RENMARK TO MANNUM

We still had a bit to see before leaving Renmark.

We headed first to Headings Lookout about 12 kms out of Paringa. These are beautiful red cliffs overlooking the Murray and are spectacular at sunset. We actually visited them twice as the first time was a bit overcast and so we did not get the sunset reflection that they are renowned for. As you can see from the photo it was worth the second visit. Further out of town (about 30kms) we also visited the Customs House. It is run as a house boat agency and general store now but the building was built in the early days of the paddle steamer trade and all boats coming from NSW or Victoria had to stop and declare their goods and pay duty. A bit disappointing that it hasn’t been kept as an historical building though.

Another day we visited Rushton’s Roses. This is the largest rose farm in Australia and covers 25 acres and has 50,000 roses. Even though it is winter there were still enough roses out to see their beauty. It would be a spectacular place to visit in October during the rose festival. There are also large old fashioned display gardens and lovely nooks and crannies to explore. A huge avenue of David Austin roses and a corridor of ‘specials’ Such as roses dedicated to special people such as Princess Dianna, Grace of Monaco and even Ian Thorpe. They have a lovely cafeteria there too with a great old classic car collection and even some old outboard motors!

Within the town limits there is Olivewood House. This was the original home of Charles Chaffey – one of the Chaffey Bros. An orchard of very old olive trees stands in front of the house and even the old olive press is on display in the museum behind the home. Run by volunteers, it gives a fascinating picture into life in those early days. The volunteers are in the process of re-constructing the processing plant at the rear of the house showing the original methods of olive processing. They have sourced much of the original equipment and are currently putting it all in place.

After a week at Renmark we headed just 39kms down the road to a tiny place called Kingston-on-Murray (KOM). The village has only a population of 200 but again right on the river. We had picked up information on a number of things to do and see from this location. One was a river cruise called Loch Luna and the second was to visit Banrock Station winery and wetland centre. Banrock was only 5 minutes drive down the road and the winery overlooks their wetland. It is in a beautiful situation and they run a truly remarkable wetland conservation program and have been the recipient of many awards for this program. Their wine is pretty good too and in fact one of the rare wineries where we found the wine cheaper there than in the bottle shops! They have good walking trails around the wetlands but so bird lovers can see it in peace (no ankle biters running around making a lot of noise) you have to book. This way they leave at least an hour between walkers. We made our booking for the following Thursday, picked up some nice champagne at $7.50 per bottle and had a nice cup of coffee and wattle seed scones with Quandong Jam and cream….yum!

We also rang and booked our cruise (3 hour duration) on the Loch Luna cruise boat for the Monday. The weather was a little cool on Saturday and Sunday and Walter had a cold so we spent the time going to the Berri Farmers Markets on Saturday, also did some shopping there at Coles and then onto the Mallee Fowl restaurant which has really whacky décor and their signature dish was Quandong Cheese Cake!

On Monday we walked the 5 minutes down along the river to the cruise boat. The fog was thick but beginning to rise as we reached the boat. Blue skies were showing promise of a nice day. Cal was the boat owner and tour guide. He purchased the business about 8 months previously, quitting the bank for a ‘sea change’. He had a real passion for the river and its’ wildlife. His afternoon cruise cancelled just as we boarded so he said if it was alright with us we wouldn’t hurry and spend a bit longer then the 3 hours out there. It was a marvellous day with heaps of bird life and some quite rare sightings. We had homemade bikkies for morning tea and ended up spending 7 hours out along the river and the back creeks, arriving back after 4 pm. We certainly got our monies worth!

Banrock Boardwalk was 8 km s long and wended its way right around the billabong. Lots of black swans, Eurasian Coots and Purple Swamp hens around the water, but also Golden Rosellas, and many Mallee birds through the bush. Too many to list! We had packed our lunch and so just spent about 4 ½ hours wandering our way around.

We also took a drive ‘down stream’ to Loxton. Again a town of about 3,000 people has a pioneer village and lovely park areas along the river. We didn’t bother with the Pioneer Village as it didn’t look anything like the great one we saw at Swan Hill.

After a week at KOM we then headed further along the river (another 40kms) to Waikerie. Another nice park across the road from the river. It’s a town of about 5,000 people and like Renmark and KOM, rich in agriculture, particularly citrus and grapes, both wine and table. There is even a fresh orange juice factory here. Along the lovely cliffs along the river there is a cliff walk, and outside of town the Maize Island Conservation Park. Also the lovely Murray River Queen Paddle steamer resides here. You can even go on board during the day as they run a café/coffee shop on the back deck. We did this but also found that that evening (Saturday) they were running a 5 hour dinner/dance cruise. We jumped on that opportunity and booked. Gee now I had to go and work out what I was going to wear! Hadn’t “dressed up” for a while! We were treated to a couple of hours cruising down the river before sun set and then called into dinner. A lovely 3 course meal was served and they had a live band playing as well. After dinner (still cruising) everyone got up to dance. The cruise travelled for 2 ½ hours downstream toward Lock 2 before turning around and cruising back to Waikerie.

