The Road Back

We were planning to do some more Murray River walking, but the morning was grey and at times wet, so instead we hit the road back.

Wheat and barley, mallee scrub and then more wheat and barley.

We decided to branch down the Sunraysia rather than the Calder after Ouyen to check out some different places.

Some great place names along the road, Tempy, Speed, Watchupga, Watchem. Half way between towns you could see the grain silos of both the previous and next town.

Birchip is apparently the home of the Mallee bull. Apparently the local town called Kinnabulla is named after the local aborigines calling for the station owner to 'kill a bull' for big BBQ. The bulls ran wild and big red is a local legend.

Marjan made sure to stand near the front.

Birchip is also pretty much the end of the Mallee. We had not previously noted it but there is not a hill or a river in the Mallee. Well the Murray being the exception. But in three hours of driving we did not cross a bridge. So when we saw some hills and actually crossed a bridge near Donald we knew we were out of the Mallee.

Stopped at St Arnaud, named after a french general from the Crimean war. A lovely town. We had lunch by the local botanical gardens. Too cold to have lunch IN the botanical gardens.

Checked in to our 'art hotel' in Bendigo and went for a walk. We struck it lucky again. It was the Bendigo winter beer festival today, so walking around Bendigo in the cold was enlivened by the many happy people walking around with beer glasses. Great view from the tower just behind the Art Gallery, but it was pretty nippy. So called it a night and went back to get ready for dinner and get our free drink at the hotel along the way.

After a visit to the Art Gallery it will be back to Melbourne tomorrow.

Bye from us

Hattah Kulkyne

We set off for Hatta Kulkyne early. There was still a bit of fog about as we drove down the Calder. The fog burned off soon enough and we got to the national park in brilliant sunshine.

We walked around the mallee dunes for a bit and spotted some nice wildflowers and some webs that had caught the dew. The forest was also alive to the sounds and sights of a range of birds. I tried to shoot one but realized I had not loaded the battery into the Nikon. Doh! The one thing I had to do and I stuffed it up. Oh well!

Anyway, we continued around the park. Spent a bit of time walking around Lake Hatta and Little Lake Hatta. It was very pretty. They have been allowing environmental flows back into this distributory system and the river red gums are proliferating along the shoreline, also the bird life is magnificent. Pelicans, spoonbills, cormorants, ducks, regent parrots, sulphur crested cockatoos, galahs, little corellas, yellow rosellas, white winged choughs, apostlebirds. What a day to forget my birding camera.

The choughs were really interesting, they were in a largish group chattering away and displaying together. We were quite transfixed.

The landscape at Hatta is quite diverse. We were expecting mostly malle with porcupine grass and the odd buloke. Instead we had that, plus lovely stands of cypress pine, black box open forest, quite beautiful river reds and open grasslands in places.

We lunched by one of the many lakes in the area and enjoyed some lovely sunshine and the water rippling in the gentle breeze.

After lunch we cruised along a number of ever smaller tracks on our way to the Murray Kulkine part of the park that runs along the river. We were glad we had the Subaru in a couple of places. This is a really lovely part of the world with the pick of your camping places on sandy beaches along the Murray. It would be a bit of a quagmire in the wet, but lovely now and I suspect quite busy in the summer months.

Back via Red Cliffs to see the red cliffs. A disappointment. The national park had beter everywhere you went.

Mungo

Wednesday

Well we managed to get up early, ven after having a 6 course dinner at Stefano's. Very nice food, interesting locale, in the basement of the Grand Hotel, and very busy wait staff, they made us tired just looking at them.

The road to Mungo started as you would expect from Mildura, normal road with citrus groves and vineyards along it. It slowly changed to dirt road with huge wheat fields, followed by open malle scub with the odd cow, and finally on to salt bush and mallee with some sheep. Through it all we had a huge sky.

Of course the Wentworth council has ensured that the road has all the modern conveniences.

We eventually (90 minues of dirt road) got to Mungo National Park. This is an odd little place. It is part of the Willandra lakes district. The Willandra was a distributory of the Lachlan when there was water in these parts and it formed a series of lakes. They had water till about 20,000 years ago. This meant there was all sorts of life around the water. More recently people grazed sheep around here and the salt-bush that proliferates at the bottom of the old lakes is apparently very tasty for sheep. After WWII divided up the ountry among returned soldiers the sheep farmers ended up with very dry land which eroded severely. The rosion around Lake Mungo meant that the ridge on the lee side of the lake lost most of its plant coverage and lo and behold we found some human remains which are currently dated to about 42K years ago. Mungo Man and Mungo Lady (not me being twee, it is what she is called) have redefined the human calendar.

We headed to the eroded lunette at the far side of the lake to start.

The lake itself had plenty of dry land wildlife

On the outside lee of the lake, the eroded soil is creating moving sand dunes that march east with the wind. Hard to get a sense but these would have been twenty-thirty metres high.

Back near the park entrance a couple of old homesteads provided some interesting recent history as well. We spent most of the day driving, walking and viewing this place. Really interesting.

