Wanderung 26

Bob:

Although I don't prefer to travel that way, not knowing where you will be able to sleep that evening does lend a certain "je ne c'est qua" to a day's drive! In this case we started off driving East not knowing where we would stay in the evening. In the town of Blanchetown we intercepted the Murray as it was flowing South towards its mouth. There we saw the first of the series of weirs and locks that were built to prevent catastrophic floods, ease droughts, and facilitate river navigation on the Murray. Of course, by the time the locks were built, railroads and roadways had replaced most commercial river traffic, similar to what happened in most of the U.S.A. in the early 20th Century.

Monika:

Bob:

As interesting as the huge dam and lock were, however, we were more astonished to see a flotilla of pelicans treading water just downstream from the dam, apparently in the hope of snagging an easy meal from the fish flowing by with the current. I roughly estimated 100 or more pelicans, which is honestly more than I've ever seen at one place anytime in the past. We enjoyed watching their surprisingly graceful takeoffs and landings, as well as the precision formation flying they performed when flying in small flocks.

A bunch of cockatoos also flew right by us, but they were only interested in eating the shoots of the newly seeded lawn beside the lock. I hadn't realized they would eat grass roots, however, as most of the birds I'm familiar with eat seeds, bugs, meat, fish, suet, fruit, or some combination of those things.

Monika:

Bob:

Continuing on we stopped at Waikerie, a small town on the Murray, which seemed to be having a Saturday-morning street fair the day we arrived. We parked the car and enjoyed ambling up and down the closed-off section of main street, looking at all the street stands as well as the shops that were open for the day.

Just past the main street we found a trail over to the bluff on the edge of the Murray and followed it to a lookout tower. Climbing that gave us some nice views upstream and downstream. At Waikerie, the Murray is wide, fairly deep I think, slightly muddy, and according to the nearby exhibit it carries a hefty load of dissolved salt. I wondered if the salt content made it more difficult to use the water for irrigation, but that question remained unanswered.

Monika:

Bob:

From Waikerie we proceeded on to Renmark, and when we saw a "Vacancy" sign at a nice looking hotel we went in and arranged a room for the night even though it was shortly after noon. Australia celebrates Easter by giving people both Good Friday and Easter Monday off. Since that makes it a 4-day weekend, many folks travel out into the countryside for brief trips. We noticed that the campgrounds were filled choc-a-block and most of the hotels had no vacancies, so stopping when we found one seemed a good idea.

We were so early our room was not yet ready, so we drove on into town, and started wandering along the main street and the Murray waterfront looking for a likely place to eat. But at the end of the waterfront we saw an old, side-paddle-wheel steamboat moored right next to the Visitor Information Centre. Since people were boarding it and someone blew the steam whistle, it looked like it was ready to depart and we hustled over in the hope we could go on a river excursion.

Monika:

Bob:

We were in luck! For $20 each we could take part in a 1.5 hour trip up and down the Murray, and I leaped at the chance to take a trip on an authentic, 100+ year old river steamer. The "Industry", as she was known, was not originally designed for hauling passengers. Rather, she was built down near the mouth of the Murray and used for 75 years or so to clear snags from the river and haul equipment and workers for the building of the locks.

The "Industry" had then been given to the local historical society and installed as a static display at the Visitor Centre. But after a decade of that some ambitious soul got the idea of making it seaworthy again and with a loan from the goverment and a LOT of volunteer blood, sweat, tears, it was successfully done. The loan has since been repaid, by the way, and we were the beneficiaries of all that effort. I must say, if I lived near there I would certainly join that band of volunteers and help keep that piece of living history living. (There was also a glider club at the airport 20 kilometers to the West, so I would have a blast joining that group too, of course!)

Monika:

Bob:

As we slowly chugged back to the pier, a small flock or family group of Kookaburras flew into the big old tree on the shore nearby. Then they started a loud, raucous concert of competing Kookaburra calls, and you have not lived until you have heard a flock of Kookaburras belting out their eerie, laughing call. To me, the resulting din sounded more like a pack of laughing hyenas in full voice, rather than birds singing, but it really was a charming and utterly unique concert.

But by the time we returned we were way overdue for lunch, which tends to make both of us get a bit testy. Although most of the restaurants and cafes were closing for the day, we did find a takeaway place that served up a very nice chicken yiro for me and chicken schnitzel plus chips with gravy for Monika. We shared the chips with gravy, which we were both becoming quite fond of!

Returning to our hotel, our room was ready so we settled in for the evening. I kept awake a while by working on an acrostic puzzle, but when that was successfully completed I kind of conked out.

Monika: