Day 9 - Rushy to Murchy to Shepp

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Apparently noone uses the full name of a town around here. So instead of saying Rushmore to Murchison to Shepparton, it's Rushy to Murchy to Shepp.
There was no real hurry today as we were only planning on about 55kms. Having said that Felice said he'd come up for a Sunday drive and meet us at Murchy for a coffee at about 10am.
We bid farewell to Rushy with a slight detour to see a block of land Jeff's brother has recently bought and a property that Jeff had previously been interested in. What happened next was quite absurd but let's just say it involved Jeff and I being separated, lack of communication, a lack of direction and a lying GPS. Anyway, Jeff and I were reunited just outside Rushy with a stong wind at our backs. We made excellent time along the smooth bitumen with our loaded bikes holding up speeds in the high 20's.
We were in Waranga Basin territory. Waranga is the aboriginal word for "Sing". The Warang Basin is used as a water storage point providing irrigation for Northern Victoria. As we travelled towards Murchy, the earth wall of the basin was on our left and stood quite impressively about 10 meters tall. Water was fed into the basin first by the Stuart-Murray Canal in 1891 and later the Cattanach Canal in 1957. Excavation of 4.5 million cubic meters of earth was required for the construction of the Cattanach Canal.
We met Felice about 2kms outside Murchy and had quick chat before reconvening back in Murchy. Before coffee we visited The Thorne Hotel which had once been a grand hotel that people would arrive at by punt. It had fallen into disrepair and has only recently been bought and renovated and now provides "luxury accommodation". Out front is a famous Plane Tree planted in 1913 that is now one of the oldest and largest Plane Trees in the world and Heritage listed.
We spent about 30 minutes having a coffee and a chat before Felice headed off elsewhere and we continued on to Shepparton.
Jeff wanted to visit Toolamba which he remembered from his youth. We made the detour into what could only be called "sleepy" Toolamba and then rode on through. We had now left our intended route to Shepparton via Mooroopna and were flying blind a bit. We came across a natural treed forest through which the Goulburn River flowed and was crossed by (another) single lane trestle bridge. It was a great setting to stop for a bite to eat before our final leg into Shepp. Unfortunately our detour brought us out on the Goulburn Valley Highway which we travelled on for the last 10ks into Shepp. Here we got lunch at a bakery before finding a motel on the east side of town, good for a fast exit in the morning.
Tomorrow is a big day, 100kms to Wang(aratta). I hope that strong westerly persists for one more day.

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Photos

Sue-Anne's Place
our lodgings overnight

Native Flauna
A local on the rail trail heading into Murchy

Historic Murchy
The Plane Tree outside the Thorne Hotel

Ray Charles
Yes, look closely. He's wearing two pairs of glasses.

Trestle Bridge
Just outside of Toolamba