Day 12 - Home

Got home about 12.30 after spending the nigh on the river near Cobram 

We pulled into Cobram before dark after a long days drive. We dropped the tinnie off at Bill's friend at East Cobram, Bill will tow the boat home for me as he has to head up that way soon. Geoff headed home from here and, trailer in tow I headed home also.

Camping on the River at Cobram

Once I got home I started unpacking the raft. It's not to difficult to unload by yourself, gravity is on your side.

By mid afternoon the ute was unloaded, the deck blocked up for another year and the drums painted in sump oil and stowed away under cover. 

Thank you for following along, if you want to see a web site dedicated to our previous trips  click here or go to:

http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/144595/20140605-1406/home.vicnet.net.au/_ourboat/index.html

This web site has been preserved for future generations by the Australian National Library Achieve

Unloading the Raft at Home

The Deck. One day Floating on the River, the Next a Deck for the Grand kids to Play on. 

Day 11

We took off early to go collect the cars. Jerry dropped Geoff at Barham then dropped me off at my car. From here he headed for home and got home that day.

Geoff and I were back at Woodwood by lunch time and had the raft all packed up by 3pm and on the road by 3.30pm. We drove upriver to Cobram and camped for the night.

The Decks Off

Decks Loaded onto the Ute

Day 10

We did about three and a half hours on the water finishing at Woodwood. We have again set up at the local caravan park and tomorrow Geoff and I will hitch a ride with Jerry and go pick up the cars.

Geoffs car with the trailer attached is at Barham while mine car and boat trailer is at Leichville. It will take a few hours to pick them up and get back here to Woodwood. Once Jerry has dropped us off he will head home directly.

On our return to Woodwood Geoff will dismantle the raft and load it up onto the ute. I expect once loaded we will head up river and if time permits drop the boat off at East Cobram at Bills friends place. This is where we started from on our first trip. Bill is coming up and will bring the tinnie home for me. I will hitch on the trailer and head home, Geoff will head home trailer less.

We will spend our last night on the river before heading home. Irrespective of how far we get we will camp on the river.

This afternoon has been very hot and windy so we have been sitting under a shady tree.  I have spent a bit of time down at the raft slowly packing, slowly removing and undoing things. I have packed the tinnie best I can. This should make tomorrows dismantling easier and quicker.

The Raft at the end of it's Journey. Woodwood.

Day 9

We got away from Swan Hill just after 9am. We did some shopping and fueled up, said goodbye to our old mate from Dodgys Ferry started the little engine and headed downstream.
The river was very wide and not very interesting along the way but the sun was shining and it was very calm.
We came to a point in the river just before. Speewa where the river forked into the main river and an ana branch. We chose the ana branch as it was shorter. As it turned .out it was the right choice and we had no trouble getting through.
We had arranged 3 possible meeting points for Jerry to pick from and he set up just past Beverford down Forest rd.
We got to camp just after 3pm. The camp was good, plenty of wood, a good bank but a large number of Cockatoos. They controlled our life. We couldn't get to sleep and like an alarm clock had us up before dawn the next day.

At night we had some thunder and lightning to our north and south so we packed what we needed to away. As it turned out we missed the rain altogether. 

Next stop is Tooleybuc.

The white dots are cockatoos

Day 8 Sunday

The rope and pully system was easy enough to use but we did only a short 27km into Swan Hill. We spent a night in the caravan park to wash the body under a long shower and have a meal in town (at the RSL).

We chatted with a camper and his son who were camping next door who was from Tasmania (Dodgys Ferry) and are travelling around. They came out to dinner with us.
I thinkJerry is starting to miss the creature comforts a bit but now has his camper attached to a power cord and water hose. We are using a jug not a fire. No smoke for a change.

Back to the none grassed banks tonight.

At the Big 4 Caravan Park  at Swan Hill

Plugged into Everything

Raft Sleeping under the Willows

Day 7 Sat 13 Dec

We had a good nights sleep and breakfast.
Geoff and Jerry took of  just after 8. I drove into Murrabit and went to the local football come camp ground. Here I filled Jerry's  camper van with water, dumped the rubbish and had a nice long hot shower.  Nice.
I headed into Karang, shopped for food and fuel then onto Lake Boga. To kill some time I went to the Catalina Museum brother John told me about. It was worth seeing. 

