RIVER RAMBLING

Stunning Countryside As We Travelled

And Then More

Well, hello!  I sincerely hope this missive finds you well and happy.  I trust you are not going into decline due to either the finish of the footy season, or the rather unpleasant result.  No?  Great. 

You find us this bright and sunny morning in the tiny SA town of Morgan, and yes we have covered a little ground since the last entry.  This has probably been the most iconic stretch of our journey as we have traveled alongside some of Australia’s best known and loved rivers. We have also stayed at a couple of our best known old towns.  For your edification the journey went something like this:

THE ROAD TO GUNDAGAI

Golden Fields Backed By Deep Blue Ranges

Golden Fields of Canola

I know it’s hackneyed, but truly, we were on the road to Gundagai and so I have little choice in the matter.  The road from Batemans Bay where we left the south coast of NSW traveled initially through some incredibly steep mountains and hills.  We felt that these exceeded in height those of the Apple Isle, but as there were no markers in view we cannot verify this.  Suffice to say, poor old Zed with Jezzy behind did have to work extra hard to get us over some of those peaks.  Fortunately we had quite good weather with no rain to speak of and very little wind.  The scenery at first mimicked much of what we had seen before by way of verdant rain forest, tree ferns, giant eucalyptus and heavy undergrowth.  Eventually the bush thinned out and we found ourselves travelling through stunning undulating country covered with golden pastures.  I am not sure why the paddocks were gold – certainly not due to any cropping!  It must have been either due to lack of rain, or perhaps lack of sun, but whatever the cause, it made for some stunning landscapes under striking cloud formations.

We received some great directions from a group of ‘permanents’ at the CP before leaving the coast and were able to completely bypass Canberra and shoot across country to Gundagai.  Along the way we passed thru’ a section of country occupied, theoretically, by a mob of Canberrians who had opted for a country lifestyle.  Hobby farms fenced in white and decorated with handsome horseflesh, alpacas and fancy coloured sheep dotted the roadside.  It was quite pretty and did indeed look like what a group of pollies might think farming is all about.

We passed too, through the delightful and historic town of Yass – what amazing countryside that is!  After stopping to take a few photos at the look-out at Yass we continued on and finally arrived in pretty Gundagai early afternoon.  It was a delightful day with blue sky happily decorated with fluffy white clouds.  For once I didn't check the weather report as we sat outdoors swapping stories with other travelers.  One of these travelers surprised us by being very politically incorrect and rather uncomfortably off-colour by telling us how he wished to leave this world.  I won’t go into sordid details, but trust me it involved a male fantasy that most of you blokes would thrill to.  Those of you who know me well, know that I am far from being a prude, but really, when you have only just met someone, I think a modicum of good taste and caution is called for.  Oh well, DD is still talking about it, and now I have to convince him that it is not going to happen that way for him!!

A Wet And Muddy Gundagai CP

Hills Around Gundagai

Due to the wonderful location of the park, and the delightful weather we booked four nights in Gundagai.  We were right on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River – I mean, just how Aussie can you get, sitting in the country town of Gundagai, on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River?  It was magic.  Sadly, that afternoon I took no photographs, believing we had another 3 full days to do all that sort of thing.  Hmmm, well best laid plans and all that stuff – during that night, I was woken by the sound of rain on the roof of the van.  Oh well, a bit of rain would be nice I thought!  It did not stop raining at all the whole of the remainder of our stay there.  Seriously the place turned into a bit of a quagmire and the rain just kept coming down.  The river did rise just a smidge, but we had no flood qualms, just wet ones.

Eventually giving up on a spot of fine weather we headed off to see The Dog – you know the one, The Dog Sits On The Tucker-box!  We saw the Dog, and his mate and took a few rather ordinary photos of them both.  The rain was pretty prohibitive of further exploration, but we did go into the local Visitor Centre to see the amazing marble carvings. The incredibly talented gentleman who did these carvings was Frank Rusconi; a well known name in the region and somewhat of a legend.  The work is something else and all the marble was quarried ‘locally’.  As the name indicates, Frank was Italian and his works have a distinct Italian and Roman Catholic flavour. Frank was also responsible for the statue of The Dog.

