Lack of water in the Outback

"Na your not crazy, well not completely. It's just been a really dry year."

Sitting in a pub in Dirranbandi I'm pestering yet another innocent local with questions about river water levels; or rather the lack of water.

Even though I've asked the questions all before, it's still a relief to hear that I am indeed "not completely" crazy.

I'm now one month into my 'stand up paddle boarding' trip, although you'd be forgiven for thinking I was doing something else.

In the last month I've spent just 2 afternoons actually paddling and the rest of the time I've been either carrying the board along a dry river bed, or walking along a highway

trying to find some water.

The upper reaches of Australia's longest river system are in spots bone dry. The river system itself appears to be nothing more than a collection of dry creeks,

foul smelling puddles and thirsty animals. And it's hot. Ridiculously hot.

When I told people back home that I was going to start this trip in February, they said it was stupid. "The middle of summer? In the outback? No chance there'll be water!"

As I talk about how hot and dry it is, there's probably a few of those people lining up to tell me "I told you so".

On instinct it seemed wrong to me too, yet all the research however told me otherwise. Queenslands wet season is during the summer period, and when planning this

trip I took the time to call locals and government officials from the area I was planning to paddle.

They all agreed that while, yes it was going to be hot, around February was going to be my best chance of paddling the whole river system.. "if it rains in the right spots..".

The small throwaway line that everyone used at the end of each conversation was something I happily brushed of 12 months ago.

I told myself they were just sceptical, "I'm sure they are just covering themselves incase I have to carry the board for a bit but it has to rain at least a little bit, it's the 'wet' season"

Now, after being forced off the river for nearly all of my 750km travelled so far, I understand better why that line was used so much.

The Murray-Darling Basin is huge and can be likened to a big tree. The base of the tree is where things are the widest. As you move your way up the tree it branches

out, and thins out. The river is the same. The river nearest the Mouth is wide before it branches into the Murray and Darling rivers.

From the Darling River are other branches; most important to this trip is where the Darling begins, at the Condamine-Balonne and Barwon branch.

All of the branches in the basin are capable of catching water and when it rains each branch catches it's fill, then, if theres any excess, it runs down to the branches below and

eventually to the trunk.

I'm currently on the Condamine Balonne branch which unfortunately has had no rain at all.

When I began the trip I was told by locals in Warwick that it had been an incredibly dry year.

Passing through Surat, we had dinner with locals who told us it was the hottest and driest they could remember in 20 years.

And now as I continue to pester the locals in Dirranbandi I've found out they hadn't had rain since Christmas apart from a brief shower on the day we arrived (They

also told me how just a week before arriving the town hit 52 degrees..)

Even the nearby, notorious water thief, Cubbie station (which after speaking with locals I'm not sure if they fully deserve that title) can't take any water from a river that

has no water.

What this means for the trip is that there is no water at all to be paddled; in the Condamine-Balonne branch.

Dirranbandi however sits above the juction of the Condamine-Balonne and Barwon branches and between these branches is a large flood plain (for when it actually

does rain). The flood plain is home to a number of rivers that all eventually combine to become the Darling river where the Culgoa River meets the Barwon River.

To reach the Darling river along my initially planned route of leaving the Balonne River (which I'm currently on) for the Culgoa River would mean another 400km of walking.

Even if a freak storm happened upon the region, it would take a few days perhaps a week before the creeks filled the Culgoa enough to paddle on.

As a result I've decided to take an alternate route through this floodplain, following the Balonne branch into the Bohkara River and then joining the Barwon River branch.

The km's will be almmost exactly the same but the main reasons behind this are:

Support Crew: My support crew does alot for me. Without them the trip can't continue so I need to make sure they are happy. They don't need to be stuck on remote

roads in the heat wondering where I am if I can just as easily follow decent roads and make things easier for them.

Towns: Following the Culgoa branch has no towns whereas this alternate route will see me pass through a number of towns boosting the trips exposure and hopefully

getting us closer to our goal of raising $60,000.

WATER: While the Condamine-Balonne branch hasn't had any rain the Barwon branch has, and dare I say it I may be able to paddle..

I'm not fully comfortable with this decision. Similar to the decision to walk the first section, leaving the initial plan behind hurts. Not only because it's what I wanted

to do, but because it's what I said I was going to do.

Unfortunately the reason behind change is out of my control.

I can push myself to walk an extra few km if I need too, but I don't have the ability to control the weather.

The trips purpose hasn't changed, I've still got the same end goal.

I'm still hoping to paddle as much of Australia's longest river system as possible and reach the murray mouth and I'm still hoping to raise $60,000 for

Deaf Children Australia.

How I get to these goals is just taking a slight detour because "It's just been a really dry year".