Murray River Trip Part 2

After about 6 weeks back in sunny Qld and an overnight in Brisbane,

Late at night overlooking the Brisbane River towards Southbannk

 I arrived back in Boort in Victoria to find Stuart very capable being  cared for and entertained by two couples who had been staying there for some days prior to me getting home.  Thanks David and Heather and Nick and Dianne.

We stayed on the banks of Lake Wooroonook

One of the better sunsets we encountered

The weather was overcast and gloomy but not as cold as I would have expected. And our next day's travel took us to the inland city of Mildura.  We set up at the Buronga Riverside  Caravan Park for the week and on our first day I wandered down to the Murray - yes we were back on the mighty river and I saw the local paddle steamer plying the tourist trade up the river and then coming in the other direction was a houseboat obviously hired to tourists. 

The Rothbury does two runs past our door at day with a winery tour and a dinner cruise once a week

It is surprising, the number of hired houseboats along this stretch of the river some costing over $1,000 per day

Whilst watching all this, another kind of river activity came along In the form of a black swan family, which arrived up on the bank for a feed.

We were very fortunate to be visited by this little family who came by quite a few times

This guy and sometimes his mate were almost a nightly visitor

for biscuits or fruit.  Unfortunately we also spotted a cat so I

hope our mate is swift of foot

The park is very family oriented and has a lovely garden at the entry where someone has made moulded sculptures of people at leisure and play.

The detail in these is amazing.  By standing over their shoulders I could read the days news

Mildura has an Australian Inland Botanic Gardens, which covers a huge area of largely untouched bushland, but with the help of a lot of volunteers and only 3 paid Gardeners it is rated highly around Australia.

On our tractor pulled tour around the garden we encountered dry country flora from all over Australia including a Bush Chapel used for many weddings, christenings and funerals.

I also got my first view of the amazing ground creeper, Sturt's Desert Pea growing in a small area of this garden.  Due to the time of year, only a few isolated flowers could be seen but lovely none the less.

As my family know this is my favourite Australian Wild Flower

On the first Murray River Blog we saw a large fence made solely of Malley Root.

I just now had the opportunity to learn more about a tree where the root is sometimes thousands of years old and after each fire regenerates it self from the root which survives the great Australian Bushfires.  The mallee tree has a large twisted knobbly tuberous root which which survives thousands of years of bush fires and after each fire sends out more shoots and so up to 5 trees form off the one root.

This tuberous root is estimated to be around 2000 years old and the trunks coming out of the root around 250 years ago.

A quick 30 minute drive away from Mildura is the town of Wentworth.  It is at the joining of the two greatest rivers in Australia.  The Murray and the Darling.

A couple friends we saw at the junction of the Murray and the Darling

Where the two great rivers meet

The Darling River came in from the left and the Murray came in from the right

Another of the great River Red gums guarding the water ways

The Darling has its birth in lower Queensland 2740 Klms away and the Murray commenced up in the high country of the Snowy's in New South Wales.

After nearly a month we are still in Mildura with a couple of health issues for both of us but hope to be on our way early next week.  Not too disappointed with our address though as we have a lovely spot with the Murray as our back yard.