The country around Gundagai is stunning and there it was emerald green.  The town has seen more than its fair share of flooding and as a result of this tendency, the old train tracks were raised high above the ground on timber bridges – these old structures have long since been replaced by huge concrete structures, but the locals have left much of the remains of the old timber-work for posterity and these old structures give the town quite a quaint perspective.

The Dog Still Waits

Slippery and Muddy Road-works

Fields Of Sunshine Under Stormy Skies

Amazing Marble Carvings

MAKING HAY WHILE THE SUN SHINES

Needless to say, the day we were scheduled to leave Gundagai, the sun was brightly shining and the rain had finally moved on.  We hit the road at a reasonably early hour and set out for Hay, another Murrumbidgee town.  We left the main roads and took various little short-cuts across country – finding along the way an abundance of road-works and lovely slippery muddy roads. 

The CP at Hay was quite a nice one, right on the main road.  The bloke, having unhitched and done all the blokey things wandered off to explore the park and returned all agog because he had found the park had a communal fire-place.  At around 4.30 he headed off to light the fire and as they say in the classics, “If you build it, they will come”, so it is with fires, at least, “if you light it, they will come!” applies just as well.  Before attempting to make tea I joined the bloke at the fire, just for a little while you understand.  Folks started to wander in from the surrounding vans and before we could blink, we had quite a nice little group assembled.  One of the ladies, Sondra was a singer.  Not just someone who could knock out a tune, but a truly good singer.  She had a brilliant personality, did a marvelous Louis Armstrong impersonation and entertained us right royally for several hours.  I thoroughly enjoyed myself, singing along with Sondra – we shared a love of the same music and most of what she sang I also knew.  It was a great night.  Needless to say, tea didn't happen, but another lovely lady Margaret produced a bag of spuds which the blokes very efficiently first wrapped in foil and then placed t strategically amongst the coals.  I dug out a carton of sour cream and somewhere along the way we dined right royally on baked potatoes and sour cream.  What a wonderful night!

Hay has a scattering of historical buildings and we decided to visit a couple of them on our first full day in Hay.  The Bishop’s House was our first destination, but sadly we arrived there a tad too early and so wandered away planning to return later after visiting the old Gaol.  Well, the old Gaol sounded interesting in the literature but sadly whilst the actual buildings had been quite well preserved, the interiors were really not well done and just housed a collection of museum style items.  We have in our travels seen a few too many of these museums now and find that mostly they are all the same, give or take the odd unusual curio.  We were so disappointed we decided to give the Bishop’s House a miss after all and simply took ourselves off to have a little lunch on the banks of the Murrumbidgee.

Goal, POW Camp, Hospital, Wayward Girls Home

The Rolling Brown Waters Of The Murrumbidgee

ROLLING INTO ROBINVALE

Friendly Neighbour

Are They Flowers?

From the historic town of Hay we continued following the Murrumbidgee east, past where it meets up with and succumbs to the Mighty Murray River.  Shortly before reaching Mildura, we took a short deviation, 6 ks off the beaten track into Victoria and the delightful town of Robinvale.  This is almost one of those twin town sorts of things.  On one side of the Murray, in NSW is the town of Euston and on the other side, in Vic, is Robinvale.  The CP at Robinvale is right on the river banks and once again we were in a position where we could almost dangle our feet in the river from the steps of the van.  It was surreal, the river was surrounded by native bush, we were on the banks of the river, an enormous bridge over the river soared almost over our heads where we camped, and the town nestled at our backs.

