Somewhere in outback New South Wales right now, a 63-year-old grain farm manager is knocking off another 16km of river — by swimming it. Scott Gladman set out on September 1 to swim the full length of the Darling River, Australia's third-longest, and if he succeeds he'll be the first person ever to have done it.

The Darling runs 1,650km from its upper reaches in far northern New South Wales down to Wentworth, where it meets the Murray River. Gladman started near Brewarrina with a plan: 103 days, roughly 16km a day. After 49 days he'd covered 660km, which puts him more or less on schedule, with just under 1,000km of brown water still to go.

What makes the story genuinely odd is that Gladman isn't an endurance swimmer. He took it up for a reason — friends affected by Motor Neuron Disease and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, a rare form of Parkinson's — and wanted a fundraising challenge nobody had ticked off. His first thought was the Murray, but that one's been swum. The Darling hadn't. He gave himself 18 months to prepare, mixing summer swims in the Murray at Boundary Bend in Victoria with winter lap sessions in indoor pools.

Out on the river, he's supported by a boat crewed by family and friends plus a canoeist paddling alongside. Communication is primitive, to say the least. Gladman swims with earplugs, so his canoe guide either taps him with a paddle or steers into his path to nudge him in the right direction.

The Darling isn't a wild, fast river either. In places it runs so shallow that Gladman floats on his back or simply walks, and at least once he's had to help push the support boat through debris-clogged sections. That's the reality of an outback river system prone to drought, low flows and snags — beautiful country, but hardly an aquatic highway.

For travellers, the story is a useful nudge. The Darling — part of the Murray-Darling Basin that drains a huge slice of eastern Australia — cuts through some of the country's most atmospheric outback towns, many of which see far fewer visitors than they deserve. Brewarrina, where Gladman launched, is home to ancient Aboriginal fish traps with thousands of years of history. Further downstream you pass Bourke, Louth and Tilpa before the river meets the Murray at Wentworth, a quiet junction town popular with campers, fishers and paddle-steamer fans. Driving the Darling River Run between these towns is a classic outback road trip — and after reading about a man grinding through it at 16km a day in the water, doing it by 4WD with a cold drink in the esky sounds pretty appealing.

Whether Gladman makes Wentworth by his day-103 target remains to be seen, but he's already shown how a personal challenge can shine a light on a river and a region most travellers scroll straight past.

Credit: ExplorersWeb