In Waikerie there is also Haverhand Chocolates and local place that hand makes chocolates mainly for the Adelaide market but also sell hot chocolate made with Belgian chocolate and also Chocolate fondues. We opted for a hot chocolate and a chocolate cookie only!

We drove out through Ramco towards Morgan through citrus orchards and vineyards. Morgan was one of the busiest river ports in the southern hemisphere during the Paddle boat era. Many travelled by train from Adelaide and caught the passenger boats to go along the Murray to Wentworth and then either along the Murray further or up the Darling. Morgan is also interesting as it is here where the BIG BEND is in the river. From its source, the Murray travels west until Morgan and it is here it turns south to the mouth. Geologists believe that many millions of years ago the river did disgorge itself into St Vincent Gulf, north of Adelaide but there was a great volcanic upheaval of the land forming the Adelaide Hills and blocked the river so it then found its way south.

Morgan had another great little museum run by volunteers which we found interesting. We drove back to Waikerie via the top road visiting Lock 2 on the way home.

From Waikerie we also spent a day driving up to Gluepot Reserve. This is about 65kms north of the town and owned and run by Birds Australia. Gluepot Reserve is Birds Australia's first publicly funded Reserve. Located in the semi-arid South Australian Mallee it is considered by many to be one of the crown jewels in the nation's reserve system. This 50,000 ha large area of virgin Mallee scrub contains no less than 6 nationally endangered bird species and a unique flora and fauna adapted to the harsh conditions. Purchased in 1997, Gluepot is rapidly becoming a centre for scientific research. Its accessibility means it is one of the few areas in Australia where birdwatchers can relatively easily observe otherwise hard-to-find species. So we packed another picnic lunch and went and visited and walked. Saw some amazing birds we had never seen before. If we come that way again we would go out and camp for a few days

From Waikerie we decided to drive as far (61 kms) to Swan Reach. This is another very tiny town on the river but we had a reason for going there. We wanted to drive up to Blanchetown where the first Lock is on the Murray is and just outside of Blanchetown is the Broomfield Conservation Park. This is one of the known habitats for the threatened Southern Hairy Nosed Wombat. They are only located in a few spots in Australia, another being along the Nullabor. So we packed up a picnic lunch and the Thermos and headed to Blanchetown. It’s another small place on the river but as we were having a cup of coffee in the café the girl told us we should go out to Portee Station. Portee Station was originally settled as a sheep grazing property along the banks and flood plain of the River Murray, the station took its name from the French verb PORTEE (to carry) caused by the need to unload and carry vessels and freight over the Moorunde sand bar at times of low river flow. It is 20,000 acres and now run as a B & B. However, the Australian Shearing team was there for this weekend to practice their craft. The team was punching through 3,000 sheep in order to get their time down so they can get their hands on the Golden Shears World Title being held in Norway in October. They were trying to raise money for their team so the public was invited. Well it was only 8 kms out of town so we made the decision to go. It was fantastic watching this team work. The roustabouts, Debbie Chandler from West Australia, and Mel Morris from Tasmania are wool handlers that are also part of the team heading to Norway. They made us tired just watching them! The current World Champion, Shannon Warnest, says this is the only time the team had to practice together. He told us that "This was pretty unique. This was the first time the Australian team had ever got together before the World Champs." The station owner and his daughter Liz invited us both back to their Gourmet BBQ dinner that night in the ground of the old homestead. So we went wombat hunting out at the reserve, finding plenty of warrens and holes but no wombats and then returned. It was a beautiful night with white tablecloths and crystal under gas heaters in front of the homestead. When Liz asked if we found any wombats and we said no, she told us a track on the property to drive on before returning to Swan Reach. Sure enough we saw three Southern Hairy nosed Wombats so all boxes and then some were ticked for theWe then left Swan Reach and drove another 69 kms to Mannum. It is a beautiful and historic river town with lovely stone buildings and good museum and lovely views across the river. We have driven further down to Murray Bridge (shopping and fuel cheaper here) and came back on another road crossing the free ferry back to the caravan park. The beautiful Murray Princess Paddlesteamer leaves from here for 4 to 7 day river cruises. It would be lovely to do but does fit the budget at this point in time.

Yesterday we travelled down to Monarto Zoo. This is jointly run by the Adelaide Zoo but is an Open Plains Zoo. We arrived early at 9.30 am and were on the first Zoo bus leaving for the Grasslands. This took us through Barbary sheep, Bison, Przewalski's Horses and varied Antelope including Bongo. We had never been up so close to some of these animals, even though they are at Dubbo Zoo. We got back to the Centre to be able to jump on the African Bus. Again so close to Giraffe, Hyenas, Zebra and then amazing Cheetahs and lions. Absolutely a different zoo experience. Very different to Dubbo.

