Hi to all

We spent 6 days in Berri and found it to be a lovely place.  Directly across the road from the Caravan Park is a nature walk that skirts along the Murray.  According to the info boards it is 4500 steps long.  Very fitness orientated, as one of the signs tries to get you to do it twice, for a total of 9000 steps.  I have to tell you, it didn't work on me.  The walk is really quite boring, as you cant see the river after the first 200 metres.  The area is quite scrubby, with very little birdlife and no native wildlife.  (Maybe that's not such a bad thing, eg. no snakes.).

Being fitness fanatics that we are we walked to the main shopping area.  I think it was just so that Deb could do another workout on the walking track equipment.  I couldn't resist getting a really good photo of a family of ducks that were watching Deb work out.  Well I think it is a good photo anyway.

The town has 2 separate war memorial areas, with one of them being a memorial to World War 1 and 2 and the other memorial being for Post World War 2.  Its a pity they cant be both together really.  I got photos of the World War memorial in the day time and they came up quite well.

  

We went out for dinner at the Berri Hotel on Tuesday night, 2 for 1 meals of course, and after we left I got some photos of the Post World War memorial.  I tried to get photos of it in the daytime but they didn't come out very well.  The images look like they have been sandblasted onto glass/Perspex and they looked so much better getting the photos at night.

On Wednesday we went for a drive to check out the surrounding areas.  We went and had coffee at a local lavender Farm, Bella Café, which also said on the information brochure that they had an olive grove.  It showed lots of promise, the long driveway, straight out of Tuscany, and once inside the café there was Italian opera type music, straight out of The Godfather 1.  I am sorry, but that is where all of the similarities stopped.  Obviously the wrong time of the year for Lavender, and the Olive lane wasn't overly impressive.  Such is life. 

We continued and checked out the tiny town of Monash.  It probably had less then 200 residents, but it had a fantastic kids adventure playground.  It was free to enter and had swings, flying fox, heaps of climbing apparatus and also a bbq area.  A great spot to spend a few hours to let the little savages run wild.

 

We then checked out the town of Barmera.  This was a very pretty little town with Lake Bonney as its centrepiece.  There was a great looking caravan park, with bike hire, as well as lots of water sports equipment for your use.  Of course we checked out the bowling green and the café scene.  It passed with flying colours on both areas.  Not a bad place to spend a few days maybe in the future. 

The biggest town in the area is Renmark, which is only about 15 k's from Berri so we went to check it out.  Loads of shopping and of course, is also right on the Murray.  There is a really cool fountain in the centre of the town.

  We stopped off at the Renmark Club, which is right on the river, for a coffee and it passed with flying colours.  Being quite a bit bigger, it didn't have the relaxed country town feel of Berri or Barmera, but it did have everything you need.  On the way out of town we came across what was a tourist attraction at some stage, The Big Orange.  Sadly, it is no longer, but of course I still had to get a photo.

 

Up bright and early Thursday morning and it was farewell to Berri.  We backtracked a bit to Pinaroo and then a quick left turn on the Mallee Hwy.  It is so sad to see that there are so many old towns that have died along this route.  Murrayville and Underbool used to be thriving communities, but not so much anymore.  We stopped at Walpeup for a Victorian Newspaper, and sadly, the local shop was just about all that survived in that town. 

A quick right turn at Walpeup and after about 30 k's we pulled into Patchewollock.  You could see the huge piece of silo art even before you got into the town????  Well maybe not so much a town anymore.  At least they still have a pub and a bit of a community store.  The silo art is just awesome.  It was painted by the artist, Fintan MAGEE, and it is of a local sheep and wheat farmer Nick HULLAND.  The painting takes up the entire height, 35 metres, of the wheat silo and is of Nick, along with a black charred piece of branch.  Nick is holding some new growth, and it is meant to depict the life of the outback, ever renewing itself.  Makes you all warm and fuzzy.  It is awesome artwork though.

