Saturday 20th September, Now we’re in Nhill and nearly home

Leaving Echuca “google maps” once again took us on some interesting backroads on our route to Nhill. The morning was calm but very cold and we knew we might be heading into some weather, according to the forecast. We enjoyed the small towns stopping in the town of Charlton for coffee. This town is in Western Victoria, in the Shire of Buloke, a shire which has a lot to offer, so once again I was making notes for future visits. We passed through more farming areas but notice that some of the canola farms were also wind farms with many wind turbines scattered among the fields. We made good time, passing the famous Pink Lake, before arriving in Nhill for lunch. The wind had really picked up in the afternoon but so far, we have avoided any rain so we’re keeping our fingers crossed. We spent the afternoon visiting some small cemeteries, the lake in Nhill and checking out the golf course. Rob probably would have played if it hadn’t been so windy. It certainly looked like a very good course. (It has been noted for future visits.) All things going well, tomorrow we will be home.

Friday 19th September, Wild, Weird Weather but a Wonderful Day

The forecast for today said we could receive some early showers and wind but the maximum was going to be 25 degrees. We drove out to the Rich River Golf Course early this morning with blues skies in one direction and black in the other. Once Rob had his gear I drove off to do a quick shop before heading to the Echuca Wharf. While I was in the chemist, there was a huge crack of lightning, quickly followed by a deafening burst of thunder. It then started to rain but luckily it didn’t last very long. Rob said he only received a few drops of rain out on the golf course and luckily not the thunder or lightning. I had a wonderful morning soaking up all the history of Echuca at the wharf. The museum was brilliant, filled with many interactive displays and out on the wharf there were displays of steam engines, parts of old paddle-steamers, old wool presses, railway carriages etc. I couldn’t believe that this was a free museum. The old buildings in the area have all been beautifully restored and now various eateries, galleries operate from them. I had the most delicious breakfast from one lovely little café! I was fascinated by the founder of Echuca, Henry Hopwood who was an English convict sentence to 14 years transportation to Tasmania. He was appointed as a police constable within a year of arriving in the colony but found himself in more trouble and ended up serving 2 years at Port Arthur. Anyway, once he had served his sentence he moved to this area on the Murray and started many businesses, including ferrying people and goods across the river (at that stage from one colony NSW to another colony, Vic.) at a price. He set up Hotels and by 1858 had almost set up a small town on the Victorian side of the river. Most of the old buildings close to the wharf or on the adjacent, main street, had information plaques about the history of the buildings. Once Rob had completed his round of golf, we headed back into town for some lunch. Following lunch, we went for an hours cruise on a very old paddle steamer, The Adelaide. The Adélaïde is the world’s oldest original coal-fired, wooden hulled paddle steamer in the world. Rob was very interested in the wood-fired steam engine and spent time both speaking with and watching the fireman-engineer stoking the firebox. It was a lovely way to finish the day.

Thursday 18th September, Wonderful and Weird things on Wheels

Today we drove from Wagga Wagga to Echuca and “google” took us on some fabulous backroads. Many of these roads we had not travelled on before so that was a good thing. We drove through many interesting small towns as we drove from, the Murrumbidgee River to the River Murray. Several times today we crossed from NSW to Vic. depending on what side of the Murray we were on. The scenery was beautiful with more canola crops, flocks of sheep and dairy cows, orchards of fruit trees and even some huge glasshouses full of tomatoes being grown, hydroponically. Much of the water used for all these activities was being drawn from the rivers and we passed over many irrigation channels. We called into the small town of Berrigan for coffee which boasted of being the birthplace of Federation….not sure about that but will do some investigating. Travelling on smaller roads, we had very little traffic, hardly any roads trains, but it seems that all the farmers were out on the roads today moving large pieces of machinery. We had to overtake several very large pieces of farm machinery; some being pulled by tractors and others just being driven by the farmer. We arrived in Echuca around lunchtime, set up the van, did some washing and then headed out. We drove out to the “Rich River Golf Club Resort” (which looked like it sounded) a huge golfing, tennis, croquet centre with beautiful accommodation areas and a clubhouse that provides meals and drinks, of course. Rob booked himself in here for a game tomorrow morning. From here we drove into the Port of Echuca and went for a walk along the riverside. I will probably spend the morning here while Rob is golfing. We had checked out a few of the creeks and the river for kayaking but they are all flowing too fast at the moment, so I’ll give it a miss.

Wednesday 17th September, Heaps of History and Cheese and Chocolate

After driving around yesterday, we realised that Wagga Wagga is very large, in fact large enough to be classed as a city. With many new housing developments and estates, the current population is nearly 70,000. The European history of Wagga Wagga dates to 1829, when Captain Charles Sturt was exploring the Murrumbidgee and disembarked in this area. The first settlers moved into the area in the 1830’s. Rob was a little worried that it may have been too windy for golf today but he was more than happy for me to complete a Heritage Walk in the old part of the city while he entertained himself. The walk was wonderful and all I had to do was to tap on the link on my phone and a map gave you all the information about the history of the building you were viewing. The walk was divided into two sections one for public buildings and the other for beautiful homes with 41 stops! I took many photos but I won’t bore you all. If you want to see the walk and all the buildings, you can click on the link here.  https://waggalibrary.com.au/learn/wagga-wagga-history/heritage-walk

Rob managed to fill in the time in successfully and after picking me up we went for a drive. We decided to visit two nearby towns which we had enjoyed visiting in the past. This drive also took us on The Canola Way so we enjoyed the fabulous views of rolling hills of yellow and green. We called into the quaint little town of Coolamon and visited the Coolamon Cheese café for lunch. We shared a cheese and nibbles platter for two which was delicious. We also purchased some cheese and packed up some of the cheese from our platter which we were unable to consume. From Coolamon we drove to the small town of Junee, full of beautiful old buildings and famous for the Junee Licorice and Chocolate Factory. We spent time here observing the making of the chocolate confectionaries and may have been forced to make a few purchases here! A lovely day!