Little Cuties

Stately Visitors

Yet more clutches of Wood/Maned Ducks and attendant ducklings waddled around the campsite, along with all manner of other bird life  including the loud, raucous and highly intelligent Sulphur Crested Cockatoos.  We spent 3 nights at Robinvale and I must say I was reluctant to leave this semi secluded and picturesque spot.  We just happened to be there on Saturday when they have a market in town.  I have to say, it was one of the best little town markets we have been to on our travels.  Due to being in the dreaded fruit fly exclusion zone we didn’t want to risk buying fresh produce, but I did find some pretty little earings in a colour I had been looking for.  We discovered too, a stall selling all manner of olive produce and we availed ourselves of some very good quality flavoured olive oils.  Next to this stall was a wonderful little Italian mamma who was selling all manner of home cooked tomato sauces, savoury dumplings and other mouth watering items.  We left the market laden down with our tasty purchases and I have to say that Italian lady’s produce kept us very happy for a couple of days.

Morning Reflections

Tranquility

The Bridge Soaring Above Us

Even had we wished to stay longer (and I did) we could only get our spot on the river for 3 nights and so had to move on.  The only caution I would raise to anyone considering staying at the Robinvale CP on the river, is to make sure you have a bay reasonably close to the amenities block.  We were waaaay down one end of the park and had a very long and steep climb to the loos and somewhere along the way DD managed to injure his knee.  I will tell you more about that injury later tho’.

I Wanted To Stay Here

Days End

Ever So Softly The Day Slips Away To The West

MEETING UP AT MILDURA

From The Van

Sundowners Galah Style

Sunday morning saw us up and away heading back across the border into NSW and towards Mildura.  The lovely couple we had met at Hay, Sondra and Dick were going to be there for a couple more days and we were keen to catch up with them before they returned home to their home in the Melbourne ‘burbs.

We just have to be one of the luckiest couples around.  Unbeknown to us, the Mildura Country and Western show was almost about to start and so we could only get 5 nights at the CP at Buronga – now it gets a little confusing here.  Mildura is actually in Victoria, but Buronga, just a literal ‘stone’s throw’ across the river, is in NSW!  We stayed at the Buronga CP and once again we were fortunate enough to get the last available site right on the banks of the Murray River.  We were just a couple of vans down from Sondra and Dick and amongst a lovely group of folk.  This is a large caravan park and it was pretty much full, even during the week leading up to the big event.  The atmosphere in the camp was brilliant – even though I personally prefer quiet out of the way spots, once in a while it is lovely to get all social and mingle with the other caravanners.

The Cutest Visitors 

Morning Light

I probably should have mentioned earlier that for about the last 2 – 3 weeks we have seen an absolute plethora of vans on the road.  All those intrepid annual ‘to Qld’ or ‘to NT or North West WA’ travelers are homeward bound and there are just enormous numbers of our fellow travellers clogging the roadways and short-staying at the Caravan Parks.  Buronga was atypical of this southward bound flow and we were surrounded by folk ‘coming home’ with their bronze tans, dusty vans, yappy pups and happy yarns.  It was friendly, lively and relaxing all at the same time.

While we were in Mildura we were struck by the dreaded ‘full moon bug’.  We are not really sure who it is that suffers from this curious and bothersome ailment.  Quite possibly we are both afflicted but in slightly different way;  DD becomes rather absent minded and I become rather crotchety – not, I am sure you will agree, a good combo.

Morning Ablutions

Swanning Around

This time around Full Moon- Itis Manifested itself in a couple of notable ways.  The first was when I asked DD to turn on the hot water in passing – this is a regular early morning event – he agreed but shortly afterwards muttered something about not having turned the gas over and wandered off to presumably correct this oversight.  As we were lucky enough to be sitting on the very banks of the river and the weather was crisply fine, we had a cuppa outside the van in the early morning sunshine.  Whilst sipping my cuppa, I enquired once again, “You did turn my water on didn’t you darling?”  Darling’s response?  A strong affirmative “Yep!”   I was understandably satisfied with this answer and so when shortly afterwards DD headed off for his shower at the amenities block, I climbed the stairs to the van, prepared myself for a lovely warm and comforting shower, turned on the tap and...................yep, you guessed it – the water was stone cold.  I have to say that these caravan parks seem for some unfathomable reason to have exceptionally cold water in their taps.  As I was already disrobed and in the shower I felt I had little choice but to continue with my very chilly ablutions.  Needless to say when the bloke told me he had enjoyed a lovely hot shower, my response was decidedly chilly.

