The last entry on this blog saw us leaving the Murray in Victoria and here we are back again, well not quite! Although we have now started our Murray adventure with our friends Bob and Ellen we are actually presently settled along side the Mitta Mitta river at Tallangatta, a small town in Victoria's high country that was moved 8 kms west in the 1950's to make way for the expansion of Lake Hume. This pretty little spot is our first stop, just south of Albury Wadonga.
Since leaving the Murray last time we have had plenty of family time going up through Boorowa and Coolah to Tweed and Noosa. We have had lots of sleepovers with Livi and Ruby in the caravan, both at Coolah and up at Tweed where they spent the July school holidays. I spent lots of time with mum who I'm sure is now missing me terribly and we've also caught up with friends in the area. We spent a week with Dennis and Christine, our friends from Victoria who came and found us at Boyd's Bay caravan park. We then had a few days at Noosa with my brother Simon and his family. All good catch ups.
It was great to enjoy some warm weather for a while and we were back to shorts and teeshirts, enjoying the Northern NSW/Queensland winter climate before returning south to minus temperatures again.
After having the van serviced at Caboolture near Brisbane, we then started the trip back down, again through Coolah and Boorowa. (Wow, writing this now, we seem to have been pretty busy lately, the time goes so quickly!) We've been waking up to frosts in the morning but mostly the days have been beautiful, cold but sunny. Our van is well insulated and with a small gas heater, 2 quilts and a blanket on the bed we stay warm. It just takes a bit longer to get going in the mornings.
We are here now at Tallangatta, spending a few days at a free camp by the river, it's a beautiful spot and the boys have been doing a spot of fishing, no luck yet though! We've been for a drive to Corryong, Banjo Patterson's "Man from Snowy River" country, checked out the museum and wandered around the town of about 1200 residents. That's just a bit bigger than Coolah and Boorowa. Then onto Khancoban to check out the Snowy Mountain Hydro system. We toured around Murray 2 Power Station and were blown away by the size and power of this one station, how much water passes though per second and how much electricity it produces. The scenery in the area is beautiful and lush with rolling green hills and healthy looking cattle everywhere, a bit of a contrast to the drought affected areas that we have seen a lot of lately! Yesterday we visited Beechworth, a town we checked out earlier in the year but Bob and Ellen hadn't yet seen. We enjoyed walking around the town, looking at the lovely old sandstone buildings, checking out the Op shops and a lovely pie and coffee at the busy bakery for lunch.
Now we are on our way back to Wodonga for 4 nights at the Showgrounds. It's time to catch up on washing, shopping etc. and the boys want to be in TV coverage for the sport this weekend. If these first few days are a sign of things to come, I'm sure we're going to have a good time wandering along the Murray.