Advertisement
Published: October 29th 2010
Murray River
at Picnic Point, I think I'm in NSW?To get to Gunbower I could go down the Cobb Hwy to Echuca or a more scenic tour through the Millewa State Forest. To get to the Millewa Rd I had to go out off Deniliquin to the west and then down through farming country on the Aratula Rd. I saw one large Breaded Dragon, looking like a piece of bark until I went to get out of the car to look at him then it was gone! And one black coloured snake, not sure what it was as by the time I swerved to miss it and then turned around to look at it, it had slipped away (no I was not going to get out and pick it up! Just wanted to see what it was).
Once on the Millewa Rd I was in the state forest and right amongst the Red Gum Forest of the Murray River. Again the gums were the predominate tree with some box and native pines but the understory was all Paterson Curse again! I tried really had to ignore it, concentrating on the beautiful wetland, billabongs and creeks, taking no photos but it was there all the time! I had morning tea
bird hird
Gulpa Creek beside a pine plantation, it didn’t look to healthy either a bit blown over in one direction and not very robust.
I turned off the Millawa Rd west onto Picnic Point Rd to drive down to Picnic Point where the Edward River meets/leaves the Murray River (I’m not sure how the Edward with works the Murray!). It was another hot spot for fisher folk and campers very much like a simplified Halls Gap of yesteryear. I only had quick look at the river and moved onto the bird hide at Gulpa Creek. This was a fantastic stop mostly because of the recent flood waters bringing the area back to life. The bird hide looks out to an enormous reed bed that if feed by the Gulpa Creek. There were ibis everywhere and two pairs of Swamp Harrier, lots of Australian Reed Warblers, blue wrens and a couple of Hard Head ducks. I spent quite a lot of time here it was so nice and well made out of local red gum, not at all noisy like Dam no’1 at Chiltern.
Lunch was at Mathoura beside the info centre, I was in the shade but as you can see
from the picture the car was not! This did not help, as after I got my lunch out of the esky in the boot I could not put it away again because the boot refused to open again!! It did not matter what I did, hit it, tried the key and jump sat on it! So I said ‘bugger it’ go into the info centre and look around, cool off and then head to Echuca. So I did and could get the boot open when I stopped again.
At Echuca I did the Wharf Tour even though there was only an hour left in the opening time. I really wanted to look at the Port Echuca Wharf. As you can see from the photos I had a good look. The cat, I was told, turned up and was adopted by the local tour operators, it jumps between the paddle steams and knows all the easy meal sites. And the water level was amazing compared to when I was last there in the 90’s as well as being able to get on the wharf! Echuca has become very busy and tourist orientated since last time so I only stayed to
look at the old stuff and to have smoko. The Moama Bakery (in Echuca) was very good; I also got a fruit loaf for the next couple of breakfasts.
By the time I got to Gunbower, 25km east out of Echuca, it was 5.30pm. The cabin, as with all that I have stayed in so far, is comfortable and well appointed. The park is very nice too; I caught up with Jean and Peter as well as Bob Young who is running the weekend and after tea the birders staying here had a little get together and discussed the program and what the weather may do to the activities.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.081s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 9; qc: 47; dbt: 0.0516s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Dianne
non-member comment
Bench pushing!
Hi Sam, great blog. I think you are going to need to do some bench pushing when you get back after seeing all the good food you've been eating!