After the Torrumbarry weir, we did not see another water ski boat roar down the river for the rest of the trip. The water below the weir is too low and there are not very many sand bars. The campsites we found in this section were wonderful.

We saw people fishing and camping but not nearly as often as before. Unfortunately, the weather turned colder and wet. We had hardly used the fly at all in Australia but for 3 nites and two days it rained a good deal. What should have been the nicest part of the river was completey overcast and a bit chilly.

One day it rained from the time we got up until late afternoon with only a few short stops. We had a hard time figuring out what to do for lunch. By 2:30 the rain kept coming. Not a hard rain but one of those steady rains that mother nature paced so it could go on and on. Finally I decided to just stop and have lunch in the rain.

The banks were very high here. We pulled over at a spot that had a road cut diagonally down the slope. I tried to get out. I thought I had a foot solidly on the ground but as soon as I put my weight on it, I slipped. The next thing I knew, I was swimming out from under the canoe in my rain coat. I almost capsized us on my way down. The bank was just too muddy and slippery for walking. We paddled on to a similar but better looking place. This time I managed to get on land okay and we got out everything we needed to make sandwiches. Carefully I made it up the slope in my bare feet.

Joan had more trouble. She slipped over and over again in her Tevas. Finally, about half way up the diagonal, she "gave in to the mud." She felt down on her back wildly flapping her arms. Letting gravity take her to the edge of the road and she fell down the steep bank about 6 feet into the water. Her Gortex North Face raincoat was a bit useless when swimming. In fact, less than useless. She said she felt like the Pilsbury Do-boy with the entire coat full of water.

At that moment, Joan was ready to get off the river.

The next day we reached the town of Barham, New South Wales. K-post 1524. That was the end of the Murray river trip - 676km or about 420 miles down river.from where we started.

The Barham campground is right on the river. We got a site just 50 yards from the boat ramp. Now we had one big problem. How do we sell the canoe and the coolers and waterproof barrels?

Barham is a small town, about 1000 people and 2 blocks of shops. We made signs: "For Sale Canoe. Includes ..." We gave our mobile phone number then put the signs up all over town - the take-away, the camping store, the information center, and the bakery. We also got some donuts at the bakery. The baker said his son was keen on canoeing but no more. He said he would put the sign up.

At the end of the day, we felt like we still had almost no chance of selling the boat in any reasonable amount of time. We discussed other options. The local paper wouldn't be out for several days. Perhaps we could rent a car one way to Melbourne and sell it there. The signs seemed like a real shot in the dark in the small town of Barham.

The next day we went to the bakery again for coffee and donuts. This time the baker wasn't as busy and he came out to talk to us. He say down at the next table. Asked us all about our trip. Then he said, "You don't have any wheels?"

"No," I said. "But we're thinking about renting a car."

"Do you have a driver's license?' Then he mumbled something we didn't here. "Are you going to be here for 5 minutes?"

"We've got all week."

He disappeared behind the counter. When he came back he said, "I couldn't find me ute, you'll have to borrow me car."

He drove us back to his house in his 1975 Ford Fairlane. Cleaned it up a bit and gave us the keys. I was shocked. He didn't even know our names yet. Last night he was broken into for the first time in 30 years. Now he lends complete strangers his car.

"When do you want it back?" Joan asked.

"If you never bring it back, I won't be out much." He said. We decided it was time to introduce ourselves. His name is Jim Green, the baker of Barham. He further explained that he hitchhiked all over Australia and several other countries 30 years ago and like to give back a little of the help he got.

The car drove very much like my 1978 Ford LTD, the Prarie Schooner. We put the canoe on and took it to the town of Kerang in Victoria. There we found a newspaper publisher that prints all the small town newspapers nearby. For $7 we placed an add in the Cohma Farmer's Weekly. We photocopied our sign and put them up in many places. We made sandwiches in the Safeway parking lot then drove on about 40 minutes to Swan Hill.

The country is incredibly flat here. We watched storms off in the distance. The wind blew like crazy. We drove threw a short intense storm.

After walking around Swan Hill and asking around, we found a boat store. The guy looked carefully at it and finally offered $400 for the canoe alone. He was not interested in the coolers or barrels. We were ready to take it just to solve our problem, even though we were asking $550.

But it occured to Joan that Jim, the baker, might buy the boat for that much. So we called him on the mobile phone. It was the first time we used the phone for voice communication. Jim said immediately that he would buy it for $400. Then Joan offered $375 for some reason. He gave us $400 in the end.

One glitch occurred. When we tried to start the Ford Fairlane to leave Swan Hill, it was dead. I had left the lights on after driving through the storm. Fortunately the people parked next to us gave us a jump. Funny thing though. After we attached the cables, Joan tried several times to start it but it still wouldn't go. Then I tried and it started right up.

After that, we were a little afraid to stop again on the way back. When went directly to Barham. Jim met us with his apprentice Brandon at his house and we unloaded the boat and stuff into his garage. We wanted to take Jim out for a beer, but he doesn't drink, so he took us out for coffee and apple pie and ice cream, since we are yanks.

We had a great evening talking to him. He showed us the 100 year old oven in the back. His bakery used to supply bread to the river boats on the river. He still used the wood burning monstrosity his first 2 years. Now he has been there for 30 years. He's gone through a couple more generations of ovens to the most modern one only a couple years old. He showed us lots of other very old and very new equipment. One old peice he showed us does nothing more than take a piece of dough and make it into two even sized peices. He says every bakery used to have to have one for some reason, even though they didn't use it.

He's planning to expand enormously and become more of a cafe. He makes trips to the city to "pinch ideas." Soon he'll have an automatic donut machine and make his own waffle cones.

next: We get to Sydney via taxi, hitchhiking, and train

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