Hi everyone!

Since last entry we have moved from Wedderburn and travelled a short distance to the Echuca area. The morning that we packed up from our camp near the reservoir at Skinner's Flat we drove back to Inglewood and called in at the caravan park to see some people we met there, someone wanted to show off her gold. Some of the people had been prospecting for years and had only found small flakes of gold (one guy has been detecting for nearly ten years and has found only one small flake), so they were impressed with Kathy's first find after only a week. After a cuppa sitting in the sun for an hour we decided we had better move on, and a short time later we were in Echuca. My parents had given us part of a travel auction coupon they had purchased from the adds on TV, so we stayed at the Rich River Caravan park, just out of town. It is a nice little park, plenty of large trees and plenty of bird life. The birds, mainly Gallahs and Correllas, come to roost in the trees around sunset and the noise is incredible. Hundreds of birds squabbling over a place to sleep, and at sunrise they make sure that all the other birds know they are leaving for the day. It was a good place to stay, with one exception. Only 200 metres away across a flat paddock is an abattoir, and the noise from squealling pigs and bleating sheep in their pens, and from trucks delivering animals at 3am was disappointing.

We had a good look around Echuca, did the usual shopping and washing, and booked in for a paddlesteamer cruise for the next day. This was a lunchtime cruise along the Murray River aboard the PS Emmylou. We set off at 1pm on Wednesday and slowly made our way along the river. Lunch was ordered off the menu and cooked on the boat as we went, and it was quite a good meal too. The Emmylou is the only paddlesteamer in the world to have a wood fired steam engine, it uses a tonne of wood every day to heat the boiler and produce the steam required to power the boat. Passengers have free range on the boat, you can stand in the engine room right next to the engine, wander around the upper and lower decks and have a look in the wheel house. Once again we had warm weather and blue skies, so it was a very enjoyable trip. Wednesday night was noisy again with the pigs squealling, and even though we were supposed to stay another two nights, on Thursday morning we reluctantly packed up and moved on. I told the owners of the park why we were going, and it seems that we are not the first to complain of the noise from the abattoir, and probably wont be the last either.

Our sights were set on finding a quiet spot to camp for a couple of days and figure out our next route (we're making it up as we go, you see), so we headed for Barmah National Park north east of Echuca. It is on the Murray and so only just inside Victoria. When we got here we followed the map to a track that follows the Murray and there are a few camp spots right on the river. Unfortunately, due to flooding this year and plenty of recent rain, most of the tracks are either blocked by fallen trees or closed due to them resembling a swamp. After a couple of U-turns on single car wide tracks with a camper trailer on (I'm getting quite skilled at that), we went back to the only camp spot that was not a swamp, which is a spot called Barmah Lakes. A campsite about 20 metres from the river had our name on it so we set up our canvas castle again. This is a beautiful spot. Large river red gums are everywhere, the river in front of us, and plenty of wildlife. There are birds everywhere, from the usual Cockies and Gallahs to Egrats, Cormorants, Kites, ducks, willie wagtails and plenty of small finches and parrots. We have Kangaroos close to the camp often and have heard the Koalas grunting in the trees of a night, but haven't seen one yet. There are fish in the river, yellow-belly, silver perch and apparently Murray Cod. It is now Monday, we have been here four nights so far. We have spent most of the time doing lots of not much at all, a bit of bush walking, a bit of fishing, and a lot of sitting in the shade of the river red gums looking at the river and a blue sky. Yesterday it rained for the morning, but other than that it has been 30 degrees every day, just beautiful. Friday night saw four blokey-bloke Johnno-and-Davo types camp right next to us (when there is three acres of empty camping area), light a fire and sit around drinking and talking loudly about "my boat / Hilux / fishing rod / esky / gas burner / stubby holder is better than yours because I spent more money on it"... till 2am. They went out on their boat on Saturday, stayed (quietly) on Saturday night and left early Sunday, then we had the whole place again to ourselves, that's the advantage of not having a time limit on where we stay or how long we stay.

I have been trying to catch fish from the Murray. I am not a very experienced fisherman (I could count the amount of fish I have caught and eaten on one hand) but I am determined to learn during our travels. So far over the past four days I have caught two small Silver Perch (released), one good sized Yellow-belly (spat the lure out once he hit land and flicked back into the water) and have had the line bitten off another two times. And I have lost two lures, four hooks and two sinkers due to snags. So it has been a learning experience, but it is all experience, and I hope by the time I get to Barra country I will not lose any fish!!

Anyway, that's about it for now. We are leaving here tomorrow and driving into NSW, probably stopping in Temora for a day or two... but we'll see what happens tomorrow.

I had better go, the fishing line has been in the water for a while, so I had better go and check it, then there is plenty of sitting in the shade and watching the river drift by that we need to attend to.

Till next time,

Paul and Kathy.