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The visit to Mungo National Park was hot. 42 degrees and with thousands of flies all trying to cool us down by fanning us with their wings, we were still hot. It was interesting in the park, but we were not game to leave the air conditioning in the Xtrail for long. Pic shows the approach to the visitor centre at Mungo.
We left the park about 2:00pm and got a flat tyre. It went down about 10k short of the bitumen on the way out of Mungo
Then we went back to Pooncarie to pick up the van and stayed in Wentworth. After two showers to get the dirt off, we had dinner in the Crown.
Next morning we went to Willy's Tyres to get the flat fixed then left Wentworth at about 10:30 and got home late in the afternoon.

Pooncarie

We are at Pooncarie. Many people are advised to wear a hat made from a fox when they say they are coming here, but we did not have one. It is near the Mungo National Park, which is where we will be today.
Yesterday there was a fundraising day for the bush fires. The pic shows the cricket game in progress with the sheep fielding.

Robinvale

The picture shows the terrible conditions we have to endure at Robinvale. The river is right behind us, the gum trees are all around us and there are ducks, parrots, pelicans and various other birds flying about. We do not know how we can stand this for much longer, especially at $20 per night.
Huge drive today, about 150Km non stop. It is so stressful being on the road. Tomorrow we may try for Mildura or even Wentworth if we feel up to it.

Swan Hill

Swan Hill for a couple of nights. We went to Paddock Boga, (no water in it so its not a lake), to see the Catalina Flying Boat museum. They had old equipment on show that makes me depressed, because I can remember installing that equipment.
Funny weather over here. Yesterday the car outside temperature gage recorded 44 degrees, to day it rained and the temperature is about 20.
More tourist trips today

Echuca two

We are getting lazy in Echuca. Yesterday we got up just in time to get a shower before they closed them for cleaning, then wandered around to the shops to stock up the pantry, and it was lunch time. Kathy has wanted to put up extra shade at the ends of the awning, so yesterday we bought the materials and rigged them up. We (Kathy) will have to sew them up properly when we get home.
Ducks from the river come into the park, and it was not long before Kathy had one eating out of her hand. See pic.
Ants get everywhere. We have ant traps on the van legs, we spray surface spray on everything that touches the ground, but the little devils manage to find a way in. This time they were crawling up the broom handle that was leaning against the van.
This morning we had a cruise on the river. The paddle steamer Emmylou took us up the river and back. A real steamer, burning wood to boil the water to make the steam that drives the paddles, none of that “diesel engine that puffs steam up the chimney just for the effect” trickery.

Echuca

We left the Great Ocean Tourist Rip-Off Road at Port Campbell, ($1.38 a litre for petrol) and went to Echuca on the Murray River via Ballarat ($1.13 a litre, 100km away). It was an easy drive along relatively quiet roads. The smoke haze from the fires got quite thick and was beginning to irritate our eyes between Ballarat and Bendigo, but after that it cleared up. We had lunch at Lake Wendouree, or perhaps Pond Wendouree or even Puddle Wendouree might be a more accurate description. We were there in September last year when there was still water in the lake, but now it is dry. Click on the picture to see a bigger version, then compare that with the September 26 2008 blog.

Lake Elizabeth

We went bush walking on Saturday to a couple of waterfalls (not much water falling) and finally to Lake Elizabeth. We were hoping to see a platypus but they stayed hidden. We did see a lot of birdlife such as Blue Wrens, Yellow Robins and Azure Kingfishers.

Moving on today, not sure where, just somewhere a bit further up the Great Ocean Road