Planning the trip
Given the time and scale of the trip, it's not something you can just do, it has to be planned.
River Facts
http://www.murrayriver.com.au/about-the-murray/
The Murray is the third longest navigable river in the world, after the Amazon and Nile
The Murray River is the world's 16th-longest river with a total length of 2520 kilometres from its source in the Upper Murray and the Kosciusko National Park
The Murray is continuously navigable for 1986 kilometres from Goolwa to Yarrawonga
It spans three states - Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia
The river has 4 major dams, 16 storage weirs and 15 navigable locks
Is the major domestic water supply for over 1.5 million households
Along with its tributaries, the Murray is part of the third largest water catchment on earth
The Murray has the worlds largest redgum forest and ibis rookery on its banks
Boat Setup
So I have a boat that has been built to be used on Lake Macquarie, the previous owner built the boat and used it for exercise, he'd row out until he'd had enough and motor home. It was designed to do what I wanted but not really fitted out for the trip.
I sought advice from Duck Flat wooden boats about things such as the hinging on the hatch covers, and decided to go to none which was as per the original design.
Rosco who was the previous PAC boatman, gave me advice about the rowing setup and was a great sounding board for different things. Advice like not getting too carried away with repairing things when on the trip, just take good gaffa tape which ultimately turned out to be correct. Ross and his daughter Catherine also taught me a lot when it came to filling holes and repairing the boat if required.
There was very little else I needed to do to the boat. I replaced some of the cleats with Railblaza cleats, these products are great and were the source of cleats, trolley wheels, mount for the mirror and lighting.
I bought some gun holds which were perfect for shipping the oars when not rowing.
I made up a simple T shaped mount to carry the emergency gear in the cockpit on the starboard side so that I could access them easily as well as get them in and out of the boat easily when not on the water, on the port side a mount for the electrical plugs, the solar controller, spare paddle, mounts for the Wahoo and second phone, power metre and some plastic water tight containers for small stuff like a pocket knife, glasses, snacks etc.
I bought a kayak back rest and tested it for use facing forward when I was motoring. In some ways it worked too well, I was so comfortable and nodded off to sleep.
The electric motor was bought with the boat which had been modified to mount it, I was in two minds though as to whether I'd need to take it with me down the Murray.
The motor and controller weigh around 15kg, I'd need a deep cycle marine battery or a more expensive but lighter and smaller Lifepo4 battery to run the motor. I'd need a battery of some description to charge my phone, tablet and gps unit, usb torches etc., a fridge was never part of the equation.
The other question was if I did use the motor, how do I charge the battery and how often does it need to be charged?
The decision to take the motor was made in conversation with my brother, his advice that I wasn't going to be the first to row down the Murray and I wasn't going to be the fastest. There are no rules for such a venture, why not take it? It would be a great backup if things went wrong such as an injury or damaged rowing gear such as a broken oar.
So decision made, it was coming with me and I'd need a battery and ensure the motor could be used if required.
The first job was to build a mount for the foot controls and then work out how I was going to put the motor in and out of the water without having to get out of the boat. When you drop it in, by default it locks down and you need to depress a locking pedal to unlock it, not an option in this boat as you can't stand up to get to it.
To get around the problem I modified the locking mechanism by simple blocking it with grommets, the thrust of the propeller keeps it vertical when in use. Gravity and a rope through a cleat made it possible to drop the motor in and out from the seat. A simple solutions that worked.
I also had to extend the power cables from the motor to the controller, an easy job for an auto electrician, not me!
If there is a shop in Adelaide that specialises in marine batteries and solar options that could give me advice, I didn't find it and so the research and product selection was left up to me alone, more googling, ultimately with limited success.
The choice of battery type was a bit of a no brainer, buy a Lifepo4 battery if you can afford one. I found a reliable supplier in FPV-POWER, rather than bury it in one of the compartments, I modified an ammunition box to house it along with various plugs and posts so that I could easily access it and carry it to use off the boat or to charge.