I headed down to the river to the arranged camp spot and  waited for the raft to arrive.
I managed to get them on the radio and got the news t8hat a gear in the steering had failed and the electric steering had to be disconnected. This made it much more difficult to operate.
They did the last hour and a half sitting on the deck steering.
We had a look at what we could do to set up a mechanical system to use. I also sent a SMS to Bill to see he had a spare gear (the electric steerling is made from a garage door opener) and he did. We tried to figure out a way to get it to us but it's simply to hard.  We will be doing by hand from here on.
We will find out how hard it is to use tomorrow.
We had a nice tea and went to bed. 

Only 27km to Swan Hill from here.

Morning on the River

Underway

Day 6

We are underway with Barham abeam. Geoff and I are on the raft and Jerry is on the road. We have a lot of our stuff with us on the raft and I guess we will find out what we need that we haven't got when we set up tonight. 

Tonight

The river split  into two along the way, the little Murray and the Murray, This reduced the flow and narrowed the river. In the course of the day we hit a total of 6 stumps or trees, 3 of these were hard hits but did no damage. 

The weather was ideal and the river bank have become lower the further we get away from Torumbarry weir. We have set up camp just below the bridge near Murrabit. We decided to have dinner on the raft tonight and have a fire going on the bank close to the raft.

We have been pestered by flys today but as the sun sets they are going away. We plan tomorrow for Jerry to have a day on the raft and I will drive his car and camper to the next camp. It will be if all goes to plan in from Lake Boga.

Tonights dinner is pork spare ribs again as Jerry realy enjoyed them the other night, cabbage and bacon and a spud in the fire. We are waiting for the coals to build before we start cooking.

Day 5

Beryl pick brother John at up from camp and headed home about 9am. Before this John and I took the tinnie up to Batham for a look see.  I took a photo with John at breakfast - one for the furneral folder.

Ronnie 2 also headed home so we are now back to three. Today we are having a RDO and repacking. We4 will see if we car store Geoffs car and the trailer here, load up the raft with the bare essentials and take off tomorrow. Jerry will meet us down river tomorrow nights camp.

We will travel like this until Bill comes back.

(Sorry if I make a few typos as I am doing this all on the phone)

Day 4

Yesterday Geoff, Ronnie2 and John spent the day on the raft and did about 46kms without any problems. Jerry and I set up camp just short of Barham. They got into camp about 4.30. They stopped for lunch along the way for a short time.
Jerry has had a problem with a broken cable on his camper making it difficult to set up. We have propped it up with a stick and will keep doing it till he gets it fixed at home.
We had a good dinner (pork spare rib over the coals)  a few beers, a lot of talk and a good nights sleep

Day Three

We did 38 river kms starting from around 8.30am. We got into the camp Jerry and Geoff set up about 2pm. Myself and my brother John were on the raft all day. We hade forgoten to take some lunch with us but had plenty of tea and coffee. After a beer at camp we all had a wash off the rear deck of the raft  and sat around relaxing until dinner time.
Our camp site is in from Cohuna.
Today we have only seen one camp site along the way and one small houseboat, that is all. This part of the river has been very quiet compaired to our first day. The banks were step along the river but we did see one great sandy bank on the NSW side where people had been camping.
It was a top spot.
A friend from my running group (Ronnie2) is coming up frm Melbourne to spend a day with us so I am staying up to make sure he can find the place. I expect him here by about 11pm.

Update. He got lost and got to camp about midnight

 

Day One

We took our cars and stored them first thing. Bill and I took off around 9am. We had a good run but because it's the weekend there are a lot of people camping along the river and a lot of boats. We found a quiet location so decided to stop early as below the lock at Torrumbarry Geoff reported there was a lot of campers.

Day 2 on the River

We spent last night just above the Lock at Torrabarry. It rained most of the night but it was not heavy but made everthing damp. We did about 28km today finishing about 2pm. A small part vibrated off the outboard carburettor and we had to refit once at camp. We took the motor of the raft in case the part fell overboard.

I drove Bill back to his car and he took off for home.

Tomorrow evening my brother John will be joining us for a few days but tomorrow there are three of us with the raft and 2 cars. We might have to do a car shuffle to get further down the river.

Ronnie from my running group (the hash house harriers) is coming up wednesday for the night. It will be good to have him stay with us.

2014 Rafting Trip Preparation

Friday Dec 5 is the start date and we are packing ready to leave. We are meeting at Torrumbarry at the boat ramp in Bail rd. This is where we got to on our first trip in 2011.

To see photos from this trip go into the Australian National Library site where our website has been archived.

The CraftyRafty Website

Today I have been cleaning the oil off the drums that I coat them with over winter.

I have cleaning the front and back decks too.

The ute is packed and ready to go