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As Tom began his trip down the length of Australia’s longest continuous river system, the most important part of the river system was missing - the water! With Queensland in drought and no water in the river, the opening 5 days of the trip had Tom trudging through ankle deep water and dodging snakes, lizards and bats. 5 days in, 4 days behind schedule, with damage to the board, Tom, and his confidence in the trip, a change was needed!
After driving into town and buying a pair of shoes Tom then walked and ran the next 900kms to find water to paddle on. The Queensland heat in the high 40’s for most of this section, Tom was drinking up to 8L of water a day as he travelled an average of 30km per day by foot. His feet not prepared for walking so far, he also covered a 100km in a pair of thongs as he battled with blisters.
Finally back on water at Walgett the next 400km of his trip was a learning process. Having stood on a SUP board for the first time just 3 weeks before the trip began, this 400km section was an opportunity to get comfortable with stroke technique and balance before hitting the next stage of the journey. While the focus was on paddling, wildlife provided plenty of distractions on the river banks, with pigs, goats and kangaroos everywhere and Tom even managed to save a lamb stuck on the riverbank .
Finally on the Darling river, Tom began his descent of the longest section of SUP4DCA. Now averaging over 50km a day it would have been swift progress if not for broken paddles, board punctures. Despite the setbacks after an 80km final day Tom became the first person ever to have SUP’d the Darling River and was now just 830km from the finish line.
Huge cliffs and holiday homes now lined the banks, and the size of the Murray river was enormous compared to everything Tom had seen so far. It was houseboats and fishermen that formed the distractions on the banks but every paddle-stroke still brought him closer to the finish line.
After 113days, 3,750km and a trip to remember, Tom reached the mouth of the Murray and completed the first ever descent of Australia’s longest continuous river system by SUP.
