Fingerprints of Flooding: Saturday 08/04/2023

Today I learnt that the Murray River is the third longest navigable river in the world, behind the Amazon and the Nile. It is continuously navigable for 1986km, with 4 major dams and 25 locks.  Down here at the southern end of its journey, the river runs deep in its valley, bracketed on either side by billabongs and protected by cliffs, with little car ferries crossing at regular intervals and long stretches of cliffs that glow bright ochre when they catch the sun. The land around the river is dry and stony, dotted with small ruins, Mallee, and optimistic cropping.

 

After leaving Strathalbyn we followed the river upstream, stopping for a quick stickybeak at the Mannum waterfalls. 'Waterfalls' was a tad grand as a description but the view out to the river was nice and the gorge was surprisingly deep, tucked as it was between rolling hills carpeted in crisp brown late-summer grass. 

First view of the river.

 

We followed the river as closely as we could, finding the fingerprints of flooding in closed roads, parks stripped bare, fishing shacks haphazardly wrapped around trees, and buildings with muddy watermarks. Communities that had a levee bank that held, however hastily constructed, were unscathed: others, not so much.

 

The riverside Park in Mannum was still recovering from flooding, with large swathes of ground behind barriers for reconstruction and a thick crust of dried mud underfoot.  Mannum's levee bank was temporarily constructed down the centre of the street, leading to vastly different flood experiences depending what side of the street your business happened to be on.

Lunch beside the river at Manuum, trying to decide which houseboat we wanted to retire in.

Two car ferries crossed the river at Mannum.  We chose our ferry and indulged in a spot of very-slow-motion ferry racing, only to find we'd backed the losing boat and had to give way to all 7 of the other ferry's traffic before we could be on our way.

From lookouts on the top of the river cliffs we looked out over the river curling between billabongs filled to the brim with water. Easter holidaymakers had set up camp along the river and on the fringes of the waterholes and the water was busy with jet skis, kayaks, fisherfolk, and little children doing their best to escape their parents' surveillance and drown themselves in the coffee-coloured water.

Mid-morning coffee ritual held mid-afternoon at Swan Reach.

We were entertained by a motorised ??boogie board at Swan Reach.  The ducks, having seen it all before, took it with equacknimity.

 Waikerie's impromptu levee bank was still in place in the parklands beside the river.

Not pretty, but it did the job.

We ended the day at Renmark, which was bursting at the seams with Easter holidaymakers. We were lucky to book into the last room in the Renmark Hotel, an imposing art decor building with long verandahs looking over the river.

 

Not that our room looked over the river, being the last and least salubrious room in the hotel.  On the trek up the 36 stairs to the 2nd floor we discovered the Renmark's own hotel museum, complete with creepy mannequins in the service lift and previously (ahem) 'taken' crockery which had been touched by knife and fork wielded by no less than royal hands (Gasp!).

 

We went for a walk along the river, past houseboats of varying degrees of seaworthiness and eccentricity.

I'm an entertainer.  I go up and down the river playing music, busking, and selling CDs (what's Spotify?).  The chooks - oh yeah, they live inside, they're great company.  And the plants have roots right down into the water.  It's a great life.

 

Back in our lofty perch on the second floor, we came to the conclusion that the band downstairs and the band over the road were in a competition to entertain us into the wee hours of the morning. On the Saturday night of a long weekend this was not unexpected and our room was blessed with an old noise-cancelling machine (aka hole-in-the-window air conditioner). We turned it on, I put in my earplugs, and all was good in the Hotel Renmark on Easter Saturday night.