Today is cold and miserable and tomorrow we leave for a longer trip (150kms) to Goolwa and the Mouth of the Murray. From all accounts the mouth of the river and Lake Alexandrina is quite sad with no water flow coming down at all so the salinity is rising and wildlife and aquatic life dying. We will report on this in our next bulletin.
We hope you are all well and happy,

Love to you all
The Happy Travellers

Rob and Walter

SWAN HILL TO RENMARK

As we last advised we attended the Swan Hill Rural Field day. Very interesting with load of farm machinery indicative to the area. Things such as mechanical pruners for the vines we had never seen before! I had my shoes cleaned twice to demonstrate a leather cleaner and we bought stain remover spray, tried wonderful strawberries, could buy yabbie burgers and we could view much of the craft work in the community hall. All in all a very interesting day!

Whilst in Swan Hill we visited the BIG COD and the Burke and Wills tree. This tree was purported to have been planted at the beginning of the fateful expedition of these two well known Australian explorers. It is now listed as the largest one of its type in Victoria and of historical significance.

From Swan Hill we drove the 139 kms to Robinvale. This is another cute little town beside the Murray, rich in vines, olives and citrus. There are over 40 different nationalities now residing in Robinvale. We had a beaut site right on the bank of the river in a lovely park. Bird life was prolific and we also tried for that big cod! On booking in the owner told us that the guys camped just down from us caught a 90cm cod the day before from the bank with a yabbie! Well that got us excited and gave him a customer for bait too! Needless to say over the week we only caught a carp each and taught a lot of worms to swim!
We went on lovely rambling walks along the river first one way then the other. Whistling kites haunted the river early each morning and on nightfall hunting for their dinner and during the day herons and egrets along with purple swamp hens stalked their prey. Lovely golden rosellas and white wing chuffs populated the trees around us. We had a fire bucket (an old beer keg cut in half) and the owners of the park provided us wood for a small sum, delivered to us on site.
We had heard about the Robinvale Olive grove and their variety of products so we drove out of town through the asparagus, vines and citrus to visit them. Their olives were great and so was their hand cream. 3 jars of olives and one hand cream now live in the van.
One area that we both had read about for a long time and never visited was Mungo National Park. The park lies 110km north-east of Mildura and150km north-west of Balranald. So we left the van in Robinvale and with the 4WD, tent, wine and necessities we travelled the 150 kms north to camp for a couple of days.
Mungo National Park covers most of an ancient dry lake bed on the plains of south western NSW. During the ice ages, Lake Mungo was one of a chain of freshwater lakes strung along Willandra Creek, then the main channel of the Lachlan River. These dry lakes preserve one of the longest continual records of Aboriginal life in Australia, dating from around 50,000 years ago through to the present day. Dating of ancient burials shows that these are the oldest known fully modern humans outside of Africa.
We set up camp in the main camping area. Basic facilities there, only pit toilets. We had taken our change tent with us so we could boil the billy for warm water and wash down! We first visited the Information centre where we found we could also buy cheap fire wood and picked up the maps for the following days tour around the park. There are many interesting features in the park, but none more so than “The Walls of China”. These are also known as the lunette. It is a crescent shaped sand dune developed over thousands of years. The layers of soil and the different colours typify another era and time frame.
The Pink soils at the base is the Gol Gol unit, laid down between 120,000 and 100,000 years ago, a dry period.
The brownish cream and white sands are the Upper and Lower Mungo units, 60,000 – 37,000 years ago, formed when the lakes were full.
The grey clays which cap the residual pinnacles are the Arump/Zanci units 37,000-18,000 years ago, a period during which the lakes filled and dried out several times.
Within the latter 2 units extensive evidence of Aboriginal occupation can be found. Then beyond the main lunette are the white dune crests which have formed over the period since the lakes finally dried some 15,000 years ago.
Early next morning we packed our lunch and drinks and drove the 10 kms across the old lake bed to the lunette. The vision of the lunette and the fantastic shapes makes you feel that you have landed either on the moon or Mars! We spent 2 hours wandering over the lunette, discovering old bones, shells and fossils. Then back into the car for the drive the 70kms around the lunette, through the Mallee country, the white sand dunes, the old water tanks and evidence of station properties. There are even old wheel ruts where the old Cobb & Co coach used to pull up regularly at a perennial well. We ate lunch at the other camp site (no camp fires allowed here as it is Mallee country).
After getting back to camp we had afternoon tea but arranged to drive back to the lookout over the lunette for sunset. Check out our photos for the amazing colour changes – it was definitely worth doing.
Back to Robinvale where we then spent a day washing and ironing ready for our trip into Mildura. We stayed on the NSW side of the river at Buronga. Another fabulous caravan park, again on the river bank, with a fire bucket and this time the wood was free. We had a great view across the river to where the Paddlesteamers left for their cruises. Two friends, who used to reside at Cobar, now live in Mildura so we were able to catch up with Peter and Chris. They arranged to pick us up on the Friday night and we went out to the Coomiealla Club for dinner. Lovely club and nice meals. The following day again picked us up and drove us around the area. We visited Woodsies Gem Shop, the old Pysche Pump House, around the river to where old barges have been just left to rot, a great old country pub for hamburgers for lunch, then on to Red Cliffs to view Old Lizzie. Now how to describe Old Lizzie? It is a monster piece of machinery made to clear the paddocks of stumps etc. It was planned to take her across the river but it was found that she was too heavy for any of the river vessels at the time, so she stayed on the Victorian side.
