Murray 2012 - Getting there & Day 1

The race started on the 27th December, but we left on Christmas Day because we could combine Christmas lunch with Liz' sister and mother (and nieces and brother-in-law) in Queanbeyan with an easy 2 stage drive to Cobram, which was the location of the campsite for the first 2 nights, and also the site of the scrutineering. The easy 2 stage drive allows for a less stressful trip, and it's not like life is so busy that  we can't enjoy the luxury of travelling slowly. Plus, with my tendonitis, sitting, and particularly driving, for more than about 45 minutes is agony, so even with sharing the driving multiple changeovers figured to make the trip pretty slow.

We usually stop in Gundagai on these trips, so I booked the usual place. Well, I thought I'd booked the usual place until we arrived and there was no record of the booking. I waved the confirmation email - only to discover, mid-wave, that it was the 2009 confirmation email. At least I noticed it micro-seconds before it had to be pointed out to me. And, fortunately, they had a room. Plus, even more fortunately, I managed to  work out where my booking was and cancel it without a penalty fee. That, I think, is the spirit of the 21st century techno-Christmas. That storm went straight on to
Sydney where it took care of watering our garden for us, and refilled the fish pond.

I don't think this is the main street, but we didn't really have time to explore the whole town. About three shops down from this sign is a shop that is completely demolished with the sole exception of its window, frontage and door, so that as you walk towards it you reach a point where there's a sudden transition from shop to nothing - because as soon as you are opposite the glass it ceases to make any impression at all. The idea of the shop completely vanishes from the mind - it's quite startling. A picture doesn't capture the effect of the transition.

Something bad must have happened on the Hume, because all the traffic was being detoured through Wagga down to Albury (that's one hell of a detour). We decided that having got as far as Wagga it would be quicker to drive cross-country to Cobram, via places I'd never heard of, such as Lochart, and Urana. And Nyora and Berrigan. This picture was taken somewhere near one of them. Lockhart (I think) has a sculptor, because there's nearly as much public art there as in the whole of Sydney, and Lockhart is too small to have a sign telling you what its population is. (I don't know how small that makes it, but as a guide, I did see one place with a Pop. 243). Liz is actually vaguely familiar with this region, as a result of a stint in Tumut for 2 years immediately post graduation, at which time Wagga was the home of Tumut's pizza shop. She knows things like the fact that The Rock - we missed it - has the most fiercely competitive sporting teams of the region. Roads, she says, have been built specially to The Rock, just to make sporting access easier*.
 This is the camping ground at Cobram, and more particularly, this is (some of) the boats lined up for scrutineering. You may notice that Liz' boat - the central yellow beast - is the only Canadian canoe amidst a sea of kayaks. This is because kayaks travel roughly twice as fast as canoes for an equivalent amount of labour, which makes them popular with the "functional" classes. People with aesthetic sensibilities, though, prefer canoes. Over the course of the 5 days, many people sympathised with Liz' excellent taste. But it was certainly a great way to make friends. You can get a

 good idea of the difference between city and country from the scrutineering. At the Hawkesbury, scrutineering takes about 20-30 minutes per boat - for safety reasons. At Cobram, we needed to attach the race number, and one suggestion from the scrutineers was that we drill holes in the flotation tank and attach it there. Fortunately, an alternative was found. Scrutineering takes 30 seconds. Is it a boat? Does it have a number? Are you a paddling lifeform? OK, thanks, get that number sorted out before tomorrow.

(The little Suzuki 4WD in the background is ours)

 Liz was doing the half-marathon, in point of fact, and the start was typically at Checkpoint B, the first one of which you can see here. People are generally camping at these places in a general recreational way, so we're a bit invasive. It could be said that we provide much needed excitement, but not all the campers see it that way. While the canoes are on the river, their motor boats can't be, and there's a degree of passive hostility around most places. Mind you, we, the racers, are a tad self-righteous, so maybe we provoke some of it.

That "sand" BTW, is actually clay. 10 minutes of rain turns it into the kind of mud that prefigured cement in building the pyramids. Otherwise it's dust.

This is Liz boat - the Lizt - set up for the race. The wire basket contains a Garmin for GPS (for post-race analysis, it's quite hard to get lost**), a waterproof loudspeaker to help fight off boredom with music, and a tennis ball attached to a rope for throwing to rescuers if required.  Under the seat another wire basket contains food, and there's emergency water fore and aft the seat. The life jacket contains the main 2-litre supply of water and Gatorade. Attached to the crossbar (thwart?) is the emergency bag and (out of sight) a bailer. That's it. All you need to paddle 100 kilometers (a full stage on Days 1 and 2)





* This is not likely to be true, no matter how competitive they are in The Rock
** Although someone did