Griffith to Caragabal

 
We left Griffith in the middle of the afternoon and drove through the very flat river land farms and then into rolling hills.  A big tennis racquet at Barellan recognised the birthplace of Yvonne Goolagong.

It began to rain, and get dark very early. Drove through West Wyalong (historically another rich gold mining area) with its crooked main street created in the early days of bullocks as they wound round trees and gold diggings.  Finally free camped at a tiny village called Caragabal . Went to sleep listening to heavy rain on the roof.


Tried to teach Rifter to roll on the towel.

Wet dog in the van is not much fun!

Coolamon to Griffith

After our late arrival in Coolamon it was a slower start to the day.

This town main street is heritage listed and many of the original buildings were built during the early flourishing years between 1880 and 1920.The town has a wide main street with a central garden. It is a grain growing area. The caravan park was very neat with a brand new shower block that was shared with the local pool. Locals were super friendly and Greg came back after walking Rifter with a date slice purchased from a street cake stall. The Main Street had lots of heritage buildings and we stopped for coffee at one quaint building.

Unfortunately we parked the van in front of a disused driveway only to find out it belonged to the local men's shed.

They were moving out to another premises that morning.  Can't help bad timing!! Not that easy to find car parks for the van.
Next stop was Narrandera where Greg went for a paddle on the Murrumbidgee river. He said it was flowing at about 2-3 km an hour and it was hard work paddling, plus there was the odd hidden log ..not that easy to see in murky water. But the sun was shining and the day was gorgeous.

Meanwhile I took photos of a disused brewery, walked Rifter, enjoyed the sunshine and birds who were singing with gusto.

We arrived in Griffith and stayed with cousins.

 

Met a lot of the extended family, lots of kids ( Trev and Rhonda have 11 grandchildren- the youngest a week old-gorgeous kids) and two grandmothers who look so spritely. Hope I'm still as sharp at their age. These guys have farming backgrounds and now have school bus runs. They have a beautiful home.

Griffith is a very fertile irrigation area and has orchards, vineyards and rice growing area. 60% of the population have an Italian background. Unfortunately some Italians have links to the Calabrian mafia and there are rumours about their rapid riches and elaborate massive houses being linked to drugs. Actually more than rumours .....there have been murders, police corruption, crime bosses, marijuana crops, 15 million ecstasy pills shipped in tomato tins etc. The TV series Underbelly was about crime bosses who had links to Griffiths. But despite that the town looked neat and busy, fertile and productive.

We spent the night catching up and sharing photos. 

The Riverina.

It was a  foggy morning to start the day but beautiful autumn leaves surrounded our van in the Cobram "Willows" caravan park where we had stayed overnight.

Off we went after making arrangements to catch up with relatives in Griffith on Friday. First stop was over the Murray River into Tocumwal N.S.W.  That makes the fourth state we've travelled  in. Here the Murray river is 1886 kms from the river mouth. A big sign on the river side is the reason we know that.

The river is very low but Tocumwal has lots of sandy beaches on the river banks and it is renown for fantastic nature reserves. The town was settled in the early 1840s and there are many lovely old buildings in the main street. In 1942 a RAAF base was opened ( actually at one stage the largest in the southern hemisphere) to train pilots in preparation for the possible invasion by the Japanese. It was huge but not well known as it was kept quiet (classified information). The base consisted of about 5000 men, 450 buildings, four 2 km long runways and over 114 kms of roads. Don't think much is left now days.

And the second big thing in Australia - at the time, created in the 1960s was on display in the park- a Murray cod. What was the first??..not sure?? pineapple??

At Finley we stopped and looked at the canoe tree.

Jerilderie was the place where Ned Kelly held up the bank.

It is a fertile irrigated  farming area growing a variety of crops including wheat, canola, mung beans and rice. We thought we saw rice crops ..but they were harvested and all you could see was the stalks. Apparently Jerilderie also grows a lot of Australia's tomatoes. We had lunch by Billabong Creek. Couple of blokes were fishing, trying to catch a murray cod -with no luck. They were using eucalyptus oil and mozzarella cheese as bait.

The country side was very flat and the skies enormous. The Riverina is a fertile food bowl for Australia.

Some beautiful cloud formations.

Past Lake Urana and on to Lockhart.

All the little towns have something unique and Lockhart is famous for its main street's deep and shady verandahs. It has been classified by the National Trust. The old buildings have beautifully restored facades. More clicking of the camera.

With the day disappearing we quickly drove through Wagga Wagga (a big city) at peak hour..bit stressful, especially the roundabouts!! Some gorgeous tree lined streets all in their autumn colours. Stopped at a park and checked out the Murrumbidgee River which looks much better than the Murray we saw today.

Then on to a place called Coolamon.

We arrived in the dark, just before the office closed. It was in the local news agent and we did a few laps trying to find it. Unfortunately we had to set up in the dark, not that easy. Must make sure we don't do that too often. Bit frazzled by the time we stopped.

There is just SO much to see.

Bendigo to Echuca and on to Cobram

 

 

Today we left Bendigo, explored Echuca and its historic river port, and were surprised at how low the Murray River was.  Luckily the paddle steamers don't need much water to move in.

Found a thong tree!!

Some great old buildings and the port area has been really developed for tourism.

 

You can still get a ride on a paddle steamer.

The Campaspe River, also low.

Another beautiful sunset…this time at Cobram.

Bendigo

We spent a couple of days in Bendigo, a very rich old gold mining area. The main reason we came here was to catch up with Greg's brother and family. The weather was a bit miserable so it was lots of talking and indoor pursuits. We did go for a walk in the ironbark and bark forests. Rifter loved meeting up with Dusty who is a very clever dog.

Ararat

We drove back to catch up with more family in Ararat on the way driving past Lake Burrembeet. This lake was dry last time we were in Victoria.


The following day we went back into the Grampians to Halls Gap. On the way stopped at Moyston for a market.                  

There was a memorial to Tom Wentworth Wills, the man who is credited with developing the Australian rules football game after watching local aboriginals playing. He grew up around Moyston in the 1850s

The mountains were still spectacular so more photos of them.

Happy days with the crew.

We had lunch at the ‘sisters’,which as always been covered in graffiti.