 

We then set up camp in what was the former primary school.  Now closed.  The town has set it up as a cheap campground, in an attempt to have caravanners stop after viewing the art.  It is fairly rustic, but has clean toilets and shower, as well as power and water to the van.  We decided to walk to the pub for dinner, about 10 minutes walk.  The food was really cheap and it was a great meal.  Hopefully lots of others also decide to stop, rather then just take photos of the art and then leave.

As well as the great art work, they have a couple of other pieces of art.  You guessed it, The BIG MALLEE FOWL.  How awesome is that.  Between the 2 huge birds, made of corrugated iron, is a huge mound.  In the wild they actually did a hole to bury their eggs and then cover them up with dirt, as well as rotting leaf mould.  The sun does the job of keeping the eggs warm.  Pretty smart huh. 

Friday morning we are off again, with our first town being Speed.  I Must warn you, the pace of modern life has bypassed Speed.  There is nothing at Speed.  We then continued on and stopped at Sea Lake for a coffee.  A bit more activity in Sea Lake.  The café in the main street was open, and even though it is a public holiday today, business was brisk.  While we were there, about 8 to 10 Motor cycles, with riders, from they Ulysses Club in Broken Hill stopped for a break.  They were on their way to Tarnagulla for a gathering.  A nice lot of blokes, and women.  It was amazing to see how many of those huge motor bikes had pop up trailers attached for sleeping.  Obviously the old bones cant cope with sleeping on the ground anymore. 

We then continued on to Swan Hill where we are now propped for 2 more days.  Neither of us has been here before and it is quite a big town.  We  have checked out the town and have a few things to do over the next couple of days.  Not the least of which is to obtain a photo of.............  The Big Murray Cod.............   I knew it would excite you.  You will just have to wait a few days for that photo. 

Anyway that is all for now. 

Until next time. 

Barry and Deb. 

Well hi to all, or anyone that may be reading this. 

It has been quite some time since my last blog and this latest addition will only be for a couple of weeks.  For those hanging on, it will hopefully be of interest to all.  Towards the end of our short trip we will be checking out some fantastic Silo Art, so well worth waiting for.

We have been looking forward to getting away but due to lots of circumstances, we have been unable to.  We actually started packing the van last Tuesday, and I even got a buzz out of doing that. 

We left Hamilton on Thursday morning and headed up through Coleraine before cutting across to the lovely little town of Edenhope.  It is only a fairly small country farming town, but it had a great feeling about it.  We stopped for coffee at the bakery and found ourselves in conversation with some of the locals.  Everyone was very friendly and it was a lovely little place.  The Bendigo Bank in the town had some fantastic artwork on the windows. 

From Edenhope, we headed off towards our first overnight stop at Bordertown.  The drive was about 130 k's on a fairly narrow road, but I don't think we saw any other traffic for the duration.  There was heaps of beautiful yellow canola crops along the way to keep us interested.  That would have to be one of the most beautiful sights. 

We arrived at Bordertown and headed around to the lake, which is within the town boundary. They have a free camp there for overnight stopovers.  It is only a fairly small lake, with plenty of birdlife, and on the night we stopped there, another 3 travellers also stopped for an overnight stay.  They have no power or water but at least the toilets were kept very clean.  Of course, as is my usual luck, it had a resident huntsman just inside the door, as well as an ugly black hairy critter on the window ledge.  You will be glad to know, both of these critters decided to vacate the premises and will no doubt never be seen again.

From Bordertown it was forward on towards Pinaroo, initially, and then to Berri.  Once again, loads of stunning canola crops.  A fairly boring drive apart from that, but again, very little opposing traffic.  We stopped at Pinaroo for the customary half way coffee and on leaving the Bakery checked out a fantastic Chevrolet parked just outside.  The car was in awesome condition and the driver, probably about 85-90 yrs old, was also in reasonable nick.

For about the last 20 kilometres coming into Berri, we were amazed at the amount of 'Gazania' plants along the side of the road.  They were just never ending and had even started to push towards some of the farmland.  It was a very pretty sight, with all of the orange/yellow flowers, but I will have to say, they are not my favourite plant.  They self seed and I am sure they will become a bit of a noxious weed if they are left unchecked.