Hey, How Far Are We From The Sea

More Little Cuties

The week continued in similar vein – just little things like when I went to capture some shots of the Darling River later that week only to discover somebody had removed my lens from my camera and replaced it with an ‘up-close’ specialty lens – nothing major of course, just little niggly things that get under one’s skin. 

At Least Donald Loved DD - Settling Down Next To DD

Odd Lookout

In DD’s defence, he was feeling a little poorly due to a very sore knee.  Here I suppose is the crux of the matter.  I have had for quite some time a great deal of pain in both knees and my right knee is all but useless at the moment.  I know it is all due to weight and all that sort of stuff but that doesn’t make it any less painful.  DD takes my pain in his stride, but when it came to his knee, his pain and his discomfort, well ladies you all know how this one goes!  And go it did – there were some upsides – his knee is now almost completely fine and he does now acknowledge a better understanding of why I baulk at climbing stairs and hills etc.  I now know too that I must at all costs keep my bloke healthy and strong forever as he makes such a terrible patient.  He self confessedly does not suffer pain well. Anyway enough of that, you all know that I love him dearly and wouldn’t want him any other way.

The Darling River Where It Meets The Mighty Murray

Picturesque Church Mildura

While we were in Mildura we took a drive to Wentworth to see where the Darling and Murray Rivers combine forces.  It was an interesting site to visit as both these rivers feature so much in Australian literature and history.  I am sorry to say, and hope not to offend anyone, but I don’t really find any of the three iconic rivers particularly beautiful.  The Murray particularly just seems to be.  I mean, I am used to the beautiful Swan River which seems to sit in the middle of its fertile valleys, the surrounding landscape gently sloping towards its heavily tree-lines banks.  You can generally tell from quite a distance where a river is in WA.  Here in SA you could almost fall into the Murray before you realised it was there.  The tree lined banks just don’t seem to exist and in many places there is no river valley to speak of – the river just is.  I am shocked too at what appears to be the rape of the river.  It just doesn’t seem to be respected in any way.  I know that it is utilised for cropping and that many people rely on its muddy waters for rural survival, but it seems a heinous crime the way it is treated. I know I am out of line here, as we just don’t have the same sort of major rivers in WA, at least not in the south of the state, but still, I feel sorry for the river as it seems to garner so little respect.

The Melbourne - Paddle Steamer

Wheel House 

We took the opportunity whilst in Mildura to take a trip on a Paddle Steamer.  These mighty craft have played such a huge part in the history of NSW & SA particularly.  The cruise we selected was just a two and a half hour trip upstream to and thru’ Lock No 11.  These Locks are fascinating structures allowing larger craft like the Paddle Steamers to traverse long lengths of the Murray River.  For those who are unfamiliar with the Lock system, it is simply put, a section of the river, walled and dammed that vessels can navigate into.  Once the vessel is in the Lock, the gates are closed and water is either released or allowed to flow in, depending on which way you are going, bringing the water level to the same point as the water beyond the dam/lock.  Once the water levels are equal, the gates of the lock are opened and the vessel continues on its way. I know I have not put this very succinctly, but hopefully you get the general idea.

Waving To Zed As We Steamed Past

Ghoulish Tree Skeletons On The Banks

The Paddle Steamer we took was the Melbourne and theoretically the only remaining original steamer left in the region. The cost of the trip was just $29 per head, less with Senior’s discount.  As boat trips go, it was what it was and nothing more.  The skipper did give a running commentary and running is really the best word to use here.  He had obviously been doing this talk for far too long and just ran thru’ his ‘patter’ very quickly, without any noticeable emotion and or interest.  Most of it you couldn’t hear, due to the engines and the paddles.  He appeared to be a little self-involved and probably considered himself just a step above the average tourist.  Oh well, we went on a Paddle Steamer and that was, after all, the objective of the trip.

