You're Invited to Canoe the Murray River

Will anyone want to come? My friend Katie Ross and I had set up what we thought was a pretty special journey. But I guess when you try anything for the first time, you wonder. So, having invited people to paddle the Murray River with us back in March, we were blown away when it filled in days. And all the more when the journey itself was, well I’ll let some of the people in that group tell you …

An extraordinary experience.

A threshold experience that left me humming.

Again and again there were extra little touches that deepened the experience. It’s no small thing you’ve done here, and the ripples will reverberate for years to come.

Life-changing.

I am filled with such gratitude for this experience, so needed in these times. A way to connect on so many levels that do not exist in my “normal”. Will be with me for years to come.

Truly enriching and restorative!

Confluence was truly amazing. The Connection to the country, River and people is something everyone should experience. It will change how you see the environment you live in. It will make you a better person, and the community you live in a better place to live.

There was a pod about it too, and some pieces on Substack (by me, and Sally, one of the inaugural travellers). And here’s a little 20 second sample of the vibe …

So, driven by the success of that first run, and of course the ongoing need from which it was conceived in the first place (this news came through just before our journey, as if to emphasise the point), you’re invited to join us on Australia’s longest river next March for Confluence 2027.

Because it is becoming ever more apparent to more people that the way through worsening planetary degradation, and even the overwhelm that induces, is by coming back to water as the source of all life. Yet, the narrative around water is still so often utilitarian, commoditised and politicised.

What if there is a way to transcend this? To shift the narrative? Change the story? By changing our stories? By asking rivers? And listening - with all our senses.

Having distributed this invitation to our Confluence alumni and paid subscribers last week, we’ve been deeply humbled again by the response. Now we’d like to open up the invitation to you. There are a few spaces left, so if you’re interested, get in touch, or just head straight to the website for more info and apply as soon as you can.

This time, we’ll pick up from where we left off on the first journey this year, upstream of Mildura, Victoria, before we spend a week heading further towards the confluence of the Murray and Darling / Baaka Rivers, to again listen, witness, and create, in deep immersion and deep time.

We’ll spend seven days and eight nights together, from the afternoon of Saturday 13 March to the morning of the equinox on Sunday 21 March.

You’ll learn about the natural history and Indigenous lifeways oriented to this landscape with local river guide Tom Floyd of Wildside Outdoors, and respected local Aboriginal community members. And you’ll be fed heartily, with thanks to suppliers including Michael Gooden and family at Old Man Creek, supporting the journey (and the lands and waters of the Basin) with delicious regeneratively grown food.

We’ll paddle with the River’s flow for roughly 3-5 hours each day, cook and eat fireside, and sleep under stars in supplied tents.

You can find all the info you need on the website. Including the prospect of support to access the journey if required. All are welcome, no experience required. Partners, friends, colleagues and young folk 15 years and above are also warmly welcome to apply.

And lastly, on topic, you might be interested in a new award-winning documentary film called The River. It’s on the Colorado River crisis, and made in such a way to be so very relevant to the Murray Darling crisis, and so many other rivers right now. Its director, Mara Tasker, features on the podcast this week, with some of the film’s incredible soundtrack too.

The first stuff that I started to kind of catch on to was a lot of animosity towards agriculture. And so I was like, well, we got to talk to some farmers and ranchers. I want to hear what they have to say about this. And then they'd kind of point their fingers at the cities and be like, well, why are they growing unchecked? And so then I was like, well, we gotta talk to some people in the cities. And the finger pointing just kept taking us in a circle. And so I was like, okay. So then it's bigger than each of these individuals. If we're starting to get circular in motion, my personal philosophy, then we have to go up a level, because then it must be systemic.

Hope to see you on the River!