Southern NSW and Echucha, Victoria

Well we are taking the next few days to unwind and re-charge our batteries after a BUSY and ACTIVE visit to Sydney. We took a bit of time to catch up on our e-mails, do laundry and pick up and re-pack before hitting the road on Tuesday, March 26, 2008. We traveled about 250 miles we reached the town of Wagga Wagga. It was a nice drive, through mostly ranch type land. Lots of pastoral rolling hills, cattle, sheep and still many eucalyptus “gum” trees of many descriptions. We learned that there are over 300 varieties of gum trees, only about 50 are the habitat for koalas. Our camp site in Wagga Wagga was right on the Murrumbigee River. A very pretty area. Saw little possums in the evening, a lot cuter critters than the ones we have at home. They are about the same size, but their noses are shorter, softer bushy tales and quite friendly, not snarly like the southern Oregon varieties. We left Wagga Wagga which is Aboriginal for “Lots of crows”; the aboriginal language does not have plurals, so to indicate quality or quantity they just repeat the words for emphasis.

Wednesday morning we headed about 200 miles south and west to Echuca, Victoria to meet up with some friends from long, long ago. We had a nice drive through more pasture lands and crossed the Murray River. We met Jenny and Robert Wright and were happily surprised that we remembered each other. We spent the afternoon having a nice tour of the area. We saw the largest collection of antique paddlesteamers on the Murray River, some beautiful 150+ year old homes, and many of the local sites and scenes. We had a lovely evening dining with our friends, and reliving our younger adventures together.

Thursday we set out to see more of the area. Mike and Rob decided that they would “strut their stuff” on the golf course. Jen and I walked along and gave them some coaching advice. We followed up the game with a nice lunch at the clubs café and put a few dollars in the “poker” machines. We followed up the afternoon with a visit to the Cape Horn Winery, tasting a few of their local wines. A great day - perfect weather: cool and sunny, so far NO RAIN. We will stay here in northern Victoria until Sunday when we will head towards Southern Australia via the Great Ocean Road. We will be back to Melbourne mid May and see the sights in the city before flying home.