Grab your paddles: Kayaking at Woolenook. Photo / Marie Barbieri
There's a new tour in town writes Marie Barbieri, and it takes place on Australia's famous Murray River.
A paddlewheeler rests on the banks, its launch languidly swaying on its leash. Rustic shacks hold onto their prized real estate. Houseboats sit anchored as their well-heeled owners recline with one hand on the fishing rod and the other around the stubby. Call it multitasking. Nonchalant koalas wedge into impossible forks, while Australian darter birds stare vigilantly at the ripples ready to spear. And tents peep through bushes as smoke rises from barbecues. It's just just another day in SA…
I too am in nirvana, joining Tony Sharley of Murray River Trails on his new wildlife safari. A true-blue South Australian tourism operator, Tony created the tour as an addition to his Murray River Walk (one of the 12 Great Walks of Australia). Cruising upstream from Paringa in the snazzy pontoon-style launch, our group of eight begin three days in search of iconic wildlife species in their natural aquatic and dryland habitats. We're exploring the Lower Murray: on foot, in a kayak, and from our beds on a houseboat named Desire.
Branching off from the Murray are internationally renowned wetlands home to native fish, aquatic plants, and native and migratory waterbirds. Woodland birds, marsupials and reptiles also find refuge within its riverside forests.
We spot five koalas in just half an hour. In 1959, the National Trust of South Australia introduced four of Australia's iconic cuties to Goat Island. There are up to 100 koalas in the area today, with red gums and black box providing their food source. Further on, we spy a yellow-billed spoonbill guarding its nest. "That's an indication that there'll be a high river!" says an excited Tony.
Within the reeds, sitting in a tiny tangled nest hanging from a plant like a Christmas decoration, is a white-plumed honeyeater. Below it, we watch a dragonfly nymph shedding its exoskeleton. This pretty insect, despite its dainty appearance, is fiercely territorial. A protective male can inflict fatal wounds on a predator. And a female that's not 'in the mood' has her own line of defence: faking her own death by crashing to the ground from mid air, just to avoid sex. Don't try this at home!
We join Jim from Canoe the Riverland who stands by his kayaks lined up on the bank. Jim has an impressive wife: in 2006, Ruth Roberts kayaked the Murray River from source to sea. Camping each night along the way, she completed her epic adventure over two months. Inspired, we grab our paddles and meander along the Murray on this sun-flooded spring day.
Within the serene backwaters of Woolenook Bend, the creeks form mini islands in this segmented landscape. Yellow water primrose, a floating aquatic plant, carpets the still waters as welcome swallows dart acrobatically alongside us. We pause to admire an Aboriginal ring tree shortly before drifting silently past a regal, statue-still lace monitor. Paddling the 6 km loop of an island, we spot purple swamphens protecting their downy black-feathered chicks.
Sunset calls us to Headings Cliffs, where migratory rainbow bee-eaters nest in the sandy crevices of the glowing-red millennia-old limestone formations. Sulphur-crested cockatoos add a vocal performance amid the flapping feather-filled action.
Back on the houseboat, our menu has been created by acclaimed creative native foods pioneer, chef and author, Andrew Fielke, and is cooked by the talented Kaila. Tonight's delights include slow-cooked kangaroo fillet, roast potatoes and broccolini with lemon almond dressing, followed by quandong pie. Retiring our bulging bellies to our elegant double rooms, we doze off to a blue sunset.
River deep, cliff high
Through a dawn mist, I watch from my pillow the riverbank sketching its leafy outline beneath a brightening rose-orange sky. Nature's primary colours then paint the river-scape into a 3D blaze of saturated brushstrokes.
On our morning cliff walk, Tony identifies the call of a white-browed babbler. "It's a gregarious little bird that hangs around the lignum," he whispers, itching to spot it. A kookaburra lands, perching above patches of poached egg daisies. Trudging the sandy lunette, Tony reveals an Attenborough-like passion for the forest's creatures.