Spent the night at Mungo Lodge. Great location just outside the national park. We had booked the cheapest cabins as the place, due to its remoteness, is quite expensive. The cheap cabins lived down to any potential expectation. However the chat with the managers and the volunteer teachers who were doing a five week sting supporting the parents in the teaching of their three kids was quite enjoyable. Especially with a drink in hand, and open fire raging, and a beautiful sunset sky just outside. 

When you think this place is at least an hour and a half from anywhere you realise how big the School of the Air service is in country Australia. What was new o us whas the volunteer service of teachers who drop in to assist. They were a retired couple, he was secondary, she primary and they planned to travel and teach in this way. Seemed an awesome idea.

Thursday

Nothing too exciting. We headed back towards Mildura, but we drove west to hit the Darling, and then drove along it till it joined the Murray at Wentworth. Really we did the previous days driving in reverse. Saltbush, to mallee scrub, to Darling river flats.

Had a nice time in Wentworth, checking out the confluence of Darling and Murray, having a walk between the two rivers, picnicking along the Murray and checking out the bird life in the area.

 A Major Mitchell

 Black Kite

Barking Owl

and a Blue faced honey eater

and just to finish up, I bought a card reader and include some wildlife from the Barmah.

A darter

An azure kingfisher

A pelican




 and a great egret

Winter Blues

Saturday

Well our short winter break kicked off on Saturday morning. Off after breakfast and through town up the Hume. We stopped off at Kilmore for break and had a cuppa at the local bakery. We got into a chat with a local, about 70, who was bemoaning how busy it was these days. After checking out the local market and buying a couple of books we were back on the road.

Got to Echuca at about lunch time. The sun was shining but it was old. The Winter Blues festival had taken over the old part of town and parking was a slight challenge. We managed to get a parl and wandered in for some lunch at the pub. We then wandered around checking on bits of music here and there. We managed to check out three or four acts in bits and pieces and we managed a whole set for the band at the Start Hotel. We did not know any names so we just soaked it in regardless of who they were.

Late in the aftenoon we headed to our accommodation across the river. Moama on the Murray. A modern corrugated iron arrangement of small to medium bain/houses around some water and by the river. We wandered to the river and spotted a Little Eagle (perhaps Whistling Kite) nest and two birds in it. Right over the water.

After settling in we headed back to town for some dinner and more music. We tried a couple of places but they were packed and we were not going to get fed. Oh Horror. In the end we settled into the local Indian place. Not bad but the service was inexperienced and slowish. Still we got a sit down feed. After that we checked a couple of places but decided it was indoors or we would freeze. We found a spot at the Echuca Hotel and the band were playing pretty straight enjoyable blues, so there we sat through a couple of sets and a dessert.

Sunday

Got up early....surprise and walked down to the river to check out the birds. Awesome watching them getting ready for their day. I don't have photos as I have lost my memory card reader and cannot get anything off the Nikon till I get home.

We headed in to a market at Moama. Quite large and diverse. We had some of the best hot doughnuts we have eaten in a while. Bought some dinner stuff and generally wandered.

Went into Echuca and booked a riverboat cruise. An hour on a riverboat with Lisa and the Moneymakers (or something similar) doing some softish blues. Not a bad way to spend some time. The sun was mostly shining and the cold could be warded off with a visit to the engine area which was nice and warm.

The afternoon got really cold but after buying me a beanie and warpping Marjan up in a blanket we managed to hold off and watch Fiona Boyes for a set at the outdoor stage at the Star. Frozen solid we retreated to the warmth of our room and our home cooked steak with a book.

Monday

Another boat trip. We had booked this one from home. A wander through teh narrows and the Barmah Forest. It was a brief drive up to Barmah and we ended up being the sole participants in the trip. Our captain, John, was quite knowledgeable and was very interesting. We were particularly taken with the fact that the Murray along this section is actually higher than the surrounding countryside and lakes and that the tributaries flow out not in.

Even better we got a great view of an Azure Kingfisher, as well as egrets, cormorants, darters, whistling kites, a white bellied sea eagle, ibis, pelicans etc etc. We were on the water for a couple of hours with a short break on land to visit a beautiful huge River Redgum that is invisible from the water.

We got back pretty cool, but managed to sit by the river munching our picnic for a while anyway.

We then had a bit of a drive through the Barmah spotting brumbies, very shaggy, as well as roos and emus.

A nice time was had by us. 

We headed back and I had a huge nap whilst Marjan walked along the river.

Dinner at the bowls club was interesting for the palatial nature of the place

Tuesday

A final visit to the Little Eagles before we set off for Mildura.

The initial part of the drive was through 3 degree frost and fog. Not a lot to see.

As we got to Swan Hill it opened up and we got the views of the irrigation agriculture up here. Huge it is .........huge. We even spotted an Australian cricket bat willow plantation.

We spent a fair bit of the day driving, but a break at Gol Gol with some local citrus, a view of the river and some lovely parrots was very pleasant.

We booked into the Grand for the night, so we could go to Stefano's downstairs for dinner. nHope it is worth it. We had a bit of a walk around Mildura and cheked into the Information centre for some info on Mungo.

