Finally on the road

The next morning we had the jockey wheel repaired at Junee before making our way to the Murray River at Yarrawonga just over the border in Victoria. This town is surprisingly larger and more sophisticated than we had thought, thanks largely to pokie machines only exisiting in NSW years ago. Lake Mulwala is an attractive body of water next to the town and apart from the lack of huge mountains – had almost a Queenstown (NZ) feel about it. We free camped right on Chinamans bend just out of town for 4 nights and were amazed by the lack of people. On arrival our next door neighbour quickly alerted us about a very large black snake patrolling the area.  However, we new this was an old ploy to keep us moving on and told him not to worry as our very noisy kids will keep it away…got him.!!.

 Camping on the river bank was great and relaxing with Wendys mother and her friend Allan joining us for a few days. We did a lot of swimming and hanging out as well visiting a few local attractions to get some local produce. I flogged the water with lures from the bank but could not raise a scale. A boat, rod and swag is a definite down here.

Strawberry pickin’

Off for a night time fish

After Yarrawonga we spent a couple of nights camping on the river at Euchuca which is speedboat heaven, or hell for those not fortunate enough to own a jet black high powered machine blasting ‘duf duf’ music throughout the day. Euchuca is a big town, very close to Melbourne and very populated at this time of year. The old part of the town including the wharf has been maintained, with many restored paddle steamers taking the punters out for the day. We thought we would save a river trip for Mildura, later down the track. One way to keep the children educated, waterwise and out of the heat is to regularly visit libraries and the local swimming pool. A good chance to use internet and keep in contact with people as well.

Check out the new (old) awning

At ‘School’