Winter day paddles at Kingston-On-Murray/Loch Luna — 13 August 2022
It was a cold, rainy weekend in Adelaide. Up in the Riverland, we had a rain-free, mostly sunny (but still cold) weekend kayaking on the Murray backwater around Loch Luna.
Overarching in the Murray
Saturday morning we all met up at 10am on the river front of the Kingston On Murray Caravan Park, where we would be staying. It is a very convenient and safe launching spot, being on the park grounds, and the managers are always very helpful, a recommended place to stay if you want to visit the area: https://www.komcaravanpark.com.au/
Wooden Rowboat
New member Carol brought her husband along with his gorgeous hand-made wooden rowboat, which despite some misgivings, kept up with the kayaks with no trouble, and managed the narrow channels easily. The Murray is flowing really fast at the moment, thanks to all the rain they have been having in the rest of the country, and we made our slowly upstream for a few kilometres before reaching the entrance to the relatively still waters of Nockburra Creek.
We made our way slowly up the maze of backwater creeks up to Loch Luna, where we stopped for lunch just as the sun came out from behind a cloud. Perfect timing. After lunch we continued through Loch Luna to the Murray River for a look, before finding another backwater channel to take us back to where we started, and from there we took advantage of the strong flow to let the Murray River take us back to the campground.
Canoe Adventures
Relaxing in the Murray
We met up with Kym from Canoe Adventures while relaxing in the campsite, and had a long chat about the current state of the river and picked up some tips for Sundays paddle. They hire kayaks and run guided trips of the area, and are a goldmine of information about the local conditions if you ever want to visit up there: https://canoeadventure.com.au After a lovely meal in the Cobdogla club (country restaurants really give you a big serving ), we retired back to the campground for the night, with some braver souls camping out, while the wiser ones had hired a cabin.
Sunday morning was lovely and sunny. A bit cloudy over slightly as we set off again, this time to explore Chambers Creek, which eventually leads into Lake Bonny. Have paddled all the way there once, but it is too long a paddle to do in a morning. So, we contented ourselves with just meandering around the different islands of reeds. We enjoyed the scenery for a few hours before making our way back to the cars, and head off back to Adelaide, interrupted for the customary pie stop at the bakery of course.
