Alongside every farmer whose fortunes are tied to the mighty Murray River desperately hoping the forecast El Nino does not take too great a toll on flows this summer is a 47-year-old father of five from the northern NSW beach town of Pottsville.
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Dave Alley, the endurance athlete who holds the record for both cycling and running around the entire of Australia, is in training for an attempt to set a new record for the time taken to kayak the 2500 kilometre Murray.
The previous record of 16 days, six hours and 58 minutes from Bringenbrong Bridge to Goolwa, set in 1993 by David Armytage, was achieved during a flood year.
Mr Alley knows he won't have that blessing when he sets off on November 1 but says what flows do eventuate will make or break his attempt.
His team is working on the lowest flows possible, which means he will need to paddle at least 17 hours in every 24 to cover an average of 145klm a day.
That doesn't leave much time for anything else.
But it's not like extraordinary is out of the question for the former Queensland police officer turned personal trainer.
To cycle around the country in 2011 in a record 37 days, 20 hours and 45 minutes, he covered an average of 377kms a day, raising $30,000 for the Royal Flying Doctors in the process.
Four years later, he ran 13,383km in 169 days, 15 hours, and 31 minutes, breaking the previous record set by Pat Farmer in 1999, and raising $100,000 for the White Cloud Foundation.
The Murray kayak record attempt came about in similar fashion to the first two feats.
"I was really just looking for a different way to train myself," Mr Alley said.
"And I was probably a bit hungry for another adventure."
So he rang his best mate, David Lees - the principal at the nearby Mullumbimby Public School - and said: "I've got an idea - let's kayak Australia's longest river."
Mr Lees had helped navigate the first two Race Around Australia events; and was happy enough to get onboard again so long as he wasn't in the kayak.
Mr Alley is now training up to 30 hours a week and he's quite sure there are no dangers the Murray can throw at him that the drains of Northern Rivers cane fields have not.
Last summer, while heading up a drain, a lengthy brown snake suddenly found its way to the top of his kayak.
"He took one look at me and then launched," Mr Alley said.
"I grabbed him and as I hurled him, I lost my balance and tipped the kayak over so there we were, just me and him in the water.
"Thank goodness he decided to cut his losses and take off up the bank. But the whole thing happened so fast I didn't know if I'd been bitten or not so it was a nervous 20 minutes until I got back to within phone reception and could get checked out."
By his side on the Murray attempt will be his dad Reg, Mr Lees' father Gary and their mates Eddy Edwards, Dallas Young and Hendrik Bavage.
Mr Alley said setting records like these were more a mental than physical challenge.
"Every day there is a moment you want to give up and go home, especially as you need to back up day after day as the body starts to break down," he said.
"When times get tough I just look to the team around me. It's always about the team."
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