Camping by the Murray

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MORE PHOTOS TO BE ADDED SOON!
Sean and I went to Echuca for the weekend. Echuca is a town situated on the Murray River, i.e. on the Victoria/New South Wales border. It's about 200km from Melbourne and the town of Moama lies opposite it on the NSW side of the river.

In the 1800s ex-convict Henry Hopwood persuaded the government to establish a river port here and this led to the town's affluence. Paddlesteamers frequented the river carrying all sorts of goods. Today the town is still famous for its paddlesteamers although they only carry tourists.

We got to Echuca late Friday night after taking a slight detour through Bendigo, oops! We tried our best to find some bush camping but in the dark our search proved hopeless so we eventually gave up and checked into a motel around 3 or 4am! Not before we'd driven around for quite a while and ventured into a State forest which we decided to leave when we turned into a boat ramp all too easily!

The next morning after cooking breakfast by the river and watching the paddlesteamers go by we sought out the farmer's market to buy something nice for dinner. We got there just before it closed but it was tiny and for the most part they were selling fruit & veg so we were a little disappointed. Next, we headed to the tourist office to find out exactly where we could find some camping spots. We got the information we needed and some maps. We took a trip on a paddlesteamer and later went in search of our campsite. The first couple we went to were quite crowded so we headed out the other side of town and eventually found somewhere to stay for the night.

We quickly setup camp and then went for a dip in the river as it was a scorching hot evening. Our 'neighbours' were rather entertaining as every so often the man got the urge to spit/clear his throat - gross. This guy along with another would also burst into song occasionally, singing 'Rox- aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaane' and some Aussie song I didn't recognise. We cooked dinner in our gas burner before retiring for the night. As we were eating some idiots in a boat came speeding up the river playing loud music - were we back on Chapel St. They were obviously very drunk yet still jumped into the river. They took off when they heard another boat come speeding up behind them!

The next morning we had a swim before breakfast. After breakfast we packed up our camp and went back into Echuca. On the Moama side of the river we found a really nice beach and went swimming here. We had a great view of the old port and lots of paddlesteamers passed by as we were in the river. Later we had ice-cream and pies before we set off back to Melbourne. We stopped in Kilmore for tea and got home late that night.

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Photos

Adding more stream!
Aboard the Pevensey