After a cool and mostly quiet night on the Murray, everyone was up early and keen to get started. There were claims of snoring being heard from our room during the night, but we quickly cast those accusations off and accused Derek. Well, both Mick and I were convinced it wasn’t us.

The boys took turns steering the boat along a windy stretch of the river. We travelled for almost two hours before picking a spot to moor for the rest of the day and over night.

Unfortunately the first spot was too shallow and the second spot had no suitable trees close enough to tie us off against but we were luckier on the third attempt. The only problem was that the boat could not get too close to the bank and the built-in gang plank had to be lengthened by adding another narrower plank. Helen was not game to try it and I certainly didn’t use it after I’d had a drink.

A fire was lit on the bank in readiness for the afternoon and I found a few lengths of perfectly-cut tree stumps that I thought could act as campfire seating. These logs were several hundreds of metres off and carrying them became a team effort. Once placed in the perfect position by the fire we noticed initially a few, then loads of jumping ants exiting the logs. It was obvious these would not be used by any of the girls and perhaps would be used only for firewood.

Mick cooked the large yellow belly he caught last night on the BBQ and this shared very well amongst the six of us for lunch. To go with this, Steve and Susanne made some homemade bread. Just as we were finishing up our fabulous homemade lunch, Mick noticed that both Steve and Derek’s fishing lines were pulling against the current. Sure enough, each of them had a huge carp on his line. I wish I could say these were disposed of correctly but unfortunately this boat does not have any sharp knives.

We played poker during the afternoon and possibly started drinking alcohol a little too early!

With the exception of Mick, the rest of the crew decided a quiet read / snooze was in order. Mick took himself off with a few beers and spent the afternoon fishing on the river bank.

Dinner tonight was cooked by Steve. He smoked some bacon at lunchtime on his smoker and added this to some fresh tortellini and prawns with his special sauce. Yummy.

The boys spent some time before dinner on the bank around the fire, and the girls spent a lovely time on the boat in the warm. Everyone was happy.