We arrived at Berri, and might I say, what a great caravan park.  It would have to be one of the best parks we have ever stayed at.  Big, easy to access sites, a couple of swimming pools, jumping pillows, for Debs enjoyment, and within walking distance of town.

 

After settling in we headed off to the Information centre and then up to check out the Lookout.  The lookout is in the middle of the town and you do get a great view of the town and its surrounds.  We headed off to check out the sporting precinct and it was very impressive.

The bowling green was just awesome.  It is a huge undercover bowling green, with 2 separate greens.  It has a carpet type surface and it has been up for just under 2 years.  Whilst checking out the area, I was invited to have a bit of a roll and then invited to play social bowls on the Saturday.  Sounded pretty good to me.

On Saturday morning it was off for a walk into town for coffee.  We walked along the track next to the Murray river and came across the monument to Jimmy James.   James was an incredible aboriginal tracker and was used by the Police from SA, NT, NSW and Victoria.  He had an incredible record of tracking down escapees, or for locating missing children in the outback.   The monument is an awesome polished piece of black granite, with traditional aboriginal designs and a bronze image of James, in the tracking position.  James received the Medal of the Order of Australia in 1987 in recognition of his service to the Police and the community.

All along the track they have exercise equipment, set up for the gym junkies like myself.

After a bit of a workout it was on to check out the Mural under the Berri bridge. The mural depicts life of the aboriginal people of the area, and is on a huge piece of Jarrah that is bolted to the bridge.  There are also figures around the mural, depicting the aboriginal heritage.  It is a fairly impressive piece of art.

The weather this morning was pretty good, being in the high 20's, but the wind was appalling.  It was in the vicinity of 40 KPH and I had doubts as to whether bowls would even be on. 

Rocked up at the bowling green, and of course, those hardy souls were still up for a game.  I would have to say it was the toughest game of bowls I have ever played.  The wind was just causing havoc on the bowls, but it was still great fun.  Just to add insult to injury, the team I was in won on the day.

Sunday was a pretty quiet day, with housekeeping etc before heading out to the Berri Hotel for dinner.  It was 2 for 1 pizza night, so being pensioners now we headed down.  The meal was not too bad, so be will be back on Tuesday night for a 2 for 1 main deal. 

Monday morning it was off down the street for a quick coffee, as Deb had arranged for us to go kayaking on the Murray.  We met up outside the caravan park and followed our torture instructor to a quiet spot on the Murray.  He gave us our safety lecture and gave us both a map and then left us to our own devices. 

Just getting in the kayak was the first challenge, so with that all done, and still being relatively dry, how good was this. 

We followed the map as it took us off the main Murray river and through a lake area.  We stuck religiously to the map and it was just so peaceful, being at one with nature, so to speak.  We rowed through one area that had heaps of pelicans, and at this stage I thought, what a great photo that would make.  Maybe it would have, but with every movement in the kayak, it just rocked from side to side, threatening to throw me out, thus making it impossible to get a reasonable photo.  I got a few shots of Deb showing off her Olympic style rowing skills, while my kayak refused to remain steady.

 

It was very pretty rowing along the river, with some very impressive cliff faces.  As we neared the end of our ride, I thought, how easy is this.  How foolish of me to think I had mastered this task.  I was looking at the place of disembarkation, and thinking, how do we do this. 

Of course I threw myself to the wolves and tried to get out first.  How hard can it be.  Deb positioned her kayak beside mine as I tried to wriggle out of the kayak.  I am sure it wasn't this bloody small when I got in.  What an awesome sight it must have made.  I can only liken it to seeing a whale thrashing around and trying to get itself clear from being stuck on a sandbar.  Yeah, yeah I know, how funny it must have looked.  I do know I got wetter getting out of the kayak than at any time during the ride.  How awesome.

Apart from all of that, it was a good day.

That's all for now. 

Barry and Deb.