On another day we met Pete and Chris at the boat ramp to go with them on the river. We drove up stream past many houseboats and amazing river front properties. Bird life on the river is great and this time we saw Mum and Dad swan with 6 little cygnets. We pulled up about 32kms up river and Pete was prepared with the Eco Billy , the BBQ for a sausage sizzle, coffee, tea and bikkies. After relaxing for an hour we then headed back down to Mildura.
On the Friday, Pete again picked us up (without Chris as she had Grandmother duties) and drove us north of Wentworth to where his son is Production Manager in the Gingko Sand Mine. Tim had organised to show us around the mine. It was about 1 ½ hours drive to the site. Now this is one big sand pit! With big boys toys too! They extract the sand and then they are able to separate it into about 8 different minerals including titanium. Most of the finer breakdown is done at Broken Hill after being trucked there. We left there and drove the 60kms to Pooncarie, had a drink at the pub before heading back down the Pooncarie road to Mildura. Two other friends who also used to live in Cobar, now have “retired” to a property on the Pooncarie road, 23 kms north of Wentworth. So we opted to drop in for a cuppa on the way through. Sheryl and Allan have a lovely 105 acres right on the Darling. They gave us a quick look around and we had coffee with them and arranged to bring the van up and stay for a couple of days.
We left Mildura and headed towards “Sullivan’s Run” on the Pooncarie Road, via Dareton. We arrived at lunch time, set up the van and Allan & Sheryl decided that we would have lunch on the “party boat” on the river. Lovely sunny day so we loaded up the boat and headed off up stream. Here the Darling looks quite healthy as the water is still under the influence of the lock at Wentworth. Check out the difference of the river at Pooncarie though. It was so lovely cruising slowly up the river. Again the bird life was great. Whistling Kites, egrets, herons and even a Royal Spoonbill and a juvenile Rufous Nankeen Night Heron.
The next day we repeated the exercise but this time down river after the horses were fed and the chooks released from their pen, allowing them to roam free. Sheryl and Allan are living in their “up market” shed at present. Their plans for their new home are lovely and the building of it is just about to commence.
The following day, Sheryl & I dropped into Wentworth to pick up the mail and get a few provisions. She took me down to where to two mighty rivers, the Darling and the Murray meet so I was able to get some photos of that plus the memorial to the Fergie tractor. These tractors built the levee bank that saved Wentworth from a flood. On return we again packed up the boat with the BBQ this time to go further downstream and find a nice bank where we could pull over and cook lunch. About ¾ of the way down, it was discovered that not one of us remembered the matches. Having No smokers certainly can have its disadvantages! We cruised on until we found some habitation and Allan went up to the house and begged for a box of matches – otherwise no BBQ! From now on they will have matches or lighter on the boat and we will have one packed up with the BBQ! Much laughter over this I can tell you.
With a bit of sadness we left their lovely property on Friday and crossed the border into South Australia. Whilst in Mildura we did pick up a brochure about what you could and couldn’t take into the S.A. Riverland area. My herb garden that has travelled up to Cooktown and back was a casualty. So I left the herbs with Chris in Mildura for her garden – just taking the empty pot with me. When we arrived at the border, it is a mandatory stop at the Quarrantine station. The inspector went through our glove box, our frig in the car and everywhere in the caravan. I had cleaned out just about everything at Sheryl’s but found I also could not take in my garlic or the chilli! So first stop in Remark after setting up the van was to the shops to re-stock for fruit and vegies!
One of the reasons we had timed our run into Renmark for the June long weekend was that it was when the Riverland Balloon festival was on. So Saturday after picking up the info at the Information Centre we drove out to the No 2 oval where they were launching. As the winds were in the wrong direction, they decided to launch at another site called Talda about 27kms from Renmark. So we dutifully tailed the procession out there. It was well worth it. Nine balloons of varying sizes being unloaded, laid out and going through the procedure of getting them inflated for flying. After they all flew off we went back to Renmark where again we are camped right on the river. The river is huge here and so much houseboat traffic. We overlook the old 1927 built Paringa bridge that opens twice a day to let the river traffic through.
At 6.30 pm we headed back into town to the No 2 oval for what they call “Night Glow”. All 9 balloons are again inflated but this time do not leave the ground. They use a yellow flame to “glow” the balloon. Very spectacular at night, with the varying balloon colours, all glowing in the dark! All this made us decide to opt for a flight the next day. So up at 5 am in the morning, down to the oval for the briefing, then back out to Talda, as again the winds were in the wrong direction. We had to help get the basket and balloon ready for flight, then into the basket and away. It wasn’t anything like I expected. It is very calm, quiet and amazingly serene. Initially we were travelling about 30 knots about 150 metres from the ground then we often dropped down to within 10-15 feet of the ground to cruise at lower speeds. Cruising over properties, trees and stock. The flight was about 1 ½ hours before we landed, packed up the balloon and treated to Langhorne Creek Champagne and chocolates. Then we were driven back to Renmark and the Renmark Hotel for a slap up breakfast. This didn’t finished until 12 midday! The Renmark Hotel has amazing history. Built by the Chaffey Bros. they only allowed it to supply meals and accommodation and NO Alcohol. This surely must be the original Pub with NO Beer!
We had a quiet afternoon as the weather came in and overnight we have had about 1 inch of rain. So today it gave me a chance to update the web site before we go off rambling around this beautiful area tomorrow. So much to see here including 25 acres of roses, over 50,000 of them, wineries such as Banrock Station, and Angoves. Berri with its almond shops and fruit juices, lookouts and lochs, old homesteads of the Chaffey Brothers. And so on, and on……

