2021 River Ramble

Donald Flat Lagoon

Distance from Blanchetown	Travel Time @ 7.5 kmh	Ease of Travel
14 km	1 hour 54 minutes	Very Easy

Pre-Ramble

Donald Flat Lagoon is one of the favourite areas for a short trip away on My Lady. It is only a couple of hours from its home port, so it was an easy trip to the start of the 2021 RMBOA River Ramble. At 08:00 on the 23rd April 2021, My Lady cast off from its berth and set off upstream towards Donald Flat Lagoon. By 10:10, they had finished mooring at Donald Flat Lagoon near Rakali and Frayed Knot.

When attempting to put in a rope hand-rail from the boat to the bank, Mark realised that the star pickets on the front deck extension had been stolen at some stage. Because the star pickets are rarely used, it was unknown when they had been pinched. Fortunately, there was a section of box steel on board that doubled for a star picket.

Mark and Marduk went for a walk around the northern end of the island. Unfortunately, there were quite a few kangaroos about, so Marduk did not get a run off the lead. She'll Do Us arrived in the afternoon and was assisted by another Rambler when it came into moor.

That first night was quiet as everyone spent the evening on their own boats. A camp fire had been discussed, but without any real conclusion, it did not happen.

The following day after a walk with Marduk, Mark paddled downstream along the island to the cliffs where the Donald Flat Lagoon exists back into the Murray. He paddled though to the lagoon and then up the lagoon to where the creek entered the northern end of the lagoon. It was then out into the river and back to My Lady. Later Mark, Alexa and Marduk spent time around the campfire before coming back to the houseboat.

On the 25th April, there was an ANZAC Day service on the riverbank. After the service had finished, Mark went up to the camp fire and watched the Sun rise over the cliffs. Later that day, Mark went kayaking upstream into the Irwin Flat Lagoon. More boats for the Ramble Moonshine and Wind Hover moored on either side of My Lady.

In the evening a couple of punnets of strawberries were auctioned for the Ramble charity drive. Mark and ALexa were out-bid on each punnet, but Mark got to tasted one strawberry and it was beautiful!!

Start of the 2021 RMBOA River Ramble

Monday 26th April was the first official day of the Ramble and more boats started to arrive. The boats ranged from a tinny a couple of metres long to a large double story houseboat about 20 metres long. Although not all boats were joining the Ramble at Donald Flat, there would ultimately be nearly 50 vessels and about 100 people with ages ranging from the 20's to the late 80s, some with a variety of mobility and medical issues.

As you can understand, without professional planning, such a diverse fleet and collection of people would end up being a disaster. Luckily, the planning Committee has extensive life experience and experience running Rambles, so it went as smoothly as can be expected, given that random unforeseeable events can occur with so many boats and people over 10 days and over 200 kilometres on the Murray.

The first format function of the Ramble was the RLD (Rambler's Little Drinks) where aspects of the Ramble such as the events of the day and points about the next day's activities were discussed with everyone in the fleet. This is necessary since the Ramblers ranged from seasoned Ramblers who may have been on Ramblers over the last 20 years to first time Ramblers who may also be relatively inexperienced with boating on the Murray.