The Chook Man Hits Town

Looking Down The Mighty Murray

Mildura itself was a very large country town, most likely a city in its own right I would think.  It did seem a little like Topsy – appearing to have grown outwards in a series of busy tentacles and without any obvious rhyme or reason.  I would say that you could find pretty much anything you need there and then some.  Being somewhat town-phobic we only ventured into town on a needs basis.  The door to the van being one of those needs things.  We had really only just arrived in Buronga CP when I noticed that the door to the van was not functioning properly.  Firstly, as a result no doubt of the full moon situation, I was blamed for the fault in the door.  Not a good idea!  Once we had settled that question DD set about to try to fix the door.  For those of you with these duel fly-screen/solid van doors you might like to know that if and when yours decides to break, you do not necessarily need to replace the entire locking mechanism.  All that you need is a new door handle which can be purchased as a separate item for around $38 – much less DD suspects than the entire locking mechanism would set you back.  It would seem that the job was not a simple one and took a couple of days for DD and various other caravan blokes to fix.  Ultimately it was a neighbouring aircraft engineer who finally worked out how the darned thing went back together.  In the meantime we had all manner of trouble finding ways to shut the door without locking ourselves irrevocably inside the van. If ever you find yourself with a similar problem please feel free to contact us for some blokey advice.

Entering The Lock (No 11)

Leaving The Lock

Looking Back At The Lock

We caught up with Sondra and Dick for another lovely evening of wine and song before they headed back to Melbourne town.  The CP provided fire-places and sold cheap fire-wood so almost every van along the bank had small fires going in the evenings and it was to the glow of these fires we watched the mother possum with her attached babe skittering around the camp looking for hand-outs.

MADNESS AT MORGAN

Crossing The Border

Lettuce Snatchers

Well, our five days passed pretty quickly in Mildura and early Friday morning we headed off to cross the border into SA.  Due to state borders and fruit fly restrictions etc we were unable to cross the border with much in the way of vegetables and fruit.  The book did say tho’ that we could take lettuce with us.  To this end I had a lovely little Cos lettuce tucked away in the crisper ready for tea that night.  When we pulled up at the Quarantine Station I proudly answered the nice lady’s questions about fresh produce in the negative, but explained that I did have a permissible lettuce.  “Oh well, not at the moment” was the quick response.  “Due to icky-sticky lettuce-itis (or some such thing) we cannot allow any lettuce to cross the border at the moment!”  Well, just great – it was with considerable reluctance I handed over that delightful little lettuce.  I haven’t been able to replace it yet and feel on some level that she had probably forgotten to buy her own lettuce when she went shopping and simply grabbed the first one that crossed the border that day.  Of course I am joking, I’m sure the nice lady was just doing her job, but the book said...............................!

It was our intention to stop at either Renmark or Berri to make camp, but as tends to happen when we have no concrete plan, we wandered aimlessly thru’ both those towns and found ourselves eventually in the tiny and historical town of Morgan, once again on the banks of the Murray.  This time tho’, we can’t actually see the river from the CP, but we can hear the punt cross the river and see the tops of the house-boats as they cruise up and down the river.

This is quite a nice little CP and when we first arrived we were pretty much the only ones here.  We have been amazed at the traffic thru’ this place.  Every day it pretty much fills up and every morning it empties again.  It is all those previously mentioned grey nomads heading home who occupy the bays each evening.  Of course it is school holidays here too and that does account for some of the traffic.

Beautiful Old Home

More History

And Then Some More

As this is a ‘passing thru’ place, we have met a considerable number of folk since we arrived here 4 days ago.  Now it wouldn’t be right not to pass on some of the tall tales we have heard since arriving here.  We had the pleasure in the bay next to ours, a bloke who had bin there, dun that, he had been a cocky, a publican, horse breaker and several other things to boot.  He had the best turn of phrase we had heard for quite some time and please, if you are ultra sensitive, I would suggest you skip this bit dears. Just some of the gems this fella passed on were:

With reference to a bloke he had known, “He was so mean, he crapped at night so the crows couldn’t get it!”

