Following the Mighty Murray River

Over the past week or so we've been following the Murray River. This river is so iconic to us Aussies it's like the Mississippi is to the Americans. We've loved every minute. I have taken so many photos as it changes under different light,weather conditions and parts of the river. The river gums and the muddy water, it's just sooo Aussie!! Oi! Oi! Oi!

Our first stop was a beautiful bush camp right on the banks and once again we had this magnificent place to  ourselves. We were about 5 kms out of Berri and just near a punt which we took our bikes on to the other side for a bit of exploration. It was great other than when we got back we had 4 flat tyres! Our tyres were covered in sharp thorns, what the locals call 3 corner jacks. Other than this little mishap we had the greatest time with perfect weather, BBQ's, camp fires loud music and good wine from the Barossa. I even had the chance to go to the hairdressers while Steve fixed the tyres.

Every time I looked at the other side of the river it looked just like a painting.

Further on the Murray goes through these beautiful red cliffs. I could never get a perfect picture but it must be an amazing site from a boat.

Our next stop, just for a few hours of biking, was Renmark. Such a pretty place with heaps of beautiful large house boats.




Plus some mad eccentric man called The Chookman who lives in a bizaare old barge and they've made a movie about him. Check out this boat, only a bachelor could live on it, talk about filthy. He's even got a chook on board!

                    

Can you believe this???

The next few nights we spent in Mildura with plenty of site seeing during the day. We just had to see where Australia's two greatest rivers meet The Darling and The Murray. The Darling starts up in Queensland and meanders through 2 states to reach the Murray in Victoria 

 The Darling is the left fork and the Murray the right fork

 How different does the landscape look here 

 And how about this change : This is the Perry Sand Hills only 5 ks out of Mildura and they cover 10 hectares and date back to the Ice Age 40,000 years ago.

I cheated with this photo, I cut and pasted but isn't it magnificent!

Smally lost and dying in the Perry Sandhills!! Luckily I came across him in time and showed him the way back to the ute. Hhahahah.

On another expedition we went to The Wentworth Gaol which was built in 1879 and is still in amazing condition. The prisoners certainly did it rough. Just a mat on the ground and a bucket in the corner. Boiling hot in Summer and freezing in winter.

I thought about leaving him here. Just for a minute!

 Here's a recipe for the grog they used to drink in the 1800's. In case you can't read it :
The Knocker
1/2 pint of Metho
1/2 cup cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon Indian Opium
2 gallons of Rum
1 gallon of hot water

Stir and leave for 24 hours.  OMG! I think I;ll give this one a miss.

In between Renmark and Mildura we spent 2 days at Swan Hill which is where this Giant Murray Cod is. There we went to the Pioneer Settlement which was so amazing I have to give it it's own blog. I'll post that soon as I can.