We chose to head home from Adelaide via the mighty Murray River.
The river meanders a massive 2530kms from the Snowy Mountains to the Southern Ocean in SA. In the 1800's the Murray quickly became a crucial communication & transport link for Australia.
River ports sprang up to service the trade & passenger traffic that travelled its length &, in the 1880's, at the height of the river trade, over 100 paddle steamers & many more barges were operating on the river.
We joined the Murray River at the town of Murray Bridge - less than 50 kms from Adelaide. The bridge over the river was the 1st bridge to be built over the Murray River in 1879.
We drove over 220 kms north east following the Murray River as it meandered across some magnificent farming land towards the SA / Victoria border (approx 30 kms east of Renmark).
We stopped several times to marvel at the 90 mtr high cliffs above the river.
In many places the river had 3 channels that were large billabongs beside the very wide river - all areas were bursting with water (probably from the January 2011 Qld floods) & teaming with bird life.
Oh how I wished we had a kayak to explore the river.
Along the long river there are 14 locks that controls the water volumes / heights along the river, so that in dry times there is sufficient water in the river to allow boat craft to continue to use the river. (the river ceased to be a trade river after the building of rail systems in the early 1900's)
In SA, we only saw about 3 bridges over the Murray River. There are at least a dozen towns / communities along the SA Murray River. These communities & visitors have the free use of river ferries that operates 24/7.
We experienced a journey across the river on 1 of these ferries at Swan Reach township. We took the van across to a van park on the other side of the river. An interesting but smooth experience.
Views of the same vehicle ferry whilst having drinks at the local pub.
We passed 100's of house boats moored along the Murray River, waiting for tourists hire them for a leisurely cruise / holiday along the river. 1 day we may just be 2 tourists to hire a house boat :)
Mildura is approx 130 kms past the SA / Vic border the 1st town along the Sturt Hwy & sits on the Murray River.
For several hundred kms we passed thousands of hectares of irrigated crops, fruit trees, vineyards, rice fields soaking in water, vegetables etc. All being fed water from the Murray River.
30 kms west of Mildura is the town of Wentworth. Wentworth is famous for the meeting place of 2 mighty river systems - the Murray & Darling Rivers. The Murray - Darling basin extends into Qld, NSW, Victoria, SA & ACT. It extends across 1/7th of the continent.
Mildura has a large billabong next to the Murray River, not far from the town centre. The Kings Billabong pump house was the 1st built in 1889 for the purpose of irrigation. Approx 165,000 tonnes of timber was burnt to power the pump stations until electric pumps took over in 1955.
The Murrimbidgie River also feeds into the Murray River. We followed this river east wards from the town of Hay. We also camped beside the river 1 night & spent the day fishing in hope for a good catch of fish.
Alas, there were no fresh fish meals - Rod was successful in catching at least 12 good sized Carp fish in 2 locations that day. (it is illegal to return carp back to the river)
After Griffith, we headed north through the towns of Forbes, Dubbo & Parkes.
We visited a beautiful car museum in Forbes. The private collection of over 50 vintage cars with many dating back to 1905.
There were dozens more fully restored vehicles of various vintages.
We visited the radio telescope in Parkes. "The Dish" movie features Parkes radio telescope. It has a diameter of 65 mtrs & weighs 1,000 tonnes.
North of Parkes is Dubbo. The Taronga Western Plaines Zoo is just out of town. This magnificent zoo features several African animals including the wild dog, black rhino, barbary sheep, common eland, giraffe, cheetahs, hippos, bongo, persian onager, camels & Australia's last surviving african elephant.
There were also several monkey ‘enclosures’ surrounded by ‘Moats’ to keep them from straying from their area.
The Ringed Tailed Lemur enjoyed their lunch
The Black-Handed Spider Monkey were always on the move.
The list goes on.
We rode around the zoo on hired push bikes as we thought this was the most effective way of seeing the animals. This took us over 5 hrs ( incl lunch) & we only just saw all the animals before closing time.
Alternately, tourists can use their feet, car or hired golf buggy.
Rod says that we don't need to go on safari to Africa now that we have been to the Dubbo Zoo :)))
At Moree we had to drive eastwards towards Glenn Innes as flood waters had rendered the road north to Goondiwindi impassable :((((
Driving our last 2 days on this trip was scenic. We were driving along the Great Dividing Range, & there were many forests of Eucalypts & mountain ranges covered in cloud.
Rail line damage from floods of 12 mths earlier
We crossed the border mid morning, with 2 hrs driving still to go.
Driving through Cunningham’s Gap was a relatively easy, despite only 1 lane being open. We managed to get on the tail of a long line of cars that was already passing through :)
We arrived home early, much to the surprise of our family as they weren't expecting us for another 5 days.
We had driven 32,000 kms in the car, approx 21,000 in the van & spent over $9,000 on fuel. (the most expensive diesel fuel was $2.10 / litre at Gem Tree north of Alice Springs.)
We replaced 2 tyres due to wear, but suffered no punctures despite the several thousand kms of dirt, stoney, corrugated rough roads in remote areas.
We also didn't have any major issues with the car or van which was great.
Our best claim is that we are still married after living with each other 24/7 confined to a car & a 17' van :))
Rod's shoes are worn out with us having walked several hundred kms of walk trails.
We had been on the road 221 days & Sue's (me) LSL covered all our expenses :))))))))))))))
The van needs a thorough clean to rid it of the red dirt stains of the Kimberley & Pilbara.
I haven't calculated how many kms we travelled off road, but it would be > 3,000 kms. (maybe 4,000)
We have made numerous new friends whilst travelling. We met up with many more folk quite a few times along the way - all of us heading in similar direction.
We've had a fantastic time exploring the numerous natural wonders of NT & WA & a small part of SA &
we are eager to get on the road again & travel some more of this beautiful country of ours.
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