Our first stage of The Mighty Murray

Has been quite emotional a few days. Packing up all our belongings and saying our farewell’s to our loved ones.
Matt said goodbye to his car that he had spent the last 6 years doing up. It has only been on the road for a few months. So it has been a bit hard for him

Driving over the Echuca/Moama bridge and through the port saying goodbye to a town we really have come to love as our home over the past 7 years. Brought a tear to my eye.

We stopped at Swan Hill for lunch and got our first “Big” photo.

The Murray Cod.
We went down to the park on the river and had lunch. What a perfect spot for a picnic.
We made it to Mildura and set up camp at Merbein for 3 nights. What a learning curve the first nights have been. It has been a hard and very testing week.
We did a few activities Park for Play which is an all access playground that the boys thought was great.

We also did Perry Sandhill’s out of Wentworth. So glad we got out there in the morning the sand was hot, would have hated seeing it in the afternoon. They were fascinating.

We called into Orange World. Mario the owner had the best customer service. Let the boys make their own juice. Had a joke with Ethan because he was misbehaving.
We found a sandbar about a 10 minute walk from our camp so we went for a swim. Ethan discovered that with his life jacket on he could swim really well. There was a fence put in the river to make it safe for kids. Which is a brilliant idea.

We then headed off on Thursday to Renmark. We crossed our first border and first quarantine checked point.

We set up camp at Plush’s Bend. A great free camping spot with flush toilet’s. We are completely fascinated in the river here, we can walk 1/3 of the way across the river. The boys are loving swimming in it. Our camp is about 10 metres off the river. Perfect location. We decided that we should stay until Monday as the place has a few other campers around and it’s Australia Day weekend so thought we wouldn’t get another great spot like this along the Murray.

We had a look at the Renmark Paringa Community Museum which had a lot of different machinery and other things from the past. Ethan seemed to enjoy it and to my amazement knew what a couple of them did.
We looked at Loch 5 and taught the boys the importance of the Murray in early settlement, not sure they got it but makes my love for this great river even stronger. I also learn’t that the Edwards river (one of our favourite camping grounds) starts and finishes on the Murray river. Then Matt tells me all this info about it that I didn’t know. How funny that we have come over 550kms and that’s one of the things I learn’t.
Today we did the Monash Adventure Playground. There is nothing else around it really but this awesome playground. It is amazing. Grant Telfer an engineer started it years ago with leftover parts out of machinery, making all different types of quirky equipment out of it. It has been changed and even shut down for a short time due to public liability. It’s my second favourite playground so far in Australia.

The things that I have realised I have been taking for granted power, our toilet that flushes, a shower. Oh my shower, what I give for a shower where I can leave the water running the whole time I’m in it.
Enjoying seeing all the beautiful coloured dirt. Matt thinks I’m weird but the dirt is a beautiful rich colour.
I love our country, our mighty Murray. Can’t wait to see the transformation you make at our next stop.
Xoxo