The Rivers

After Melbourne we had a couple of weeks of work before a family birthday in Bendigo. We started with a weekend on the Murray just outside Cobram. It was a lovely sandy beach and we put the kayaks in. The current was quite strong, so it was hard work paddling upstream. As we drifted back past a sand island we could reed warblers. Usually it's impossible to see them amongst the reeds, but we spotted one as it flitted about near the end of the island. Dazz also had his old telephoto lens and camera in the boat so he was able to get a couple of reasonable shots.

There were a couple of heat waves predicted so we wanted to stay in caravan parks for work so we could run the aircon. I did a bit of research and found a couple of parks that had 30% off mid-week specials. The first one was on the river at Echuca. Even though it was hot we walked along the river a couple of times.

The mid-week special meant it was back to full price on the weekend, so we went exploring and found some free camps. The first was at Tongala. There was a mural trail around town, with themed ones at the farm supplies store, the RSL and the church.

The next day we went through Kyabram, which had murals on the water tank. Unfortunately the tank was behind a fence.

Our next free camp was at Girgarre, a place we had never heard of before. They have a small botanical gardens that is still being developed. It was very pretty and had quite a display of kangaroo paws.

The second caravan park I found with the 30% off mid-week special was at Nagambie on the lake (which is on the Goulburn River). It was so pretty that I went hunting for more deals and we ended up staying ten nights!

Cape Schanck

Our couple of weeks in Melbourne were full of family, friends and work. We did have time one afternoon to go for a drive so we went down to Cape Schanck. We were hoping for nicer weather for photos than when we were there the year before, but it was still quite overcast and very windy. At least the wind moved the clouds around a bit so there were some photos with a bit more blue sky.