Until next time, enjoy life as we are
The Happy Travellers Rob & Walter

Birds Eye View of the Landscape from the Balloon

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!


We farewelled our friends Kev, Fran and Becky at Lochinvar and travelled to Medowie to stay for a time with Howard and Lyn Grigor and “Will & Wont”. These are the 2 baby wombats that Lyn is currently hand rearing. Gorgeous little things that without her love and care would not be part of this world.

We arrived on the Friday and planned to attend the Rotary District 9670 conference in Newcastle. We are honorary members of the Rotary Club of Salamander Bay thanks to Howard and Lyn. This enables us to continue to share Rotary fellowship with clubs as we travel.

The conference was wonderful and a great place for us to catch up with friends. The Friday night was a cocktail party held at the Harbourview Function centre on the foreshore of Newcastle harbour. Saturday and Sunday was held at the Newcastle Town Hall – lovely old building. It was an inspirational conference with great speakers.

We were guest speakers at the Salamander Bay Rotary Club at the Breakfast Club meeting on the Tuesday, outlining our travels up to that point. It was nice for us to meet the members and they us, as we have sort of been their “ghost” members! Following the meeting we packed up and headed to the Southern Highlands to spend some time with family before heading west.

It was great spending time with my Mum and sister and her family. Whilst we were there, the Open Garden scheme was available in a number of the local gardens. What a lovely time I had with Mum visiting a number of them, all very different but gorgeous and innovative. We first visited a small garden in Queen Street Bowral before going to the larger ones. Milton Park was one of the old established gardens, initially being the home of Anthony Hordern. It is now a resort but the gardens are a treasure. Some of the old trees there are majestic. On the Sunday, we went out to Exeter to visit Red Cow Farm. Mum said she had driven past this cottage built in the 1800’s many times but had never visited it. It just looks like a small cottage garden from the front but what a surprise when you go in and start to explore. It was over 2.5 ha! Lovely formal areas, lakes, ponds and 800 roses! It would be a delightful garden to go back to in the spring to see the differences. It was lovely now but would be different again with the seasons.

Fitzroy Falls has always been a favourite of mine so we packed up lunch one day and with 2 other friends from Queensland went and hiked right around to the Renown Lookout. Fabulous views of the falls and the valley, dropping away from the coastal escarpment. We even spotted a lyre bird and there were some great wild flowers out too.

We also caught up with one of my favourite Aunts & Uncles! Uncle Ken cooked a lovely Good Friday meal for us of fish and chips and arranged with Walter to go down to Thirlmere and visit the Steam Train museum. Mum and Aunty Judy and I played many games of Scrabble with the results being fairly evenly distributed!

I have been home to Bowral many times over the years but had never attended the Scottish Festival at Bundanoon known as “Brigadoon”. So Mum, Walter & I packed up our lunch and headed out early on the Saturday to attend this famous affair. Even though we were early by most standards, hundreds had already arrived! For those who don’t know the area, Bundanoon is a tiny village on the Southern Highlands of NSW. For this day even the name of the village is changed, all the signs now read “Brigadoon”. This is a fabled village in Scottish folk lore that rises out of the mist each 100 years and the villages celebrate the day. They cannot leave the village or the village will disappear forever.

It was a bright sunny day and the lads and lassies had donned their kilts and the pipers had skirled their pipes for a majestic and fun day. We watched them tossing the caber, throwing the haggis, tossing the hay bale and best of all the brawny lads had to heft the “Fergie Stones”. These are huge round stones weighing from 130kgs to 160kgs. They had to be hoisted onto wine barrels sitting in a stand and with a tyre on top! The winner was a policeman from Newcastle NSW! I heard a couple of young men behind me state “that they weren’t going there for a night out”!!!

