Both routes have variable characteristics depending on where you are:

Starting via the lakes:

The Menindee Lakes will be fairly full before water is released into the Darling Anabranch, so you should expect to encounter wide but shallow open waters. Being shallow, any wind will generate choppy and bumpy waves that could challenge many paddlers.

The start of the Cawndilla Channel was once an arm of the lake itself and is lined by small clay cliffs. This soon enters the channel proper that is rather narrow and fast flowing with a small levee wall on the eastern side. The short straight sections of this section appear to be regularly de-snagged.

The end of the channel as it meets Tandou Creek marks the end of the Kinchega National Park section and the start of private property.

Note NSW Topological maps appear to incorrectly label parts of Tandou Creek as the Cawndilla Channel, extending the channel length by 3 km and orphaning the top section of Tandou Creek. This differs from other accounts that state that Tandou Creek starts at the Darling River.

Upper Tandou Creek cuts across from the Darling to Cawndilla Channel. This rarely flows, so any flood channels are lined with black box but the lower section has more river gum lined waterholes. A blockbank holds separates Cawndilla Channel and the upper section, although this is removed in some flood flows.

Lower Tandou Creek still has the appearance of a dammed creek that is lined by River Gums, although there is a short wide shallow section with where the Cawndilla Channel joins it. This has some dense stands of Lignum (Duma florulenta sym. Muehlenbeckia florulenta) in and around the creek here.

The Penellco Channel allows pumped water to flow from the Darling River to Tandou Creek. A plan to reverse the flow in this channel to allow water from Lake Cawndilla to feed directly into the Darling is being considered.

Redbank Creek is mainly long pools with short flowing sections that are also lined by red sandy banks in places as the name suggests albeit these are mostly covered by vegetation. This section is primarily Black Box but there are a few sections with young River Gums. It is fairly shallow along the flowing sections and these flood easily.

Starting via the Darling River:

Coonalhugga Creek is a remote creek that only flows during major floods. It was the most varied of the creeks paddled. Wide floodplains lead to open black box farmland, with intermiant open lakes and swamps. Even though this creek is only 50 km long, it is reaching the limits of outback paddling and should only be attempted by experienced paddlers.

The Lower Darling River will be high to reach the 6 m mark needed to get water flowing into the Darling Anabranch. Expect a wide open river with relatively low banks lined by River Gums and Black Box, albeit as it is a fairly young river, it is comparatively narrower with smaller meanders than the upper Darling River.

I have only seen the start and finish of the first 30 km of the very upper sections of the Darling Anabranch above the Redbank Creek confluence, but it has minimal meanders and appears fairly shallow with smaller pools. The shallow nature causes even small flows to cause flooding. Like Redbank Creek, Black Box appears to be the dominant species along the river banks.

From the Redbank confluence with the Darling Anabranch:

The Darling Anabranch below the confluence is extremely sinuous with large meanders and you will mostly encounter long pools with short flowing sections. A small number of the shallow sections have channels that have fast and shallower sections. I only encountered three of these sections on my journey.

The river banks are lined with both River Red Gum and Black Box, sometimes mixed, sometimes not. There were very few really old River Red Gums in the top section, but these are common in the lower sections especially along the reach of the Murray River. Drowned trees are common in many places from the dams and weirs, especially along the final 50 km of the river.

Depending on the height of the Murray, the reach can be anything from 13 km at the washed out dam up to the first real flowing section at the 29 km mark. Even when the Murray is low, the lower section is really just a very long pool so this shouldn't alter the paddling along here.

Waterbirds were fairly common and varied on Tandou Ck; herons, spoonbills, bitterns, ducks, black swans, pelicans, cormorants and coots. The variety decreases as you head south with mainly just ducks, white-faced herons and black swans on the main anabranch. However you do get a lot of Box woodland parrots along the main anabranch and I was lucky enough to see multiple flocks of Pink Cockatoos. Mostly sheep farming with a couple cattle ranges. Lots of feral goats and a few feral pigs.