Barham to Boundary Bend

Barham to Boundary Bend, 286 km, 8 days, 8-15 Nov 2025

Sat 8 Nov 2025, 20 km (river distance as measured by Footpath app)

Meet Bill at Boundary Bend, leave a car there, drive to Barham (1524 km - blue marker) and launch at 11:15 am. Good flow of about 8000 Ml/day. Cloudy and gusty southerly wind and Max of about 20 degrees C. Make good progress.  Not many beaches. Find a satisfactory camp at 20 km mark (1504 km) outside a bend after 2:15 hrs paddling. Weak Telstra phone reception. Lots of flies but otherwise pleasant.

Sun 9 Nov 2025, 36 km

Launch 7:10 am, paddle 4:30 hrs with one brief stop covering 36 km. At 11:40 am find a small beach (1468 km) with a houseboat pulled up onto the bank. Weak phone reception. Lots of flies but not hot and cooling breeze.

Mon 10 Nov 2025, 35 km

Cool night of 7 deg C. Launch at 7:05 am. Nice morning with SW breeze. Paddle at 8 km/h till we find a good campsite with sandy beach (1434 km) on Victoria side after 35 km at 11:25 am. This is 91 km from Barham and 24 km from Swan Hill. That means we should be able to get well past Swan Hill tomorrow and find a campsite. Several sea eagles today including one that almost caught a great crested grebe just after leaving last night's campsites. Lots of sacred kingfishers. Also lots of flies at the campsite. Pleasant temp in low 20s with nice breeze. Good phone reception.

Tues 11 Nov 2025, 39 km

Strong winds in the early morning. As with previous mornings the river has dropped about 1 cm overnight. A bit of drizzle at packup time. Launch at 7:10 am, start raining, put on a raincoat after a while. Cold with the wind and rain. Rain clears after an hour but still strong SW wind and cold. Pumps start to be more frequent before Swan Hill. Arrive at Swan Hill at 10 am (24 km in 2:50 hrs, mostly tailwind). Disembark in front of the caravan park just before a willow with caravans lining the shore. We deemed it safe to leave the kayaks there while we wandered into town to get a coffee and burger sitting in a warm cafe. Relaunch at 11:10 am and paddle for another 2 hrs till we find a camp 15 km downstream on the Victorian side (1393 km). 39 km for the day, 130 km from Barham. Still windy but not strong enough to deter the flies. Reasonable phone reception.

Wed 12 Nov 2025, 40 km

Cold night, 1 deg C. Launch at 7:15 am. Beautiful day for paddling, cool, sunny, no clouds and very light SW breeze. River feels sluggish but we still average 8 km/h. Keep left at Beveridge Island and take the shortcut, saving about 6 km. Four tinnies pass us, they are doing Echuca to Mildura in a week. After Nyah campsites are limited with the few good ones occupied by caravans. The river here is narrower with steeper banks. Find a spot (1347 km) on the NSW side, 10 km after Nyah bridge. This makes for 40 km covered in 5 hours.

Thu 13 Nov 2025, 44 km

Launch at 7 am and after about min weeks reach Wood Wood where we land at the boat ramp and have breakfast and coffee at the caravan park cafe across the road. We launched 50 min later. It's warm with high clouds and a NW wind which becomes gusty. The river generally heads north but we don't often get the full force of the headwind because the river changes course often enough. We take the shortcut before Tooleybuc, saving 3 km. We keep paddling apart, from a short leg stretch, until we find a campsite with a sandy beach on the Victorian side (1296 km) at 1:15 pm. We have paddled 44 km for the day and reach the 217 km mark for the trip.

Fri 14 Nov 2025, 54 km

Depart at 7:05 am. Nice conditions with light winds and partly cloudy. Interesting river as it has frequent bends without too many sharp ones. The banks are higher and steeper and there are some sandy beaches. Reach the Wakool confluence after about 11 km. Some camped there, perhaps the same person  as last March when we paddled down from Kyalite. Aim for a sharp bend for 42 km for the day (27 km from BB) but there is an electric pump opposite humming away. Pass some nice sandy beaches which are westerly facing and would get the brunt of the afternoon sun. Continue on to 500 m before Murrumbidgee confluence and find a NE facing beach on which we camp (1243 km). Good afternoon shade. 54 km done in 7 hours with one brief stop. Flow in the river at the Wakool confluence is about 10,000 Ml/day.

Sat 15 Nov 2025, 14 km

Launch at 6:40 am, paddled a short way up the Murrumbidgee against quite a strong current. On entering the Murray we are taken by the current to about halfway to the opposite bank. Flow of about 5000 vs 10,000 Ml/day in the Murray. Arrive at Boundary Bend (1228 km) to the sight of a paddle boat departing on its way upstream from Mildura, where it was built, to Echuca, where it will operate with luxury accommodation. Load everything into my car and return to Bill's car at Barham.