On the road again, with sore calf musles after all the cycling & then the climbing. Think it was the latter that did the damage. Worth every ache though! We have now left the alpine region - a bit sad but they had a bit of snow where we had been just one day after we left. I would have loved to have been there as I have never seen snow actually falling. Anyway, we started to have itchy feet - other adventures call.
First overnight camp in the Warby Ranges, & first freebee camp - at last. I must admit I was a bit nervous as we drove along this long dirt road into the National Park as it all seemed pretty quiet. And quiet it was. It's a basic campsite, toilets only, no water etc, & we were the only ones there. It really is going bush, but was lovely & peaceful surrounded mostly by gums (as usual) but looking out to a clearing of grassland. I told Stu I thought we might see kangaroos in the early evening, & just when we were about to give up, there they were, about 6 of them, munching away on their evening feed of grass. As we tried quietly to creep a little closer, their ears pricked up & watched us closely, with a couple bounding off. It's really lovely to see them there in their natural habitat. Guess we will become blase by the time we are finished. Next morning we set off towards Echuca, the Murray River Paddle Steamer town. Decided not to go right into it, so chose another off-road camping ground called Wakiti Creek Resort, which proved to be gorgeous. Again it was very quiet customer wise even though it was the first weekend of school holidays here, so that was a plus as far as we were concerned. There were a few families camping in tents, but we were the only caravan. It was a large camp, with a small swimming pool, tennis court, volleyball court, archery, canoes etc, etc. They even had an Indian Camp site - about 6 large wigwams which were being used by a group of families. All this set by a creek surrounded by beautiful redgum trees & wonderful reflections. And only cost $23 per night. It really has character & a charm of it's own - I'm sure the trees were saying 'paint me, paint me!" Took lots of photos of course. Had a lovely walk in the afternoon after we had settled in which was quite lucky as it rained that night & on & off the next day & turned quite cold. As it happened we were visiting one of my sisters the other side of Echuca, so it didn't matter. It was actually sunny on the way to her home, & landscape was quite lovely. Very flat, but fields of golden grasses & marvellous big clouds in a nice blue sky. Somehow the skies seem larger here - guess it is emphasised by the flatness. By the time we got back to camp the sun had come out & was really pretty shining through the trees & onto the water. It's pretty muddy looking, as are most of the rivers in this area, even the mighty Murray. Reminded me of our river in Paparoa.
After another wet night we packed up the van in the rain & headed towards Echuca to see the sights there, hoping the rain would ease, but it only got worse. We had intended going on a paddle steamer, but it just wasn't worth it, so we spent the day mooching around the town which is charming & interesting with it's lovely old shops, which contain wonderful gift shops, forge, pottery, scrumptious bakery, cafes, bookshops etc. The old port still with it's old wharf, featured in the TV series "All the Rivers Run" which I'm sure a lot of you will have seen many years ago. It was one of my favourite TV series ever, & they had DVD's for sale, so naturally I had to buy one. Will be great to watch on the odd night in the van. Can't wait! Because it was so cold & wet, we treated ourselves to ' feesh & cheeps' at 'Fish in a Flash' which my sister had recommended. It was as good as she had said. By 2pm we decided we had better head off to our next camp a couple of hours away at Kerang, further along the Murray River. Found a cheapie, again by the river, mostly workers in onsite vans, everything pretty old but clean. Decided to stay two nights, as there is a lot of wetlands in the area with a lot of birdlife which we wanted to check out. Next morning we looked at a few historical sites like the old water tower which we climbed, & some other buildings, & in the afternoon drove out to some lakes where we were going to have a few walks, but on arrival found the access was closed due to the recent floods. However, we did get to the wetlands which were full of thousands of ibis (3 varieties) & others unknown to me. Will have to look up our bird book. Not a particularly interesting area, but a really nice little town.
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