A transition day really.

The Pinnacle

I decided to walk to the pinnacle from Hall's Gap this morning. I was a planning a bigger walk anyway and decided not to go to Mt Sturgeon to do the most southerly peak. Too far. So the pinnacle! It is 400 metres of elevation and 5.6k to the Wonderland car park where I arranged Marjan to be for the application of heart massage.

Headed off about nineish and was going pretty good. The route I chose is not the steepest but it does have four quite steep sections. The end of the first steep section brought me to a beautiful bluff which ends the Wonderland Range.

Whilst it was a hard slog I kept the heart rate below 200 so all good. Some flowers around here as well

but mostly rocky ground and scrubby plants.

no shots of the pinnacle, you'll just have to trust me that I made it. The light was in my face so the shots are a sub-par even for me. But here is one I liked from the way down.

Marjan was waiting for me at the car park and the thoughts of doing the complete loop, another 3.5k, disappeared with her offer of ice-cream.

We had a swim, a bike ride, a nap and an ice-cream, but not in that order. I need to bring a little uncertainty to the blog to add dramatic tension.

So a celebratory steak for the walk, a nice sleep, a 5:30 am wake up call from a thousand cockatoos a view of some roos and then we drive back home to torment Anna.

Unexpected Guests

A birdy shot for Dom from this morning.


As we were driving off after the bird shot, we got  message that Viv and Graeme were going to be in the area and would love a coffee. Awesome, we thought and changed our plans to accommodate. We did a short walk to the Venus Baths, before heading down for said coffee and of course cake!!!!!

A lovely, photo-less time was had by all and we finally head off about midday. That means not a lot of photos as the light was a bit harsh.

We headed down into the Victoria Valley and had lunch atop a small rocky outcrop in the middle of this huge flood plain called Paddy Castle. Some emus wanted their share.

We did a couple of small walks, but did not see too many interesting things. The Acacia amber, 4 pointer buck and River Red gums drinking their fill are exceptions.

It was warm and we decide to give the walking a rest and essentially drove up and down mountains on dirt tracks. Well I say dirt tracks, but really they were rocky Subaru torture tests. Someone had let a tender to the highest bidder and instead of gravel, or crushed rock they got the lowest bid as some farmer who decided to get rid of every rock from golf ball sized to basketball size and spread them on the roads in the Grampians. At times Marjan was hard at it making sure we did not hit one of these boulders.

Still it kept us amused as we traversed all sorts of different bushland as we criss-crossed the middle of the national park and avoided the weekend crowds.

Sorry we are closed

So let us start with a couple for Dom from when I was waiting for Marjan to make me breakfast. Don't tell her I said that!

Once we were fed we headed north up the Mt Zero road. We decided to give the subie a 4WD try out. All was going well it was handling the sandy track magnificently. However, we decided not to risk this creek crossing. I know it looks tame but up close it did not look as if the only slightly higher clearance would make it. Besides that Marjan was giving me her "we are all going to die!" look and breath intake.

Still, it was a good spot to look around. The fires had ravaged through here recently and as you can see the trees were only beginning their recovery. What that meant was that the understorey was starting some profuse fecundity  (good phrase........for plants, not people) in the ash enriched sandy soil and the grass trees were loving the sun.

Back on the road, the scenery was much the same, very sandy soil an very burnt trees.

Our first planned stop was at the Hollow Mountain car park, where we were going to skip Hollow Mountain, bad previous experience, and instead visit some aboriginal art. Sorry we are closed! said the sign. Bushfire damage and we do not pay enough taxes to fix things quickly.

So off to Mt Zero, where we had no recent traumatic history and hence were able to ascend. Mt Zero is the very last hill in the north of the Grampians and has a magnificent vista over the Wimmera and off to Mt Arapiles. I however, perversely perhaps, have decided to show you the view back to Mt Stapylton and the rest of the Grampians.



and to show you the olive grove we were planning to stop at for some oil and coffee.

We trekked back down and took a slightly different route. Marjan loved it.

We lunched at the Mt Zero picnic ground and after a fine repast of pre-prepared sanggers headed off to the second aboriginal rock art site. You guessed it. Sorry we are closed!

Nothing for it but to soldier on to the olive grove for a coffee. Sorry we are closed!

It just wasn't our day. Still on the drive back to the highway we saw a mob of roos travelling along and across the road, jumping fences and generally making us travel slower. Quite a sight!

I can see why farmers have fences like the one below and gardeners in Hall's Gap have variations on the prison compound. The roos made small work of normal fences.

So off to Stawell (an onomatopoeia or a synonym for stall?) for a bit of a shop. I had forgotten how oddly narrow and closed in the main street shopping area is. Also we spotted perhaps the ugliest building we have seen.....ever...no qualification. The Diamond motel, check it out, I refuse to pollute the blog with its photo.

Marjan decided to have a slow afternoon, so I headed off to take a few more. Nothing special, an emu, Mt Sturgeon, Mt Sturgeon and Mt Abrupt and finally sunset at Lake Bellfield.