Richard quickly found 6 coolamon (sp?) trees, 3 canoe trees, 2 really well defined campsites and stone artifacts galore including imported stones. Richard explained that contrary to the rather barren wilderness we found ourselves in nowadays, before the intervention of white men there was at least a foot more topsoil and yams and other edible foods grew in abundance and the river had teemed with fish and wildfowl. (We only spotted one fish and one eel in our 4 days on the river, tho' we did see lots of bass fingerlings that have been released into the river in an effort towards restoring the Snowy to ecological health now that some flow has been guaranteed.)
Talk about rooms with a view
Evening light over the river
Again, Christian produced another huge and satisfying dinner and our talk ranged from Aboriginal history, through the problem of the brumbies and other feral animals to politics, finally ending with some Aboriginal stories relating to the stars we could see shining brightly in the sky above us.
I had another special moment when I got up for a pee in wee small hours. The air was crisp, the moon was overhead and lit up the river, camp and surrounding hills. With the gentle burbling of the river nearly drowning out the sound of snoring emanating from the other tent it was truly a magic time.
End of day Two
distance paddled: approx 8.54km
4hrs 20mins
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