Birthday Week, & off the Murray

Lest our idyllic spot at Bellowye just before the crappy weather hit.  Looked at a couple of free spots near Wodonga but all a bit dodgy so went into showgrounds and paid for a few nights, turned out just as well as weather turned horrible and would have struggled with power with absolutely no sun for 4 days.  Made the most of the time here doing housekeeping duties, washing, shopping etc, and why not when paying for water and power.

Would have loved to play the tourist around here as so many interesting things to see, but honestly, lucky to hit 12° through the days, went out once sightseeing but we didn't last long. I know we are soft. I agree, but really 12 ° as a high, what is that?????

Our camp at Wodonga showground/racecourse

The Peace Bell, Wodonga

(The one peace (😂) of sightseeing we did"

Moved away from the Murray and onto the Ovens River with a quick stop at the Pioneer Bridges near Everton, not before passing through Beechworth and of course you can never go past the Beechworth Bakery.  Yumm.

Our camp at Pioneer Bridge along the Ovens Camp

The Avon River, so... cold, straight from the snow fields

Then with Birthday treats tucked away safe onwards it was on to our next camp at Stringy Bark Creek.

What an amazing camping ground.  You can see Victorian Parks have spent some time and money here, everything is so well maintained and the walks and the information boards set out and follow the story of the Ned Kelly Gang's criminal acts. 

Stringybark Creek

The road in, absolutely beautiful.

A historical grave, early settler.

The Kelly Tree,

The original memorial to the 3 dead troopers.

The tree has all but reclaimed the plaque

(Very bottom centre)

Memorial sites around Stringy Bark Creek

Site of the Police Encampment

And Finally Birthday celebrations🎂

Cobram and Beyond

We start this week still at Little Tom's Beah camp in Cobram, and the week started out with foggy mornings but still the sun shone through the day.

We had  a couple of visitors around our camp, what I thought were possums hissing and grunting turned out to be koalas, and the skippys were out and about too, not to mention 1 black snake that I didn't stay around to take its picture.

Family Portrait

 It was sad to say goodbye to our friends in Cobram but looking forward to moving on again and drying out.

So after delaying for yet another day, we left Cobram and headed East, higher along the Murray, passing Lake Hume and almost into the High Country.

Bridge over Lake Hume

We have been having beautiful weather and knew it couldn't last, however found a lovely camp at Bellowye Creek, right on the edge of the Murray, the river is getting clearer and clearer as we move East, and where we are now it is crystal clear.

Magnificent sunsets

We have made this a base camp and have done a couple of day trips around the area.

Spoiled ourselves to lunch at the Jingellic Pub, where we stayed 10 years ago, and a favourite of Les' from bike riding days.

               

Also went into to see the historical town of Walwa and some beautiful lookouts along the way (pity about the weather).

Does anyone know what this is??

Found in an old farm shed.

Mt Alfred Lookout

And finally a stop at the Sam McPaul Memorial to the young Rural Firefighter who lost his life in the 2019 bushfires