We left in time to beat the crowd and went and visited Brian & Liz Patttinson. Brian & Liz did live in Dubbo for many years before making their “sea change” to Bowral. They have a lovely home and seem very well settled in to their new environment.

We had to say goodbye so that we could continue our travels. Our plans are to travel along the Murray to its mouth in South Australia.

We headed out towards Albury and booked into the All Seasons Caravan Park in Lavington. We nearly got lost on the way in as our wonderful GPS didn’t know about the new bypass freeway! We were into Albury before we knew it and had to do some back tracking! We had a nice site but before we even had our feet on the ground we had a phone call from two lovely friends we had met in Rollingstone Qld last year. Brian and Leonie live in Wodonga. We arranged with them to go over to their place the following day.

Their hospitality was exceptional and loaded us into their car and drove us to Beechworth for lunch. Beechworth is a lovely historic gold village about 40kms south of Wodonga. We ate pies at the famous Beechworth Bakery and wandered the streets looking at the facades of the buildings – all kept in the original painting. The autumn colours were also starting to be evident. Such an interesting history. The Chinese even cut long channels through the rock to assist in channelling the water to wash the gold. The old hospital, now only the stone front remaining used to treat over a 100 patients a day. Brian drove us around the village and even out to the old Powder store. We left Beechworth and drove through Yackandandarah, buying lovely apples from a roadside stall before climbing Mt Stanley and then back down through the pine plantations. The road then took us around Lake Hume. This is terribly sad to look at, as the water level is so low. The whole area down here is so very dry, you really do feel for the farmers.

The following day we again met up with them and drove from Wodonga up to Yarrawonga, checking out some river camping spots as we went. Yarrawonga is on the Victorian side of the river and is joined to Mulwala by a whacky bridge with a bend in it. The story goes that it was a joint consultative work between the two states and their engineers but after construction had commenced, found it didn’t meet in the middle! We drove over the bridge and found a nice spot beside the lake to have afternoon tea before travelling on. We then drove along the NSW side of Lake Mulwala. We found a place mentioned in the Camps 3 book called Kyffins Reserve. We drove in and found that it had some great free camping sites. We picked out where we wanted to be and then drove back to Albury. We went up to The Monument, situated above Albury, commemorating those lost in the wars. The sun was setting in a beautiful sunset as we were there with that lovely soft light reflecting off the Monument Tower.

A quiet day was decided upon just to enjoy each others company for the next day. Brian & Leonie decided upon a BBQ for lunch so I made some rissoles to take. However, after I had finished I turned around and knocked my knife block. I felt it falling and instinctively put my hand out to stop it. Whoops! Wrong move….the carving knife had already began slipping out and it caught my little finger on the way down. The end of the story was 6 stitches! (All fixed now though). Thanks to Leonie who played nurse and medical carer getting me to Wodonga Emergency whose staff did a great job it repairing it.

We left these lovely friends and headed to Kyffins Reserve at Lake Mulwala for some free camping on the edge of the lake. Lovely spot. We relaxed and had camp fires and watched the marvellous sunsets over the lake. There was a myriad of bird life with corellas, rosellas, black swans, ibis, Azure kingfisher, ducks, grass parrots and cockatoos. Many more as well that I hadn’t even been able to identify! We also had cute little ringtail possums running around our camp at night. Many an apple went their way! After 5 days though it was time to find a caravan park to fill up the water tanks and get the washing done!

We travelled a whole 6 kms to Lake Mulwala Holiday Park. This has now been taken over by the Lake Mulwala Ski Club but it is right on the lake and a lovely place to stay. Has great cabins too. So we did the full spring clean, inside and out. They allowed us to wash the van using the fire hose as it was water from the lake. We visited the Yarrawonga Info Centre and bought some great booklets called Murray River Access! They show all the free camp sites along the river and there are heaps! So we hopped in the car and did a bit of a “reccy”! We found a great site only 5 kms from town on the Victorian side down a road known as Forges Pump Road. Lovely spot right on the river with a great sandy beach.

So we left the caravan park and headed out for some more free camping along the river. We had 4 days in this idyllic place, reading and watching the mighty Murray amble by. There was quite a bit of water here as the weir forming Lake Mulwala was just up stream. We tried fishing but didn’t catch anything. I got a bit dirty though as my line was in and the fish were jumping right in front of me!

We spent one day driving the 40kms to Rutherglen where we checked out the famous Parker Pies and went wine and olive tasting! We can really recommend the pies; they are not cheap but worth the money. I even bought a couple of frozen ones – crocodile and crab to cook in the caravan for lunch the following day. They were very delicious for those of you turning up your nose here! All Saints winery is an incredible building built like a castle and we also visited the Indigo Cheese Factory for some local produce.

Then on to Tocumwal where we invited to park the van in the yard of other lovely friends who we met in Walkamin last year. Marion & Neil have a lovely home on 4 acres. Neil normally trucks grain but with the drought there was no work last year so they took their van to Walkamin on the Atherton tableland to truck sugar.

