We were awoken by a chorus of bird calls, it truly sounded like we were in paradise (which in many ways we were). The day was warm and sunny and we had the whole day to ourselves. There was no driving to do, we only had to relax and enjoy Trilby Station. We made ourselves comfortable birdwatching on the riverbank for a while before we even had breakfast. Eventually hunger forced us back to the van to make our cereal but we brought it back to our chairs in the sun so we could continue our nature-watch. We must have sat there for a few hours before we made ourselves some plunger coffee, which then made us sit for another few hours. It was important that we enjoyed today, not only because it was out last day at Trilby, but also because it marked the end of the main part of our trip. After Trilby, we were pretty much on the way back home to Sydney.

Before we knew it, it was nearly lunchtime so we went for a walk around the property with the intention of only being 30 mins or so . Fascinated by the flood-affected sections fo the property we found ourselves walking several kms from the riverside campsites past the airstrip and towards the billabong to check it out and determine if we should go for a kayak. As soon as we saw the billabong we knew we had to go for a paddle after lunch. We ran back to the van and quickly made frypan sandwiches. I had ham, cheese and tomato and Julie had cheese and tomato. Once we were done we headed back to the billabong and chose a two seater we could share and pushed it into the water.

I took care of paddling duties while Julie had the responsibility of taking photos, shooting videos and taking the odd panorama, it worked well. The billabong was looking quite full, in fact it was so full that we couldn't determine where the normal shoreline was. The water was lapping up to the grass so we figured it must still be quite high. The birds loved it, it was an avian paradise. Liz menioned to us that the billabong hadn't had water in it for 5 (or was it 8) years . Being paranoid not to disturb the birds, we paddled quietly across the larger sections of water but then as we tried to manouevre through the dead trees and snags we would completely stop paddling altogether so as not to scare the darters and cormorants. It looked like darter nesting season with clusters of darters inhabiting single trees and lots of younger birds around. Whenever we got too close to a tree or if we paddled too loudly, the whole family would dive off the branches into the water. It was quite cool to watch but we hated causing so much disturbance to the birds as we were worried that one bird trying to distance itself from us might also be trying to feed a youngun or two.

It took us just over an hour to do 1km at the bird-safe speed we were doing. We didn't mind, we were just loving the serenity and the vibe. Out in the middle sections the billabong was deep, we couldn't reach the bottom when we dipped our paddles down which would've been 2m. My guess is that there was another metre or two making it around 3-5m deep . From the other end of the billabong we could see another one of the campsites. There was someone camping there in one of those all-in-one camper things - ie: A trayback ute with a big tradesman metal storage thingamijig on the back. On top of this they had their rooftop tent, I can only assume that the kitchen, taps and food prep areas were all behind the metal shutters on the rear unit. It all appeared to be a self-contained camping solution but we had our doubts about the size and weight of it all. Yes, it may be extremely durable - perhaps over-engineered which is great but the ute alone would be drinking 11-15L/100km of diesel without the extras on the back and without full water tanks. Once you get it loaded up off the beaten track you'd be pushing 20L or more for the hundred. I'd probably be correct in thinking a more modern D.I. diesel could get this figure down to something respectable, but in an older ute it would be a killer.

As it had been a warm and sunny day we were in short sleeves for our paddle, but after being on the water for a while we were beginning to feel it cool down a bit . This is when we realised that the sun filtering through the trees was quite orange and getting low - not quite sunset but getting close. We still had 2km to paddle back to where we launched so we readjusted our heading whilst keeping the pace slow and relaxed. By the time we arrived back at the start it was well and truly sunset so we walked the scenic route back to the van taking in the different colours and moods of the fields. We passed a few different willy-wagtails out catching bugs for dinner including one fella who was the resident of a small section of the track just near our campsite. We had seen him a few times, the first was when we went for our first walk. Then when we returned for lunch we saw him again. Then going for our kayak we also saw him. He found it a bit confusing that we wanted to pass, he'd just keep being forced down the track by us walking, but we wanted him to leapfrog us back to his regular haunt (which he did eventually).

The walk back to the van was nice and peaceful and showed Trilby's natural beauty . Arriving back at the van it was now fully dusk. There was no way we were going to go inside the van or start preparing food yet because dusk on the riverbank is like a David Attenborough show - you don't get nature shows like this living in the city. We watched the birds and took photos until our cameras gave up, in fact we sat there until it was pitch black knowing that this was our last night by the Darling River and in the true outback. Eventually we had to move inside due to the temperature dropping. The usual evening activities followed - a little bit of email and news reading, listening to music and doing some food prep for dinner. I can't quite remember what we ate but it is most likely to have been a parmesan, cucumber, lettuce and pine-nut salad with some form of chicken added to mine. After dinner we watched our "Dax" comedy movie again which still was quite hilarious even though it was our 3rd viewing.....then it was off to bed about 10:30 or 11pm.