As usual, the sun baked us out of the tent early in the morning along the banks of Lake Mulwala. The sky was crystal clear blue.

We set our chairs next to an odd shaped hay bale and started eating our cereal. We heard some rustling behind us. I looked back over a slight rise and saw the heads of a few sheep. Then I heard a rustling to the left and to the right. More sheep stood and stared at us. The braver ones approached tentatively. Gradually they moved in on us. It was just like a Hitchcock film called "The Sheep".

We were eating our breakfast right next to theirs. The sheep got only so close then they just stood and stared. Finally the older sheep turned around an walked off. I felt bad for disturbing them but we left soon after.

I hardly believed it but we had a tail wind in the morning. It was very quiet, not a ski boat anywhere. We saw lots of huge pelicans. Everything seemed perfect. Such a change from the miserable afternoon before.

Still things got better. We had not seen a k-post since 2016 the previous day. We had no idea how far we had gone against that wind. Finally we spotted a sign and started betting on what number it would be. I thought 2005, Joan thought 2010. It was 1996! We were thrilled. Yarrawonga was at 1987. We were there in an hour.

To get around the dam we got help from a retired farmer named Basil. He volunteered at the information center. We put the stuff in the back of his ute (small pick-up) and balanced the canoe, upright, on the cab. We used no ropes. I sat in the back and held the canoe while Basil drove at about 5 mph to the boat ramp below the dam. Probably less than 1 mile total.

We went back to town for some supplies. We ended up pushing an IGA shopping cart down the town streets to the boat ramp. We even crossed railroad tracks with the cart.

After we loaded the canoe, Joan took the cart back and I stayed with the boat. I started talking to a couple fisherman in a flat bottom boat with a canvas cover, Graham and Ian. They gave me a lot of good information. They were quite sympathetic with us regarding the ski boats. We talked for quite a while, I really liked them. Before they left, I told them we'd give them a beer if we saw them again.

The next day, we did meet them again. They were heading back upstream but when we pulled next to them they turn off their engine and we talked for a long time while drifting. They ended up giving us beers. They even gave me a "Stubbie Holder" (Can hugger). We discussed Aussie slang like: -Swag: once just a piece of canvas that one slept on/under. Now a one man tent/sleeping bag/Mattree -Bluey: a swag -Hump your bluey: once a migrant worker on the road with his swag looking for work. -Blue: nickname for red head.

We also discussed the Aussie flag. Americans often wonder why they keep the union jack in the corner. Graham and Ian say they'd rather there was no union jack in the flag, but they feel proud when they see the flag. They wouldn't want it to change without something really good to replace it.

It had been nice talking to them. Even with all the people on the river, we had conversations with almost none. Before they left, they told if we're ever in Mooroopna, Victory, we could find them in the Cricketer's Arms hotel (hotel is Aussie for Bar). Their nicknames at the Cricketer's arms were Brambles and Easy. (Much later, we passed through Mooroopna on a bus and saw the Cricketer's Arms from the window. We sent them a postcard.)

The trip went on with a routine you're probably recognizing. Up early, cereal for breakfast. Several great hours paddling. Sandwiches for lunch. Every 2nd or 3rd day we stopped in a town for ice and other supplies. Endure the ski boats during the afternoon. Paddle until about 7pm. Set up camp and have pasta for dinner. Asleep by 10pm.

The campsites were almost always great. The best was Kangaroo Camp. Every large sandbar we had passed that evening looked like a circus there were so many tents. But around one turn we found a magnificent white sand beach completely unoccupied. Or so we thought. On closer look, we saw 3 kangaroos, down by the river getting a drink. They seemed huge - way bigger than I thought. The current was slight so we held position silently for a long time. I managed to put the zoom lense on the camera and get some pictures.

On the sandbar we found lots of roo tracks. One set went just about the whole length of the bar - about 40 yards. We set our tent up in the middle of the tracks.

Another night we were camped in an area where a Koala had been spotted the previous day. At sunset we wandered through the woods looking up in the trees. We didn't find any Koalas but in a large pasture at the edge of the woods we so dozens of kangaroos. The sun was setting at the end of the huge pasture. A couple trees stood in the middle and the mobs of kangaroos hopped around casually grazing. This might have been the best moment of the trip.

next: New Year's Eve

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