It was so good to catch up with them and catch up on their news. They sold their van in Cairns last year on their way home but only a month ago purchase a lovely new Regal van with shower and toilet. So lovely we could nearly swap ours for it!

Again this amazing pair showed us incredible hospitality and loaded us into their car and firstly drove us out to a place called Ulupna Island. It is on the Murray and I had read about it as it has a good population of koalas. Well I can honestly say I have not ever seen anything like it. There was virtually a koala in every second tree. So good to see this unique Aussie animal in such numbers!

Then the decision was to leave fairly early and take the 2 hour drive to Bright to see the autumn colours and come back via Milawa on the Food and Wine Trail! Now we are talking….

Bright blew us both away. We had heard that this is the place to see autumn colour but I certainly wasn’t prepared for the overall effect! It is so deserving of its reputation. It was a cold and misty rainy day when we arrived but that added to the effect. It is truly stunning. It isn’t far from the Victorian Ski fields and we found that Mt Hosham had 15cm of snow whilst we were there!

The town also has a unique quality about it and also has many craft and gallery types of shops. We left there and Neil drove us out of town and up a mountain to have lunch at the Red Stag Deer and Emu Farm. The food and wine was great and the views looking back over the Bright Valley a picture. There were lots of Emus, Ostriches and the big Red Stag deer to be seen and even a little tiny baby goat in its red knitted coat was running around. We then headed toward Milawa and firstly Brown Brothers winery. No poor wines on that list let me tell you! After buying a few good bottles we headed for the Milawa Cheese factory where we were able to participate in a great cheese tasting, then it was the chocolates. Loaded up with the “3 course meal” (wine, cheese and chocolates) we headed for Milawa Mustards. Here we undertook more tasting of mustards, tapenades and raspberry jams! Laden to the hilt we drove home via Wangaratta back to Tocumwal where we had a plate of soup for tea!

Again, we had to say goodbye and off we drove again, this time to Echuca. Cold and rainy but we are about now to go out and explore the historic port area here. The weather was not very kind to us and so we didn’t venture very far.

Saturday we decided again that it was time for greener fields so we headed off from Echuca towards Swan Hill. Swan Hill was named by Major Mitchell who had spent a sleepless night on the banks of the Murray on this spot, being kept awake by the noise of some swans – hence the name!

We met up with some lovely friends again, Steve and Vicki. We initially met them at Walkamin on the Atherton tableland, then again at Cooktown, then Yeppoon and then Mon Repos before moving into NSW and meeting them again in Dubbo. So we have had such fun being with them again. We have a great camping site on the river bank. Not quite the Murray but what they call an Anna branch. It is the “Little Murray” or Marraboor River. It comes off the Murray and runs into the Murray. We are only 100 yards from where it runs back into the Murray. The Paddle steamer makes its way past us twice a day, tooting its horn.

We have spent 2 days at the Pioneer Village. We initially thought that 2-3 hours would do it including the ride on the paddle boat but the village was so extensive and so interesting we extended our passes to go back again today. The village was wonderful and has something for everyone.

Tomorrow we are going to attend the huge Rural Field day here that show cases not only all the farm machinery and innovations but all the local produce including the wines for tasting! Its only $3.00 for pensioners! So we’ll be there…..

We will report on this jaunt in our next spiel..

Hope you are all well and life is treating you gently.

The Happy Travellers

Rob & Walter

Rainbow Beach, Mudjimba to Dubbo

In December as previously stated, we left Rainbow Beach to spend Christmas with our son Michael, his wife Tanya and our three gorgeous grandchildren. It had been 2 years since we had seen them last so as you can imagine, we saw how grown up they had become.

We arrived there on a Saturday and both Nick and Briony were to be christened in the Catholic Church. Tomeeka our lovely 18 year old granddaughter had also come up as she was to be Godmother for the two. Tomeeka had just completed her HSC and hoped to get into Uni to undertake Nursing.

The christening was lovely with Michellie (the oldest) carrying the communion wine so she had an important part to play too.

Christmas Day dawned bright and sunny and Mike and Tanya bought the kids down to the beach before breakfast for a swim. They were allowed to open a couple of Santa presents first. We had a lovely swim at Mudjimba beach which was across the road form the Caravan Park before we headed back to Mike’s for Ham and Cheese Croissants’ for brekky! After that the presents under the Christmas tree were attacked. The kid’s favourites this year were Dora the Explorer for Briony, Spiderman for Nick and Bratz for Keelie!

Just before lunch the weather began closing in and Tanya’s dad, Bill, Mike and Walter hastened to erect a tarp over the patio area as we were planning to have lunch there. Then the rain came………….and it was the last we saw the sun in Queensland! It poured rain for the next 10 days, part of that nasty sub-tropical low that came in to much of the south east Queensland coast. One night we had 80 mls rain – like being under a waterfall! Although the weather was not kind and no more swims at the beach, we had a great time with them all. We went 10 pin bowling one day, watched the cricket, played card games with the kids, ate too much and just enjoyed their company.

