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Published: February 12th 2006
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Hi All
Here we are in Swan Hill on a beautiful warm sunny afternoon. Our campsite is beside the Murray River and if we can will post a photo of the spot. Just gorgeous. Spent 4 days in Deniliquin with Barb and Mick. Lovely to see them and all the kids. We hosted a BBQ at the c'van park which will be our last family party for a while. Spent a day touring the port at Echuca where the paddle steamers once worked. 'All the Rivers Run' was filmed here and it has all been restored so a great history lesson. John played golf with Mick on the Saturday which was his first game of the trip. Loved it and played reasonably well. Deni is a lovely town, maybe just a little hot for my liking. Wide footpaths with those lovely verandahs. Easy access to Mellbourne which is only a 3 hour drive away. Left on Tuesday morning and only meant to stay here 1 night but I had to find a dentist urgently and had a 2 week wait in Deni but they could fit me in here this morning. As this caravan park is so nice we decided to stay an extra night after having my dental problem attended to. Have toured the pioneer settlement here and then spent the rest of the time around the pool and walking along the banks of the Murray. It' a tough life but someone has to do it!! Heading off to Pinaroo in SA 2morrow only for the night and then Kingston SE for a few days on the coast.
Just a few notes on caravan parks. Yes, we had our first taste of 'Mr Know-it-all' in Deniliquin. He waltzed up with a glass of red in hand and proceeded to tell us our van wasn't level and how to put up our awning before we had even unhitched. He kept an eye on us for the 4 days there and we went to great pains to avoid him, not always successfully. The park itself was fairly good but we had a great grassy spot by the pool. As school holidays are now over the parks are pretty deserted - just a lot of sad old oldies!!!! Ho hum. A good thing is that everyone does not get up at 'sparrows' thank goodness. I thought we would see a lot of early risers energetically striding around at the crack of dawn making us feel inadequate, thankfully this is not the case. We got to the showers at 7.30 this morning and were about the first up. Sensible people caravaners.
As I mentioned before this park in Swan Hill is just beautiful. Quite big but also very quiet with beautiful lawns and great pool and BBQ area. One of the interesting things is the amount of water people are using. Deniliquin (on the Edward River) is in the grip of drought but you can water to your hearts content in the town. Sprinklers were going all day in the C'van park and the owner said it was because he had pumping rights on the river. Same here in Swan Hill. The sprinklers have been going since 8 this morning and still going now at 5.30. The drive from Canberra to here has been as dry as dry so it's been strange to see all this water being wasted on grass. Having said that the country is beautiful!! As our Texan friend Gene says, 'it is so flat that if you stand still you can see the back of your head'. Talk about the wide blue yonder - makes me wish I could write eloquently to describe it but I guess you all get the message. John has found the driving OK. He says he is getting used to it but has been quite apprehensive as we set out each day. We are hoping to keep our drives to about 3 or 4 hours from now on which leaves us time to swim, read, relax and drink red wine for the rest of the day. Will leave it at that for now and write again in a few more days.
Well I didn't get to publish this last night so will just add a few lines. Drove for 4 hours today and we are now in Pinaroo just over the border in SA. We are staying in the local caravan park with water views i.e. council swimmming pool, bushland, i.e. trees along the highway, trucks rushing past and only very old,very worn permanent caravans here. Hmmmm! The drive was just so Australian. Vast plains of what was probably wheat crops, and scenary so dry - just what you have always heard about. There was so much dust in places, you just knew it was all topsoil swirling around going nowhere. It all has it's own beauty and what a contrast to the last couple of nights in the green beauty of Swan Hill and the Murray River. By the way, that sprinkler went on till about 8.30 last night. Anyway here are some pictures of Swan Hill and the Murray. Greener than Carss Park let me tell you.
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