Swan Hill Victoria 17/8

Hello everyone, Well we have had some fun times over the past couple of days J J  I can’t believe that it has been five days since our last update – but obviously it has J
Sorry folks but we have had a couple of days without internet access and now I am apparently over my quota for the month so access has been slowed……
What have we been up to?????
WELL
Ahh yes…
12 Aug we travelled from 42 Mile Crossing Campground to The Granites, which are situated about 21km NW of Kingston SE in South Australia.

We spent two lovely nights here with the beach about 50 metres away…..

Darryl had fun on the 13^th fishing.  He used all his bait but was unable to catch anything.  A 4X4 drove onto the beach and the fellow threw in his line and caught a 2 foot Salmon.  Lucky bugger……

 another of the great signs in SA

We left the Granites on the 14 Aug and travelled through Bordertown

  This cute guy was in the park at Bordertown

 Bordertown the home of the WHITE Kangaroo.  It is NOT an Albino - it is a geneti off-spring of the grey kangaroo.

 to Nhill in Victoria.  We were stopping here to see if we could find info about a great-great cousin from 1892.  The local Historical Society has been granted the status of record keeper for the area and so has BDM records from 1882 and copies of the local paper from that era also. 

  Nhill - Home of the Lowan or Mallee fowl

Unfortunately the centre was closed whilst we were here on the 15^th BUT the Vice-President did come down and open the centre so we could do some research.  Most of the records that we wanted to access were on CD and the VP was not sure where they had been put.  All the other people that would have been able to help us were out of town for the day…… bugger.
Anyway we left our details and what info we wanted and hopefully it will be forthcoming.

We then decided to go and see the village of Glenlee where the ancestor was living in 1892.  We were advised to go out the Jeparit road and turn to Glenlee.  Which we did BUT it was a dirt road and it was raining…… J  We had only travelled a couple of kilometres when the road condition changed and Darryl decided that we would turn around and head back to the asphalt.  WELLLLLLLL   We got bogged with the caravan in tow.

  tracks from the first bog.  They don't look as deep as they actually were

Whilst we were working out how to tackle the situation a car came out the entrance to the property directly opposite us and just kept going. L  Didn’t even stop to enquire if we needed a hand – so we thought ‘so much for country hospitality’…

  our second bog.  The mud was well up over the rims on the other side of the car and van.

Yep….  Took us about ½ hour to get out of this bog and up to a turn, about 25metres away and got bogged AGAIN..  If it wasn’t the car slipping and sliding into the soft dirt, it was the van.

We managed to pull branches off trees and pull up clumps of grass and put in front of all the wheels and behind them as well and across in the direction we needed to go to get back to solid ground, let air out of the tyres to give us grip on the ground and tried again.  It took us 2 hours to get out of the bog and back to the asphalt road.  We travelled about 1 1/2km up the asphalt only to find an asphalt road that supposedly went to the village of Glenlee,  we drove down this road toward Gerang Gerung but could not find the village…. L
We travelled on to Dimboola and camped the night there.

  on a roundabout in Hopetoun

Yesterday (16^th) we travelled to Swan Hill and we kept in front of the weather all the way.  We arrived and set up and then did some washing and just as we went to hang it on the line – it started to rain SOOOO our little clothes line is set up under the awning and we are trying to get it dry.

Play equipment :)

Where we are is right on the bank of the Murray river.  In fact the island is bordered by the Murray and the ‘little Murray’ otherwise known as the Marraboor River.  The river is high but we have been assured it is not going to flood :P

River Murray

  me climbing the fence

We will be here until Friday morning.  We were going to go into the Pioneer Settlement today but because it is raining and it is dirt roads and paths in the village we have been advised to wait for the weather to change.  We will head to Echuca on Friday.
Keep safe everyone.