Day 50 of Scott Towner's solo descent of the Murray River has come and gone, and the South Australian leg is finally underway. Episode 7 of Scotty Does the Murray 2026 covers the eight-day push from Mildura to Renmark — and easily the most emotionally heavy stretch of the trip so far.
Towner launched from Mildura on day 43 with two competing pressures. The first was the Tinny Rally fleet, due to start the next day and primed to overtake him.
"I've got the Tinny Rally which starts tomorrow from just the other side of the Madura we here," Towner explained. "They will catch me pretty quickly. So they're going to swamp me and take up all good camping spots."
The second was day 44, his late father's 85th birthday — the day Towner has admitted is the spine of the entire expedition.
"Today would have been my dad's 85th birthday," he said on the water that morning. "If you're looking for my inspiration on why I'm out here — that's it. He did conquer the river in his own way. Not quite the same way I did, but he did do it, which just set the seed for me to get here when I had the opportunity to. Also to finish off what he didn't finish, which was the upper Murray."
That same day he passed the Murray–Darling junction at Wentworth, the moment the country's two biggest rivers come together. "This is where the two rivers merge, the two biggest rivers in Australia," he said. "And here they are."
Flow through the leg was almost non-existent and the wind was rarely on his side. Towner ran 39 km on day 45 and another 40-odd on day 46, often paddling more than seven hours for sub-35 km totals. By day 47 he was launching before sunrise just to keep distance options open. "I really don't want to paddle in pitch black," he said. "I really want to set up camp in the afternoon before it gets dark."
The payoff arrived on day 48 at McCabe Corner — the survey anomaly where New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia almost meet.
"This is one of the highlights I wanted to do since I started this trip," Towner said when he landed. "This is the point at which the three states meet. Behind, just in front of me there, is where New South Wales ends and South Australia starts. Victoria will continue on for a little bit longer. The reason for that is, if you actually look at the map, you'll see there's an error. So it's a case of survey error. The surveyors that came from the north and the surveyors that came from the south, they didn't quite meet up. So and they never fixed it."
Day 49 became a tour of how arbitrary that line really is. With Victoria on his left and South Australia on his right for several kilometres, Towner panned the camera across to point out the difference in vegetation between the two sides.
"If you have a look over the side over there, it's quite clear grass," he said. "It's not here anymore. The red gums there, there's nothing there."
The ride into Renmark on day 50 was wet. Towner had pulled up the night before opposite a stretch of red cliffs and a sandy beach when the weather turned. "Last night had probably one of the best views of the trip so far. Was right across from some red cliffs and a nice sandy beach. Couldn't get any better than that, except the heavens decided to open up last night… It was a little moist."
He rolled into Renmark with 45 paddling days on the water and the third state of the descent properly under way. The next leg moves deeper into South Australia and toward the Riverland, with the Coorong now waiting at the bottom end of the trip.