‘We can’t we stop spinning!’ we screamed at each other for 45 minutes, while literally twirling upstream (or downstream?) in our double canoe. After a lot of laughs, a few obligatory Instagram story snaps, lots of experimental paddling techniques and a final seating rearrangement, we made it to our private campsite on the bank of the Arthur River. Brooke and I have a three-year long tradition: every Australia Day we take off somewhere ‘overseas in Australia’ for a multi-day hike. In 2019 we ventured to Tasmania in the hopes of tackling both Frenchman’s Cap and the Walls of Jerusalem. Unfortunately, Tasmania was on fire. Not ‘lit’ like Gen Z might describe a new 24hr drink-n-draw bubble-tea cat-cafe, but literally ON FIRE. There were 70+ bushfires blazing when we landed, with temperatures over 30c and high winds forecast for the week ahead. The Walls of Jerusalem National Park was closed, and whilst Frenchman’s Cap was still open, ‘please don’t do it’ was response to our many calls with Tasmania National Parks and Wildlife. Nevertheless, we landed in Launceston (Brooke’s bag didn’t), collected our hire car, and headed north-west to camp near the Tarkine. We did as much on-the-road Googling as possible, desperately researching hikes to fill our next six days. The airline-who-must-not-be-named dropped the missing bag to our tent in Marrawah at close to midnight, and we rose bright and early to start the Tarkine Drive. While hunting for coffee we stumbled across a Google-pin for ‘Arthur River Canoe & Boat Hire’. YAS! With no linked website or information, we headed there to enquire. Ten minutes later we were in the boatshed with Barry, packing our kit into barrels and dragging our double-canoe to the riverbank to begin our first ever overnight canoe/camp experience. The owners, Barry and Jaynee, told us that after ~7km of paddling we’d spot some pink tape in the trees, marking our destination. Proud as punch that we’d found an overnighter to continue our tradition, we set off. With Brooke in the front seat setting the pace for our strokes (and me trying to match them) we made it ~20 metres before realising we weren’t going straight. We stopped and started again, trying for synchronised strokes. No luck. We tried alternating – Brooke’s stroke on the left matched by mine on the right. Success! For five seconds. What about two strokes left, two strokes right? Negative ghost rider. By this point we were actually spinning in circles with zero control of the canoe. Front person alternates strokes, back person steers? Nope. What about the opposite? Fail. We were slowly floating backwards up the river, facing the boatshed we’d just left. It was actually more productive when we didn’t paddle at all. We had successfully travelled 100m in 45 minutes. Admitting defeat and ready to call Barry to rescue us, we navigated over to the riverbank. I suggested we try the only thing we hadn’t yet – switch places. Hurrah! We paddled in silence for what felt like forever, scared that commenting on our success would undo it. Ninety minutes later, pink ribbon in the trees on our left indicated we’d made it! With our fingers and toes crossed, we (rather expertly) pulled up on the riverbank and hi-fived. We had the place to ourselves. Our destination was a small campsite, wonderfully maintained by Barry; equipped with a wooden bench, tree stump stools, and a makeshift clothesline. We set up camp, hung our clothes and skinny-dipped into the Arthur River. The water was surprisingly warm, like a giant natural bathtub. We floated around in silence, stoked that we’d stumbled across this little piece of heaven. We capped off the day with some dinner, a few sing-a-longs and photos and hit the hay with sore arms but smiling faces. With mid-morning winds forecast at 80km/h, we were packed and paddling by 7.00am, tacking clumsily across the river. 2 hours later, we made it back to the boatshed. Barry and Jaynee were there to greet us, laughing at their memory of our spinning departure the day before. Tired, sore, but completely satisfied, we packed up the car, thanked them for helping us continue tradition and hit the road to hunt for more.