On the road again............Part 1

 If it seems that in recent months, this blog seems to be more about travel than quilting, you could be correct. There is quilting in between the travelling, but a lot less than the last few years. And combined with a lack of retreat news, there is even less quilting news. 

Last week the caravan was packed and Saturday morning we departed once more. We followed the highway towards Melbourne, but turned off at Horsham and headed across country to Bendigo and then north to the river towns of Echuca and Moama. The map below shows our route from Bordertown to where we are now.............

MURTOA was our first stop for lunch...............there was a lovely rest area and we made our lunch in the caravan......

Murtoa is the home of the famous Stick Shed and it has been on our 'to visit' list for some time. Here we were right on site, but a decision was made to keep moving and come back another time and see the shed as it was an easy day trip for us another time.

We also passed through some other towns that we could have stopped at, including some with painted silos, but we were on a mission to reach our first stop. 

We had booked at the Riverside caravan park at MOAMA and were supposed to check in by 5pm, and we just made it in time at 4.45pm! 

It was a very pretty park right on the edge of the Murray river on the New South Wales side. The Murray River is the border between the 2 states of Victoria and New South Wales. Moama and Echuca are so close that they are almost one town, but are in different states!!

 We found out later that most of the park had been flooded back in 2022. It would have been a devastating time for all of the river towns as their incomes depended on being able to stay in business.

I love the big gum trees along the river and especially the early morning calls of the kookaburras.

ECHUCA was next on our list of places to see, and we headed to the tourist spot, the Port of Echuca.

 

From the internet.............. The name Echuca is derived from an Aboriginal term meaning “meeting of the waters,” from the city’s location at the junction of the Murray and Campaspe rivers. Founded in 1847 as a ferrying point, it developed as one of Victoria’s largest inland river ports in the 1850s, handling wool, wheat, and timber. Echuca became a borough in 1865, but it lost its port functions in the 1870s and declined as railroads took over traffic. In 1972, however, work began on the restoration of the old port facilities as a museum and tourist attraction with restored river paddle steamers. Echuca now serves (with the adjacent town of Moama across the Murray, in New South Wales) a large district that produces livestock, fruits, vegetables, tobacco, cotton, and timber. The city is located in the heart of the Perricoota wine region, and the area’s vineyards and wineries serve as a major tourist draw. 

We were interested in this display of handcrafted model paddlesteamers of the Murray River........as Barry's brother makes model boats.

This photo of the Murray river was taken from the wharf area..........

.............and there was a lot of interest in these steam driven engines, especially from the men folk. It must have taken a lot of timber to keep all the engines of the paddle steamers going.

There was a lot of houseboats lined up along the edge of the river here, and if you look at the tree to the left of the pic you can see the levels of the floods..... so imagine just how much water there was!!!

This is the paddlesteamer, the Canberra and we booked tickets for a ride on this in the afternoon. Since we have recently travelled along the river towns of South Australia, we were rather surprised to see how narrow and how shallow the river seemed to be this far upstream...........

This was taken from the boat, and you can see the damage done and the water level in the recent floods..........

This is the remaining wharf area.......

You can see  how far the water came up by the marks on the bridge pylons.

This is the park that we stayed in and you can see how far up the water came.

This is the bridge over the Murray River and separates the towns of Echuca and Moama.........

.........as you drive into Moama this is the sign...............

and as you cross back from Moama to Echuca you get this sign. Not sure where they had the border check points back in Covid days???

We stayed 2 nights at Moama before moving on to COBRAM.

We spent one night at the Oasis caravan park at Cobram. We were intrigued by these buildings which were the ensuite units for the caravan sites.

Across the back fence you can see the roofs of houses that are in the Oasis Retirement Village. Our reason for stopping at Cobram was to visit with my cousin and husband who live in this village. We spent a lovely evening with them 

We spent a lovely evening with them after they gave us a tour of the town.

The next morning we departed for Albury/Wodonga, which again are 2 towns on either side of the river and thus in different states. I shall post a report on our time there in the next post. We have enjoyed beautiful weather with sunny days and thus chilly nights. 

Blessings, From Jude