Friday, 22 May
A biggish day today distance-wise. 304 kms along the Murray Valley Highway. It was an interesting drive. The land use varied from vineyards to orchards to dairy farms to some sheep grazing. The road was generally good and not too much traffic. However, on one occasion a B Double rig found it very difficult to find enough space to pass us and so we did the right thing and pulled over to let him pass.
We got into Swan Hill at about 1.30 and immediately asked ourselves the same two questions that every newcomer asks; where are the swans and where is the hill??? Honestly, this country is billiard table flat and there is not so much as a pimple in the landscape. Anyway, SH is quite a substantial place on the Murray and well worth a longer stay than we have arranged on this trip.
There are two Big 4 caravan parks in this town and we were booked in to one of them. Naturally, we drove into the wrong one and had to find our way to the other which we did without any trouble. This park which is the Big 4 Riverside is, of course, located right on the river. It is a particularly good park. It boasts its own cafe/restaurant which as a very interesting menu. It is surrounded by well-manicured parkland and some of its sites back right on to the river and enjoy a great view. The sites are quite large and the facilities are first class. It is also pet friendly as long as the pets are friendly if you know what I mean.
The day started out a bit on the chilly side with a brisk wind blowing. We stopped for some morning tea at the not so thriving village of Gunbower and enjoyed it sheltering out of the wind sitting under the car's tail gate. However, things got better as the day progressed and we ended up being able to sit in the sun enjoying a glass of wine this afternoon.
Now for the sad story regarding the photos. Unfortunately, the new photo software that has just been updated on my computer by the Apple people no longer has the facility to reduce the file size of my photos. I need to do this so that I can upload them to the blog. So, I am afraid that I cannot add any photos until I can get to the bottom of this problem.
Tomorrow we travel to Mildura where we will stay for 3 days. It will be nice to keep off the road for a while and have a good look around.
Good old major Mitchell is to blame for the Swan Hill. The info boards along the river where your van is parked claim that he camped right there on that very spot in 1836 and that it was a hill. During the night the swans made so much noise they kept him awake and so in the morning he named the place Swan Hill. Like yourself, I completely failed to see any hill like features in the immediate area of that bend in the river, nor did i notice even a single solitary swan. Swan Hill certainly seems a misnomer today.
ReplyDelete