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.
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