The battery came with a charger but I wanted to back this up with solar. I'd need about 200 amps of solar to charge the batteries effectively, it's a shame I didn't have enough deck space to mount it, I ultimately bought a solar blanket which could be laid out on the rear deck, the quality of the blanket was a bit dodgy, probably giving nowhere near the required amperage and I don't know if it really helped but the battery did retain a charge if the motor was not used.
I bought a solar controller and could monitor it through Bluetooth but found that the motor would not run through the controller so bypassed it to run directly from the battery through a circuit breaker.
Had the motor been anything other than backup, I would have made different choices, better solar, a more modern and efficient motor, maybe two Lifepo4 batteries so one was charging while the other was in use but this all takes time to research and at a greater cost.
In the end and with hindsight, I only used the motor on two days, a bit like the life jacket I always wore, I probably didn't need it but I'm glad it was there.
The final electrics had the Wahoo GPS and one of the iPhones with the controller software running as load through the solar controller, the other iPhone that I was using to run Avenza maps and motor direct from the battery, the solar providing additional charge to the battery. To achieve full load after the motor had been used I to charge the battery through the mains, clearly possible only at caravan parks.
Additional to this I had two smaller solar panels mounted up front to top up two USB batteries and a USB torch. Kmart branded, cheap and effective.
Testing times
Being Adelaide based, there are only a few places where you can row, some SA reservoirs have been opened up but only to canoes and kayaks, not rowboats. Prior to setting out, the West Beach boat ramp was being upgraded and with no 4WD car, Seacliff was not an option so the Adelaide foreshore wasn't visited due to access issues.
The Murray is only an hour away from Adelaide at Murray Bridge, Goolwa isn't that much further but despite many plans to test in the Murray, it only happened once.
West Lakes - West Lakes is a man made lake, built as a regatta course but has a 6km course around Delphin Island, generally flat water but motor boats are not allowed. There's a great boat ramp up the northern end.
Garden Island - more the name of the boat ramp than an actual island, it has an excellent ramp with plenty of interesting places to go from there, either heading back towards the Port River or towards the sea and St Kilda, it's tidal waters so different rules apply to motor vessels but well protected for rowing and testing.
Port River - there's a public ramp at Largs North which gives access to the Port river, not one of the most exciting places to row but wide and safe.
Mannum - the caravan park has great facilities with a lovely ramp with easy access to the river. I stayed overnight with testing down stream on both days. Access to the water can also be found at the rowing club which also has a great pontoon on the water.
Advice from those that had gone before me
Murray River Expeditioners
There are many people who contribute to this Facebook group. It has been a great source of knowledge and I posted updates for each day of my trip and met and conversed with a few people also doing the trip at the same time as I was.
Reading the posts of past expeditioners plus other experts who live daily on the Murray helps greatly with the understanding of the trip. A great spot to also seek guidance along the way.
ETA Unknown
Alan Davidson has produced an amazing website based on his even more amazing adventures. This site and his knowledge and research of the Murray is immense and a must read.
My favourite quote from is "For many who do the entire length in a single leg, the most difficult part will be keeping motivated as you paddle 2,350 km on fairly flat water as the current slows due to the system of weirs used to control the river. It is a true endurance test!"
The book Murray-Darling Journeys by by Angela and Mike Bremers give a lot of history of those that have done it previously, Mike is a regular contributor to the Murray River Expeditioners Facebook group.
IRNMR - Inland Rivers National Marathon Register if you're looking for recognition that you have achieved something, this is it. With grandparents from Goolwa, I was keen to add my link to the history of the town. Frank Tuckwell is the originator of the register and it was a great pleasure to meet Frank who knew of my grandfather and many thanks to the rest of the team.
River Murray Charts and Murray River Pilot were a great source of information, read extensively prior to leaving and they travelled the journey with me but were not utilised on the way.
