Stats Overview
Kms Travelled: 1217
Kms Hiked: 6
No. of Camps: 5
The Adventures
This week we finally got to start our adventure in Victoria. Although, we got so close to the South Australia border that, at one point, we seriously considered ditching Victoria and heading straight for South Australia! However, we already had the car booked in to get an automatic transmission cooler installed which meant we had to stay in Victoria - not that we have regretted the decision one bit!
We started the week by heading south-west from Mildura to the Murray-Sunset National Park. We decided to go there as we had heard there were some pretty, pink lakes in the area. What we didn't realise is that the lakes are actually salty and during summer they dry completely, so what we saw were huge areas of dry, pink salt. It was actually a pretty amazing experience, as you could walk across the lakes on top of the salt. However, you had to be careful not to break the salt crust as it was very muddy underneath! While we were hiking, we also spotted a mob of kangaroos on one of the lakes feeding from the salt which was definitely a highlight! However, kangaroos were not the only wildlife we got to have an unusual encounter with while we were there. We also got to have the pleasure of having a close encounter with some bees when hundreds of them decided to swarm our van. They must have been attracted to the water we had run in our kitchen, and before we knew it one or two bees turned into hundreds of them! Fortunately they were not too bothered by us, however, the volume of them meant we could not use our kitchen until the sun went down and they finally disappeared. However, as soon as the sun was up they returned the next morning. Trying to do the washing up in the morning with all the bees was certainly a challenge - I never knew doing the dishes could be an adrenaline sport! Needless to say we will never complain about the flies again!
After our adventures at Murray-Sunset NP we decided to head back to civilisation and went to Echuca. On the way there we went through the small town of Nullawil which had some interesting garden art created by a guy who makes sculptures from scrap metal. I included some pictures below of some of the pieces he has created. We had a really great time exploring Echuca and learning about the history of the ports. A highlight was taking a tour on a paddle steamer down the Murray River. We got a nice view sitting on top of the boat, however, we were sitting right next to the steam engine which meant it was a very hot tour! We also did one of the "After Dark" tours and learnt about the dark sides and criminal activities that took place during Echuca's hey-day. It certainly would have been a rough place to live back in the 1800's. There were something like 70 pubs at its peak which meant there was roughly one pub for every 64 residents! On the tour we got to go into a secret room and through the escape exit of one of the pubs that had been forced to close, so even when they tried to make the town have more "morality" the locals always found a way to get around it. We also learnt that due to the Murray River being a "no-mans land" between the states of New South Wales and Victoria, they decided to make the river under the governance and jurisdiction of NSW, which now means half of the dock in Echuca is in the territory of NSW and the other half is in Victoria. Apparently running the boat tours from Echuca into NSW waters made for some interesting paperwork during the border closures of COVID!
While we were in Echuca we also went and visited Cactus Country which is Australia's biggest cactus farm. They have 12-acres of cactus and succulent gardens and it was certainly a fun experience to see. They also make ice cream and cake from some of the cacti which was an unusual experience for our taste buds!
After getting our automatic transmission cooler installed, we decided we had better test it out and thought we would head towards the high country. Along the way we stopped at the town of Glenrowan to explore the history and capture of Ned Kelly. They had a very informative museum there which also included a replica of the house Ned grew up in. We did not know that a petition was created to ask for the reversal of Ned Kelly's death sentence - apparently they gained 32,000 signatures in support! We also did the historical walk which took us to the places involved in the Kelly gangs finally fight and Ned Kelly's resulting capture. It was certainly a lot of fun to see the place of the legendary story first hand.
We are now made it to Porepunkah and will spend the next week back in the mountains exploring the wonders of the high country.
Kodak Moments
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| Swimming at Lake Ouyen |
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| Pink Lakes during the day - Murray- Sunset NP |
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| Will on the Pink Lake with a chunk of salt |
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| Hiking at Murray-Sunset NP |
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| Just some of the impressive silo art we have seen this week - Sea Lake |
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| Transformer - Trickbots at Nullawil |
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| Trickbots - Nullawil |
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| National Holden Museum - Echuca |
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| Flood level markers next to the Murray River (mud line is most recent flood) - Echuca |
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| Boarding the paddle steamer - Echuca |
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| Cactus Country - Strathmerton |
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| The insane size of some of the cactus - Cactus Country |
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| The Big Strawberry - Koonoomoo |
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| The Big Ned Kelly - Glenrowan |
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