Nice surprise: we decided to travel up along side the Murray River. It is Australia’s largest and longer river originating in the Snowy Hill mountains (ski hills !!) to Adelaide about 2000km. We started in Swan Hills a historical town initially growing a fruit industry based on irrigation from the Murray. We travelled down to Echuca, another history river town. Along the way we stopped at Lake Boga and home of a secret World War II airbase. The base serviced Catalina and other large amphibious aircraft.
Gum trees line the river shores and have bark that sheds like a Arbutus tree leaving a smooth multicoloured skin. Wood crafters make artsy products to full furniture sets and cabinets. The wood is red in colour and beautiful.
We elected to do a tourist trip on a steam paddle wheeler and it definitely was worth the effort. It was one of the highlights of the trip so far. There are several ships in working order that were built in the late 1800’s. They still burn wood, generate steam, run extraordinarily quiet and run in a meter or more water. The Murray River is awesome and make sure you take a paddle wheeler boat ride if you are in the area.
We are spending the night in Bright, a ski village in the only high mountain range in Australia. We will travel into wine country tomorrow: Yarro Valley!!
Robert Goodlad Fine Art 