Murray River | | Danzblog

There’s No Fish in the Murray

09/01/201824/03/2015 by Dan Hughes

It was clean, quiet and sociable as most free camps are and we also had the company of a few resident pelicans. I don’t know what they ate. It can’t be fish as having had a line in the water for hours, I can say with some certainty, there are no fish in the Murray River.
We departed at a reasonable hour, well after those on a schedule had gone and 15 ks later we were in Victoria. An hour after that, we arrived in Mildura and I took the opportunity to buy some fishing tackle and long-life bait. Now I know what you’re thinking, if there’s no fish in the Murray why do I need bait?
As it happens, one of the stops will be on the Murrumbidgee River and I have it on good authority, there are plenty of fish there.

Tearing Out The Tow Bar

31/03/201722/03/2015 by Dan Hughes

Everywhere in Australia is a long way from everywhere else, so we generally try to get at least a week in between assignments for ‘free-camping’. In this case we had to get ourselves 1,000 kilometres (600 miles on the old scale) in two days, which by Australian standards is nothing much but with our dodgy old camper and a heavy trailer, there is an element of risk involved.
On our wanderings on some roads that could more easily be described as bituminized tracks rather than roads we came across a few places, well a lot actually, where they forgot to put up the ‘dip’ sign. You must know them, you are driving along ‘dumb fat and happy’ well I was anyway, when the front of the vehicle takes a short sharp dive, followed by an upward surge as your seat tries to swallow your bum and your lower jaw seeks out engagement with your navel.

The Bridge That Doesn’t Meet in the Middle

09/01/201819/03/2015 by Dan Hughes

The bridge that doesn’t meet in the middle. One of the big benefits of our plan to Travel Australia house sitting is being able to spend time exploring areas that we might otherwise just pass through. Beechworth was one little town we wanted to see to experience the ‘time capsule’ effect that seems to be associated with the town. From our base in the village of Ned Kelly’s ‘end of the road son’ nightmare, Glenrowan, Beechworth is only a half day excursion so we only set out at lunch time and it seemed no time we were there.

Beechworth panorama” by Taken byfir0002

It’s only 40 ks or so from the ‘capital’ of the area, Wangaratta and the first surprise was the presence of a lake in the middle of town.

For some reason this apparently insignificant detail was absent from the information I gathered before we set out. Lake Sambell came as a bit of surprise and although it is clearly a distinguishing feature and a little hard to miss. From what we read, it was a pit where gold was mined and later filled or allowed to fill in the 1920’s. It’s not like it’s something new that has just been overlooked and there’s a nice little caravan park too as one would expect. The town was interesting enough and there’s a fair bit to see around the area but we were really only there to give it the ‘once-over’.