Kerang and Swan Hill

Sun 8 March Today we are off to Kerang which sounds as tho it's out of the Beano!A shortish journey but first we have to skirmish with Bendigo town centre. After visiting several housing estates we eventually find the right road out of town. Aussie signs are as good as their internet. Kerang is on the River Lodden a tributary of the Murray River and as it's only 120K from Bendigo navigator takes us on a scenic route.The countryside around here isn't much to look at, it's very flat and parched and it's only green along the edges of the river. The last week or so since we moved inland has really brought it home to us how severe this drought is. It's true we have seen lots of rain but most of it has fallen when we have been by the coast. We pass through a village called Pyramid Hill, and guess what, the hill is shaped like a pyramid! It is just stuck there like a pea on a drum. A little further on we stopped at a weir at Kow Swamp and we are sure we saw a platypus. It was swimming about on the surface, not really going anywhere except to do a quick dive, but it was too far away to photograph....... we are pretty sure that's what it was.On to Cohuna for lunch, sat on the banks of the Gunbower creek then the last 30K to Kerang.Once again get lost in town before we find the camp site on the outskirts. First appearances, it looks a bit shabby but it's a lovely spot just a few feet away from the river, which doesn't appear to be flowing. It's full of weed and quite low. The upside is that it is very quiet, but it does have it's fair share of flies and, we suspect, mossies. There were some ornamental ducks who were very fat and waddled about from van to van just as food appeared. We doubt they could fly, but they did jump up a bit for bread.
Next day we were pleasantly surprised when we went into the town of Kerang to do some shopping. Despite it being a bank holiday, Safeway was open and we got everything we needed including cut price diesel.Again we are not travelling far today, we are going to Swan Hill which is only 70K.We phone ahead in case the campsite is booked up as it is popular and on the river bank,but are assured that they have plenty of room. It's obvious from the amount of traffic going the other way that people were just up for the weekend. With lots of time we do a couple of diversions, first to Lake Charm which is a boatie destination,not much to see but ideal for water ski ing or ripping about in fast boats. Later we turn into Swan Valley growing area, full of fruit farms and wineries. There are acres of pomegranates Peter is not impressed " who eats them?" On we go to Lake Boga and Boga me, it's dry! We have never seen a yacht club in a dessert before!It,s quite sad to see the boat ramp leading directly into the sand.
What a fabulous pitch we have on this site, directed there by Daryl on his quad. We are 2M from the Murray and are immediately greeted by a duck and her 5 ducklings. We then went for a walk along this beautiful river to a lift bridge which crosses over to New South Wales. Walked into town but it is very warm so we found sanctuary in an oasis which sold pints of V B. We like this camp and Swan Hill and think we will stay a while. We hope to have our paddlesteamer trip here but once again the camp stretched the truth about he Wifi. " The cabins get in the way"! HUH There is a kiosk where you get 15 minutes for £1.
Tues 10 Mar we hope to do our steamboat trip but the weather isn't looking too clever. It was very warm overnight, but overcast this morning.Woke up to 2 messages on the phone. Some bad news from home about a friend Trevor Morse but when we check emails at the kiosk, the best news from the Smiths. Went for a sight seeing walk along the river to investigate boat trips and to look at a Pioneer Settlement,a museum. It seemed very expensive and was the only access to the paddle steamer trip which would have been even dearer. Someone on camp said the best place was Mildura which is on our route and so we will leave it until then. Continued up into town, by now it was raining quite hard, and who had left washing on the line?!! Got soaked walking back. This is the first rain we have seen since23 Feb (ever since we put our drought busters notice up in the van!) we''l be getting the sack! Found a bit of a flood inthe van as we had left the sky light open. After the rain Peter walkedto the lift bridge to have a look. It's a very interesting piece of engineering, except it's not working. It was built so that the middle section could be lifted to allow paddle steamers to go through. There is very little traffic on the river now, only small pleasure craft and one paddlesteamer that travels the other way. Peter would loved to haveseen it working but it is under repair.