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the quest of the Murray..... |
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| View Point Paul - 13th August |
The Adventure Begins A couple of months
ago, a strange idea come into our (he means his - ed.) mind, why not
put our bodies through 5 days of hell and at the some time raise money
for the red cross. Suddenly participating in the Murray River Marathon
became more than a passing fantasy and became a mission. The first thing
we had to do was secure some kayaks for his adventure. This proved a
bit difficult than first thought as during the delivery process our
kayaks were all destroyed in a car accident on the way from the factory.
This delayed our first "real kayak" test for a number of weeks,
but in the meantime, a training program lad been devised to build up
our upper body & core strength or in Jasmine's words to make us
looked ripped! Boy has she got her work cut out for me. The kayaks eventually
arrived and July & the Sunday training sessions have begun on the
Pine River. |
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| View Point David - 20th August |
This
is my first entry in the Murray Chronicles. Why would I sign up for
this? A 404 km paddle down the Murray River in the middle of summer. A story to tell my kids, a challenge to prove myself to me, nothing better to do with the time, a chance to spend time with friends exploring Australia, helping a charity that I might otherwise not be able to support, the Red Cross. I don’t really know, probably a mix of all those things, but I am in and there is no turning back. We have another 4 months to prepare our bodies and souls.. The thing I look forward to will be the time training. We will be so good at loading and unloading kayaks on Jasmine's car, we could run a diploma course in kayak loading. On Sunday 13th August, we were a small crew. Sickness, work and fences had reduced us to 4. All too soon we were in the water, and the plan was to paddle upstream at Redcliffe for an hour and then return. It was a beautiful day, not a cloud to be seen. We paddled with an intent that misrepresented our competence. The power of enthusiasm should never be underestimated. Slowly there was a bridge, a bridge too far. It seemed like it never got any closer. Phew, eventually we made it, we passed it, the bridge is a memory, for now at least. The hour has passed, 180 degree turn and that stinking bridge again. As we got closer, there was the sight of a tinny tracking at 0.5 km/H.Q.. they have pensioners out here too I thought. Then much to our surprise, a dolphin, only about 10 meters away. The kids in the boat (all ages) were enjoying this chance to watch an animal at one with the water. Which reminds me, I too have gathered a reputation as being one with the water. It may have appeared that what actually happened was I fell in, but that would not convey the deep inner yearning I had developed to seek aqua oneness! Yep I fell in, but when was the last time you fell out of a kayak at Redcliffe. The adventure has begun. |
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View Point David - 2 September |
It
has been six weeks since my last confession, my last Murray River confession.
(20th August) After some team discussion, it seems there may be some real concerns for a few of us.. Jasmine has declared a limit on what we take.. including hair products. Jasmine you don’t think this unkempt look just happens through neglect do you. It takes time, and it takes product…Watch this page, could be some dummy spitting going on about this.. Oh yes, we also have to paddle 404 kms as well, forgot that bit.. The team has grown, not in waist size, but numerically. We now have 10 paddlers and some additional support crew. Welcome to the new team members Mari, Scott and Mark. Scott and I paddled together a few weeks ago, but I have not had the opportunity to paddle with Mari or Mark yet, look forward to showing them my whole seeking oneness with the water ritual. Did I mention 12 weeks, I got me some practice and exercise to do.. The event starts on December 27th at Yarrawonga, and finishes on 31st Dec at Swan Hill. The team has a trip down and back as well. And we wont be staying in luxury hotels. I used to think camping meant slow room service, but there will be a whole new world of underwear rotating and rash itch to combat. For those who may be interested, here are some sites with information on the Murray. It is a river system under extreme pressure.. http://www.murrayriver.com.au/homepage.htm http://www.murrayriverrescue.com.au/ The reason for all this to support the Red Cross; read about the event here http://www.redcross.org.au/vic/murraymarathon.htm We will be seeking your support in the near future to raise funds, and will be having an event later in October.. |
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View Point David - 8 October |
8:30,
the loading begins.. by the time I got there were 2 kayaks were loaded,
1 to go.. That’s called good timing. The pairs for today were Paul / Stew, Mari / David, Belinda / Irene.. You heard it here, Irene was up the creek, WITH a paddle. We paddled from the Bridge at Brighton Park (UBD map 100 M8) up the Pine River to Murrumba Downs, and then back. This is about 16 or 17kms. The wind was against us as we reached the bridge at the Bruce Highway. We all knew that meant that very soon when we did our 180deg turn, the wind would be with us.. We were wrong.. Does the wind have sensors that find people in need of rest and change direction to add to their distress? Mari and I were first back, because of good management, not because we turned early. We all paddled well today, and I think we all found muscles to hurt we had forgotten about. There were lots of Jellyfish about this day. I thought the first one I saw was a plastic bag, then there were dozens. I got angry at everyone throwing out so much rubbish. Once I had my reality check and realised they were jellyfish, I had a real back to nature moment. Stewart was worried he might pick one up In his paddle and drop it on his head. I so wish that had happened, it would have make a great campfire story for years. Irene was playing with the jellyfish as she paddled. At the end of the day I said how poisonous they were and got a good reaction.. And she is the teacher and thus knows everything about everything. When we got to Alpha 1, the base camp, (that’s your place Jasmine) we made sure we did a thorough clean up. Its funny how dirty a kayak gets in the water. I hit my head about 3 times on the latch on the garage door. You would think that I would figure out I was taller than the door quicker than that.. As Jasmine would say, thanks heavens it was only my head, if I had hit my toe I could’ve done brain damage. There are 11 weeks to go… |
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| View Point
David - 25th Nov |
We
are so close, I find it hard to believe that 1 month is Christmas Day,
and we will be traveling to the start.... I have still have some concerns
about the whole camping thing, and coffee !! Will there be coffee. It's
a given that each day should start with at least a caramel soy latte!!
