BACK HOME

We’re back home in Melbourne so it’s time to fill in the last leg of our trip.



P.S. Melbourne still runs on the 100 year old steam engine

At Mildura we had beautiful sunny days so we decided to go for a river cruise on a 100 year old paddle steamer which took us down stream through the lock gate which controls the water level for that section of the river.



Begg's Bend



Our next stop was at Begg’s Bend, a free camp spot beside the Murray River. Lots of space but we were the only ones there so we camped right on the river bank where we could watch the Whistling Kites feeding their chicks in a tree on the opposite bank. The interesting thing was that these birds of prey seemed to be raising two lots of chicks in one nest. There were two half grown with some of their feathers, and two that were much smaller and only had white fluff. (See video -hope it works!)

After two nights we continued along the Murray to Nyah, a small town near Swan Hill with free camping behind the race track beside the river. That night they held the last ever trotting meeting there, future races will all be in Swan Hill as the Nyah track is “too short” it will however be strongly supported as a training venue.

The rest of the trip home was spent wandering through central Victoria with 6 nights spent at Green’s Lake between Stanhope and Elmore. Once again a free camp site, right beside the lake which is popular as a weekend and holiday site for locals and even though it was still October  children were spending all day in the shallow waters and others were water skiing and playing on jet skis. Once the weekend visitors left it was nice and quiet and the fish were jumping just off shore. There were also quite a lot of trails in the area, excellent for exploring in the Moke.

So now we’re back home till early December when we head over to Tasmania for the summer.