BarbaraTVan: Easter along the Murray

This has been a long time coming! It's been a very busy year, and I thought I'd better get it up as we're about to head off on another wonderful adventure.

We had a few days off after the Easter break so decided to head off on our last adventure before the cold nights really set in.

We decided to head up to Barmah Lake on the Murray River. Barmah National Park, together with the adjoining Millewa forest in New South Wales, forms the largest River Red Gum forest in the world. It's a natural habitat for a variety of wildlife, particularly waterbirds and is around 40km east of Echuca on the Victoria/NSW border.

We left home on a dreary wet Easter Monday, hoping the public holiday traffic would all be heading the other way and we weren't disappointed. We headed out through the hills and Yarra Glen,and stopped at Yea (Yay!!) for a coffee break. We had the most delicious coffee ever at the "Artisan Café" and tried a piece of their apple & sour cream cake........just as delicious as their coffee!!!! The traffic heading the other way was just crazy. Lots of boats and camper trailers.....school holidays were over!!! The trip was uneventful, but it rained on and off the whole way.

We arrived at Barmah around 4pm and drove down to the camping area along the river. We checked the whole place out, and at the end of the park we saw hundreds of roos and emus racing towards the trees trying to escape us. There were a lot of horses roaming free as well, but I don't think they were wild ones as there's a large equestrian centre around the area. It was like watching a documentary on outback Australia, except we never saw that many when we went to the outback. There is plenty of feed here and lots of fresh water. It was very bumpy and impossible to get a decent picture of them.

We headed back to the camping area and set Barbara up fairly close to the river. We were camped right where the lake joins the Murray. It was still raining!!!

We set the event shelter up so that we had somewhere to sit out of the rain, and yes, every time we do this it stops raining :-)

We only used the shelter once!

The next morning found us checking out the place and I found an Easter egg!!! I was just a wee bit excited :-D GM found one at the base of a tree the very next day, and I think he was just as excited as I was!!!

We went for a drive into Echuca to have a look around.

It was very pretty in the Port of Echuca, but not so pretty anywhere else. There were beautiful big old peppercorn trees and masses of tourists (including us)!!

The Brothel :-) Not much business nowadays...........

The old peppercorn tree :-)

We went and watched the Paddle Steamers for a while, then checked out the port and what was happening.

We headed back to camp where we pulled the kayaks into the water and went for a short paddle in the lake.

There was a lot of plant and bird life. The lake is quite shallow, so no good for power craft, which suited us very well.

The next morning was lovely and sunny, but still quite cool. We went into Echuca early and had breakfast at a little café on the Port. The owner was Daz and he was a retired school teacher who used to live in Warragul. GM and Daz had a wonderful chin wag about people and places they knew. The food was pretty good too :-) We bought tickets for lunch on the Emmy Lou and enjoyed every moment. It was beautiful in the sun, the crew were very friendly, the food was tasty and the wine delish!!!!

I had the curry!

and the champers ;-)

The rest of the afternoon was spent bumming around camp, drinking champagne and playing UNO. I am the UNO champion!!!! Woo Hoo!!!!

A busload of school kids from a private Melbourne school had been dropped off up the river a couple of days earlier, and they finally made their way to us. They even camped right next to us which was a bit of a concern, but no need to worry.........they were so quiet and polite and asleep as soon as it was dark. Maybe we should have sent our kids to a private school. They may be polite, but they sure aren't quiet ;-)

The next morning was lovely once more, so we packed some fruit and juice, and took the kayaks back out. The lake was far bigger than we had first thought. There were clumps of bulrushes and lots of waterlilies and plants floating on the top.

It was chocka block full of carp which were top feeding on the plants....just laying on the top of them, I even bumped into one. The bird life was incredible. All kinds of waterfowl nesting in the reeds. Eagles flying above looking for some plump duck! Black swans everywhere and parrots all around the banks. It was so peaceful and relaxing. Then the wind picked up. We decided to pull up on some weed so that we could have a drink and a bite to eat.

It was the only way we could stop the kayaks from spinning out of control in the wind.

You couldn't get close to the banks as the bulrushes were so thick.

We eventually made it back to camp where we hopped in the car and went looking for some firewood. You didn't have to go very far....there was masses of it. The locals get their wood from there, and we saw quite a few trailers loaded up. It was all red gum.....magnificent wood that burns all night. We even cut a load on the way home, which we will take with us on the next adventure.

We had a little 4WD adventure to keep GM happy......got the wheels all muddy.....he's such a bloke ;-)

All too soon, it was time to leave....needed to get back to work to pay for another adventure :-( But we did enjoy ourselves so much we bought the DVD set of "All the Rivers Run"...........still haven't watched it 5 months down the track ;-)

The trip home was much faster and quieter, but we had unwound from the rigours of everyday life.....something everybody should try :-)