There are serious life issues to be considered here. Again, a serious life issue is the reason why I am joining this adventure. Personally I had an major health scare in 2005, and I am no longer able to support the Red Crossby giving blood. This is a good way I can help..By the way, the word "kayak" is a palindrome - a word spelled the same forward and backward. Now lets have a lesson, a kayak is a small human-powered boat. It is propelled by a double-bladed paddle by a sitting paddler (that's us). The kayak was originally developed by native Aleut and Inuit hunters in sub-arctic regions of North America and Greenland. Modern kayaks come in a wide variety of designs and materials for specialized purposes. Modern paddlers also comes in a wide variety of designs, please see our gallery to review the various designs we are using this year. I know that my design is based on a old model, but it has got me this far, so I am confident it will make it to the finish line.With a kayak the cockpit is covered by a spray skirt, preventing the entry of waterfrom waves or spray. Waves on the Murray seems like a fantasy at the moment. So far this year there has been less than 10% of the usual 1100 gigalitres of water get to the Murray-Darling system.We have been practicing paddling for 4 months now, however it may be our portage skills that we use more regularly if the rains don't come. At the moment the kayaks are being serviced, unsure if the oil gets changed. Thank you to everyone that has supported us, we appreciate it. |
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View Point
Stewart - 25th Nov |
MURRAY
RIVER CRONICLES - by Stewart aka the machine Well what can I say about
our training for the Murray River kayak race, well I do know that it is
the kayak race to end all kayak races, so our training that we do has
to be as much like the race as possible. So our training once a week for
2 hours is as close as we are going to get, but in that time of training
we have en counted all kinds of different whether conditions and a few
different kinds of animal as well. This one time at band camp (just kidding). This one Sunday we went out, it was a couple of days after a storm so we weren’t sure what it would be like but we went anyway. When we arrived at the Pine River it didn’t look too bad, a bit windy, couple of clouds, bit choppy, yeah we can deal with this. On this day there was David, Marie, Mark (first time) and Stewart. We put the kayaks in the water, this is when we thought, it’s a bit roughy than we thought. We even had a bit of trouble just getting into the kayaks. Once we were in or we thought we were in we started to head out, just as Mark and myself were getting going we heard a shout from behind, we turned around and David and Marie had capsized. They had gone side on to a wave breaking and it had rolled them, luckily before we started I had given everyone a run down on how to get out if you do go over. The only loss was Davids $300 sunglasses. So we tried again, and this time we aimed the kayaks for the middle of the river and paddled out there as fast as we could to where it was a bit calmer. We made our way up the river without any problem it was coming back out of the river that was a challenge. It was like we were not going anywhere and as we got closer to the month the swell just kept getting bigger. The bow of the kayak would slice through the wave then crash down. And we were drenched from the sea spray. We had to just about go right up to the Hornybrook Bridge before we turned around so we could ride the waves back in to shore. The hairy part was turning around it 2 metre swells and staying upright. We accomplished this and made for the shore as fast as we could. We were all relieved to set foot on tera firma again. So after our near death experience we had to load the kayaks up on to the car and take them home and wash them (the most annoying part of the whole exercise) but since the water rescrictions have come into place it is getting harder and harder to clean them propalary, so this time I had the great idea of taking them to the car wash and cleaning them while still on the car and while at it we can give the car a clean at the same time. This was a fantastic idea and it worked perfectly except that no matter how great a cleaning job you do you can still not get rid of all the sand. After we took the kayaks off back at Jasmines place, sand just seemed to fall out of all kinds of places on the kayak and from the car. But other than that we did a pretty good job. There were a couple of times that we were going kayaking and we only had 3 or 5 people which are uneven numbers because we have 2 people to a kayak, so we roped Irene to join us (she is Jasmine’s mum) she was a bit hesitant at first because she wasn’t sure if she would be able to cope, but we put her at ease by telling her she would have no problem at all, and you know what she enjoyed every minute of it. We now have only about 4 weeks before the start of the Murray River Marathon and we will have to see if everyone lasts the distance. It’s going to be hot amd maybe not much water so we also might have to carry the kayaks at some point but we have already had practice at that because sometimes when we get to the Pine River the tide is along way out and we have to pick the kayaks up and carry them across the sand banks. But that is all part of the adventure. So think off us when you are all sitting around having your xmas turkey and stuffing your faces full of yummy food. |
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26 Dec 2006 - Boxing Day THE EVENT HAS FINALLY ARRIVED! |
Murray
River Chronicles – We have just left the home of our gracious an
kind hostess, Jane Parer in Holbrook. This was our base for Christmas
Day. The journey started on Saturday morning at Jasmine’s. It was an 8am start, approximately. Excitement was at fever pitch. The bliss of not really knowing what was ahead, 2 days on the road. Jasmine did her best to teach us the consequences of entering a trailer that wasn’t attached to car, it tips over; valuable lesson, she’s always thinking. We packed the kayaks, loaded the trailer, and just at the right time, the afternoon shift arrived. We are making the trip in two 4WD vehicles. Jasmine’s car (who’s name is Trinity) was loaded with the trailer 3 kayaks and 4 people. Amazingly it is stable able to approach light speed when on the road. Paul’s car was the second team, there was much discussion about which car was the Ateam. Hey, we are one team, in 2 cars. Its just that Jasmines car is the A car and they are the B car. Guess which car I am in? We decided that we would proceed in convoy formation. Simple concept, of course every thing is open to interpretation. What was the B team doing going to Toowoomba? |
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| My
Murray River Chronicles These are my personal reflections... .... DAVID WICKS |
IThe Paperback Version - UNCUT!.......... |
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