With reference to our gay friends, “Well, they just play leap-frog don’t they?  Only sometimes they don’t leap high enough” – Now that has gifted me with a mental image I may never be rid of!

With reference to blokes with erectile problems “Well, I can’t crawl through the sand hills anymore and leave five tracks”

With reference to taking Viagra – “Nah, can’t take that bloody stuff, the skin on my eyelids pulls down over my eyes and I just can’t bloody well see!”

One of the best quotes was in reference to when we was camped somewhere recently close to a female couple with children.  The ‘girl’ of the duo mentioned to him that she and the other woman were in a ‘same sex relationship’.  Our mate seemingly told her in no uncertain terms and in his usual bluff manner, “well, I just don’t get it, I mean it’s just a complete waste of fanny.”  No – I kid you not, this bloke really did say that – we are still chortling.

He also told us a story of when he was a publican in a corner pub in a country town. He had trouble one morning with a remarkably intoxicated fella.  The inebriated bloke, it seems was in a bad way pretty early in the day, and like a good publican, our mate ordered him to leave the premises.  Half an hour later on going into the gaming bar, found the same drunk having a beer with some other blokes at the bar.  Our publican once again ordered him from the premises.  Half an hour later, you guessed it; he found him once again, this time in the lounge, lurking in the shadows.  Our bloke, not to be discouraged once again approached the drunk and ordered him from the premises.  The drunk on this occasion, turned to him in frustration, saying “Bloodyellmatey – jusht how many f....ng pubs dyer own in this flamin’ town anywaysh?”

Yep, he was a colourful one alright.  Tonight looks to be interesting too as a group of senior type footballers have trundled into the park today, along with a couple of ancient Whippets (cars not dogs), several enthusiastic followers and I kid you not, a helicopter!  It seems that this group does this annual homage to a bloke who has passed on – DD has been out chatting and with some of them and there are 20 of them, travelling around, this time just in this region, but they have been up to the Kimberleys and all over the place it seems.  As I said it could get interesting – some of the banter I have heard this afternoon with reference to male anatomy etc hints at a rather ribald group of characters.  I probably won’t see DD after dark tonight!

The only other thing of any note here has been the winds.  We have had some near cyclonic winds since arriving and last night was to say the least a bit interesting.  The temps here were in the mid 30s yesterday, the sky was leaden and the wind was howling.  The dust was thick and we had to keep the windows pretty much closed due to the pale brown chalky stuff trying successfully to force its way thru’ the fly-screens.  Sitting inside the van with the air-con on was not too bad, but lo and behold, half-way thru’ cooking tea last night, the power finally succumbed and we were thrown into dusty darkness with a hot van and half cooked meal.  Oh well, we coped and oddly enough went to bed at a very early hour.  I read for a little while, but trying not to flatten the 12v gave up pretty quickly and succumbed to a somewhat nervous slumber. The nervousness was largely due to memories of tree branches attacking us at Mallacoota not that long ago.  Eventually the screaming of the wind was joined by the clatter of enormous rain drops on the van and the temperatures gradually dropped away leaving today well cleansed and crisp.  I took a short stroll this morning and noticed a huge tree split asunder in the park next door – hmmmm, shivers down my spine as I type.  Glad we weren’t under it!

Well, guess I had better leave it for now folks as I think that will be enough for this time don’t you?  I don’t seem to have a great many photos to share with you this time as I really haven’t been ‘that’ stimulated to take many (wrong lenses aside).  I’m sure I’ll find something to whet your whistle tho’.

Until next time, be kind to each other, stay away from the full moon and don’t take any more cold showers than you can help.  Stephanie & Co.

Ancient Whippet

Taking A Punt