Day 24 – Wentworth to Lock 8 (near Neds Corner)

Lock 8

Just as we were about to leave Wentworth, two kind men on a boat stopped us and gave a donation for the MS cause. We have been amazed by the kind generosity of people me have met along our journey.

Camping along the Murray River – at Murray Sunset National Park

We were a little late and had booked a time to go through Lock 7, but luckily the Lock master waited and we went through without any problems. The section from Wentworth to Renmark will be the most remote as we pass through the Murray Sunset National Park. This section of the river was safe to travel as it was deep and travelling mid channel reduced our chances of hitting any snags. We saw many kangaroos and the occasional emus along with the water birds we constantly see along the Murray. This is a very secluded section and saw no one on the river or camping in the National Park. This was confirmed by the lock master at Lock 8 as we were the first boat he had seen for a week. As we did not book a time to pass this lock, we followed the standard operating procedure for passing through locks – 3 long horns and wait for a green light. Eventually we caught his attention and he opened the lock and turned the green light for us to pass through. We met up with our support team somewhere between Lock 8 and Neds corner. There were emus on the beach and their footprints on the sand looked like something from the dinosaur period. Our campsite was very peaceful and beautiful with just the sounds of nature – splash from fish jumping to catch insects, frogs at night, birds singing in treetops, growls from marsupials etc.
_IGP2881 Night was lighted by the full moon and Kiam took an opportunity to take some pictures around our campsite.