Days 1 and 2

 By far the vast majority of the boats were kayaks, but this one stood out somewhat for stylishness. Apparently an ex-AIS boat, and likewise apparently used in the 2000 Olympics - although I find it hard to believe it was used for racing in 2000, it's an 18 kg (light for timber, OK, but heavy for racing) monster in a world of carbon fibre - it glows with the kind of inner light that highly polished timber and excellent marine varnish can provide. It was also pretty quick - it's a racing kayak by design and temperament. It attracted a lot of favourable comments - no matter how attuned to technology, people still appreciate the traditional crafts. Liz' boat also attracted attention for its combination of traditional shape, combined with advanced materials (kevlar).

This photo was taken in the marshalling area for the day 1 half-marathon start. You can see the boats are on stools to avoid damage from the tree detritus on the ground. We'll be doing that next time too.

 This is Checkpoint C for Day 1, a place called Thompsons Beach near Cobram, billed as the largest inland beach in the Southern hemisphere - well, maybe so. It's a pleasant enough spot, but I feel I should point out that the river here is 50 metres wide and about 1 metre deep - children were walking from one bank to the other without getting their hair wet. It's not an awe-inspiring place; not quite the mental picture I have of mighty rivers (obviously not the river's fault). Same place below, but different angle - it makes quite a startling difference

 On the right is the Day 2 start - pretty much the last of the beach-y venues. This place, like TB above, is actually genuinely sandy rather than primarily mud/dust and you can see the campers in the background.

I took the below picture for the four layers - but now I can't think of that much to say about it.

You can see a couple of the significant differences between a racing kayak and  Canadian canoe in this picture. It's not surprising the kayak is faster, but OTOH, if you were making a living out of what you could carry in your boat downstream, it's pretty clear which one you'd choose. The racing kayaks are also really tippy; I saw one guy all out just because he found himself halfway into an eddy. The canoe starts of being pretty tippy, but then the secondary curve (hard to see here) aka the tumblehome kicks in to stabilise it. All good for a hunting boat, again, but in general narrow bottom equals fast