"Turtles lay eggs in the sand here. But they have to make it back to the river to avoid raptors and foxes. And young Murray Cod, around an inch long, rest in that food-trapping lignum," points Tony. "When they grow large enough and floodwaters recede, they head to the river."
I admire the tiny petals of the bright blue rod flower, which leap from the sepia tones of the forest. Balls of yellow fungi resemble lemon meringue. And a bright white mound of lerps sticks to a tree. "We see this on our trails at home," one walker says, taste-testing its nectar. Aboriginal people used the sweet substance as a sugar.
The terrain switches to samphire and ruby saltbush, the saline leaves of which we chew on. Reaching vast swathes of pigface, we taste its plump purple fruit just as a mob of red kangaroos bound across the horizon. The scene just screams Australia.
Crossing Squiggly Creek, we climb to clay bands, once an inland sea. Winds later removed the topsoil, revealing the Aboriginal burial sites and middens exposed today. We carefully step around scattered mussel shell middens of the Ngarrindjeri people. Slowing his gait, Tony points up to wedge-tailed eagle parents circling above a nest. We view their chick through the telescope.
Come afternoon, we visit Calperum station, now part of the Riverland Ramsar Wetland of International Significance. On Lake Woolpoolool are black swans with their trailing cygnets, white-faced coots, grey teals, gorgeous red-kneed dotterels and a pair of rare hardhead ducks with their distinctive white undertail.
Tony shushes us. A male white-winged fairy wren arrives, lifting all camera lenses. This striking bird sports metallic feathers of cobalt blue, paint-white wings and a cocked tail. It's believed to be one of the most promiscuous of the bird world. Indeed, we too fall in love when we hear its trill-like call.
Dinner is a banquet of baked Murray Cod with lemon myrtle Parmesan crust and spring onion mash, followed by local cheeses, quince, figs and medjool dates. Digestion runs late into the night.
After breakfasting on scrambled eggs and foraged saltbush leaves, we cruise the sinuous bends of the river. The topography is mesmerising with tall orange and white hoodoo-like cliffs studded with towering red gums. Dropped off by Amazon Creek, Tony leads us through a sun-dappled black box terrace.
Little white star-shaped myoporum flowers delicately dress the ground, pocked by the circular entrances of trapdoor spiders. Emu droppings sit caked with seeds waiting to germinate, while box saplings from the 2010/2011 floods enter teenage-hood. And when Tony mounts his tripod and lens to observe a Gilbert's whistler, a chestnut-rumped thornbill, a striped honeyeater, and a red wattlebird arrive. The forest is heaving with birdlife.
Laughs of the guttural kind bellow when crossing Amazon Creek. My embarrassingly smooth and skinny feet sink into the slippery silt like golf clubs, impaling me in my tracks. But my highly amused new friends reclaim me, reaching the other side in fits of mud-splattered giggles.
Our safari rambles end on the houseboat cruising back downstream. Enjoying a Riverland mixed grill barbecue, Bunyip Reach lamb loins sizzle alongside Woolshed Ale sausages and fritters, with a wattleseed-dressed salad. We all lift our glasses to salute the Murray River, and the many glorious riches it offers the nature and wildlife-loving visitor.
KNOW BEFORE YOU GO
· If arriving the night before, bed down at Renmark Golf & Country Club, and wake to kangaroos at your panoramic window: renmarkcountryclub.com.au
· Wear hiking boots and long, light clothing for outdoor activities, including waterproofs if rainy.
· Bring your camera and binoculars for birdwatching, water bottle and daypack (or borrow a pack from the crew).
· Remember your sunscreen, sunglasses, hat and insect repellent.
· Pack bathers for the houseboat's top deck spa or a dip in the Murray River. It's a rite of passage!
DETAILS
Further information: murrayrivertrails.com.au
Please check the latest border restrictions in each state and territory before travelling. For more information visit australia.com
Herald Travel writer, Sarah Pollock talks to Ryan Bridge about the latest winter travel trends.