On the 5th January we left Mudjimba and began heading towards Dubbo. Walter had a Pre-Admission appointment on the 15th January there that he had to keep. We made some good travelling decisions and went through the Glasshouse Mountains, down beside Somerset Dam to Toowoomba, then onto Goondiwindi. We stopped the first night just in a truck stop about 65kms out of Goondiwindi. Then headed on down through Moree to Narrabri. We decided to stay a few days here as neither of us had spent any time here. It was a fascinating place.

We visited the Cotton Centre that had a very informative display from which we learnt a lot. We understand now much better there use of water, the technology that has gone into plant development and the uses of cotton. We drove out to Sawn Rocks, part of the Mt Kaputar National Park. These are incredible rock formations dating back to the Vulcan era, many millions of years ago. On another day, we drove out to another part of the National Park, the site of Mt Kaputar itself. Its’ about an hours drive and you climb through steep valleys and mountains with spectacular scenic views over the surrounding plains. You can actually drive right to Mt Kaputar with only the last 100m being steps and a boardwalk. It was much cooler up there, Narrabri being about 36 degrees and on the National Park about 27! There was lots of wildlife and birds, Eastern Grey Kangaroos, Goannas, King Parrots and Black Cockatoos to name just a few.

Our third day we drove out the 23kms west of the town to visit the Australian Compact Array Radio Telescope. It is actually 6 telescopes, on a rail line. Very impressive and they can also work with the Radio Telescope at Parkes and the Radio Telescope at Siding Springs in the Warrumbungles. When this happens it is the same as one telescope with a diameter of 320 Kms! Amazing..

We then ambled further down the highway to one of our favourite places – The Warrumbungle National Park. We spent 3 idyllic days here surrounded by the usual wildlife. One kangaroo decided that the shade under our annex was definitely to his liking! We even had a huge goanna amble through one day.

Our destination of course though was Dubbo to have Walter’s errant left hip fixed. He has really suffered in terrible chronic pain over the last 8 months. The date of the 13th February was given to him for the operation so whilst he was waiting he decided to have his eyes checked out too as he found his vision was getting blurry. He though he needed a new script! Wrong!!! They found he had a large cataract on his right eye so another operation had to be organised.

Well he has now had the “full grease and oil change” and has recovered from both ops really well. Whilst he was undergoing all this I decided that I could get a bit of casual work for the 5 weeks of hanging around and I was employed by Fletcher International Exports. This is a lamb abattoir where 95% of its end product goes overseas. I was working in the Cold Boning room and it entailed packing meat, and after they gave and trained me on knives, preparing it for packaging. It wasn’t rocket science but I enjoyed it. The fellow employees were many like us travelling Australia and picking up work as they go along for a couple of months. They were such a happy lot and the company has another plant over in Albany in WA and we will most likely try for work again there too when we get that side of Australia.

We left Dubbo on Friday and headed to Lochinvar to meet up with our very dear friends, Fran and Kevin and Rebecca. They have a gorgeous house and property at Lochinvar and we can park the van in the front yard.

On Saturday I travelled with Fran to Raymond Terrace to watch her with Riding for the Disabled (RDA). Fran is sitting for her coaches exam in another 8 weeks and had the opportunity to attend and assist with placing wheelchair bound kids onto the horses. It was so rewarding to see these kids faces. Instead of looking up at people from their wheelchair they are looking down from the horse and interacting with these lovely animals. Some had Cerebral Palsy, one other girl about 14 years of age had been a bright and happy normal little girl and at 10 years old had had a stroke. We don’t have anything to complain about have we?

We had a great dinner out with them on Saturday night at one of the Lower Hunter vineyards called Mojo’s. Most beautiful food and fabulous presentation. We are now house sitting for them for a couple of days, feeding the dogs, Ruby and Tessa, checking the horses, Rags and Malibu, feeding and cajoling the chooks to lay eggs! Kev and Fran have gone to spend a few days at Mudgee Homestead, the most beautiful B & B where we were married. We are looking after Becky, getting her on the bus in the mornings to go to work as well. Kev & Fran don’t really get much of a chance to be able to take any days off so this is an opportunity for them and for us to spend a bit of time in a real house. They have 12 acres with a lovely dam at the end of it, there are so many birds too. W e are spending our time in the pool or reading, a real tough life.

From here we leave Friday to go to Medowie and stay with Howard and Lyn and attend the Rotary District conference in Newcastle. It will be great to catch up with many friends before leaving for the Southern Highlands. We will be staying in Mittagong Caravan Park for 2 weeks. A chance to catch up with my Mum in Bowral before Kim and Mary Jane meet us on the second week. After they have a look around the area we will be travelling the “wallaby’ with them to Albury/Wodonga and follow the mighty Murray River all the way into South Australia. From there we will either go across the Nullarbor or north up the Centre!

From the Merry Travellers