Maps, GPS and other communication
I wanted both a hard copy of the Murray maps as well as utilising software on my phone to see where I was at any point in time. I also wanted to keep a record of the distance and speed of my travels along with details such as hear rate. If only I could have recorded my stroke rate..
Google maps can provide some of this but cannot be relied upon when there is no network connection.
I decided to carry two iPhones, one on the Telstra network, the other with Optus. In general I had at least some coverage most of the way but suspect in many places both networks share the same tower, if you had cover from one, you had it for both.
A satellite phone would have overcome this but at a cost, I wasn't convinced that this was a necessary expense.
I was using an app named Life360 so my location could be seem at anytime that there was coverage.
Not wanting to risk losing my new Wahoo ELEMNT Bolt GPS Bike Computer overboard, I took my old ELEMNT Roam which worked, it's problem was a short lived battery which was overcome by plugging it into another power supply, this was mounted to my right and showed my current speed, heart rate and distance travelled. Other data such as averages and maximums are available through the phone app.
A heart rate monitor was worn for most of the trip.
Any data was synced to my phone and uploaded to Strava when there was phone coverage which recorded my travels and shows things such as rate, heart rate and temperature.
I had a Samsung tablet to record my daily journal, I used a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, it was challenging though to type while sitting in a tent after a day of rowing, many times dot points were written and expanded upon when I rested in the kitchen of a caravan park.
It's fair to say that I am far more of a tight arse than a tech geek. I would love to have had 360 degrees of GoPro and a drone but have an aversion to losing things overboard.
Additionally, I have limited time to view, edit and post all the visual information that can be gathered. Additionally, I'd question whether anyone would be as interested as me in what I have seen. Just like this blog, it's more for my records than to as a way of story telling to others.
So most of the video and all of the photo's were taken using my iPhone.
Where and when to start?
Given the boat of choice, white water was immediately ruled out. Porting around Hume weir also seemed like an impossible task so starting just below it where there is a good ramp made sense.
10 weeks was always the expected time but I wasn't locked into any specific time frame.
As for when, not over summer because of heat, flies, mosquito's, sunburn, recreational boaters etc. Not over winter, wet, cold muddy.
Which leaves autumn and spring. I wasn't ready for spring 2021 and didn't want to wait for spring 2022 so early March was the plan. Easter was always going to be a potential problem and there was only one Victorian public holiday where additional river users may have been problematic.
Other Equipment
I spent a lot of time trying to work out what I was going to carry everything in. There are two compartments in the boat and a fair bit of space in the cockpit.
I found plastic watertight boxes that fitted on the aft deck but being rigid, they're heavy and fairly inflexible.
Eventually I found a reasonably waterproof bag for my sleeping bag that fitted on the foredeck of the cockpit, a similar bag fitted on the aft deck to carry the other large bits of camping gear. 15l dry bags seemed to be the best choice for the compartments.
Things were eventually laid out in order of use, pull up, set up the tent, put the sleeping stuff and toiletries and rowing clothes and electrical items in the tent, set up the kitchen. The trolley wheels being all plastic were fine on top. Other stuff like repair equipment, half the maps and day clothes stayed in the boat.
I packed boat repair equipment including fibreglass repair cloth and epoxy, paint, spanners and screw drivers for every nut and screw. I had spare gates, lots of cloth tape and plenty of cable ties.
Getting to the start
I did a rough plan as to where I'd expect to be on a daily basis knowing full well it would change due to flows, weather, fitness and available camping and supply stops. I knew I had to be flexible with timing.
The 5th of March was the day my brother drove the boat and me to Howlong, given the lack of testing of both boat and camping gear, I wanted support for the first three days so that if I needed to buy anything at Albury, there was someone to go get it, from then on, I was unsupported.
We looked at different options of leaving the trailer somewhere along the river but decided to take it back to Adelaide, if I needed to be retrieved, help was coming from Adelaide anyway.
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