Well, we are on the road again. We have decided to head back to Port Germein in South Australia and catch some more crabs. Then we will tour around the York Peninsula and have booked into Goolwa for Easter. Goolwa is south of Adelaide where the Murray River runs into the sea. We will then head down around the Coorong and over to Victoria and then home sometime in May.
Our first stop was Bathurst where we spent a couple of nights with Richard and Sarah. Richard and Sarah used to run the pub at Hill End where Ray and Mark used to go every Melbourne Cup. Richard and Sarah now live on the outskirts of Bathurst and have a great caravan spot at the back of their place where we stayed for two nights. We had a great time and thank therm very much for their hospitality.
From Bathurst we intended going towards West Wyalong and then to a free camp about 35km west of West Wyalong, but we only made it as far as Grenfell. The road between Grenfell and Marsden was closed as the road had been washed away by floodwater. All other roads out of Grenfell heading west and north west were closed. We booked into the caravan park for 2 nights and had a look around this really old town. It was the birthplace of Henry Lawson some say Australia's best poet and it was also where Ben Hall, the bushranger hid out in some caves.
On Monday an old fellow in the park told us that we could get out by going south to Young. On Tuesday we left Grenfell and headed to Young and then on to Temora. At Temora we stopped at the Tourist Information and the lady told us we couldn't get direct to Griffith due to flooding, so we headed west to Ardlethan and then to Barellan, where the road was closed due to flooding. We were detoured south towards Narranderra and then had to turn west as the roads into Narranderra were closed.......yes you are right, due to flooding. So we went to Leeton and found out from the Tourist Information that the road to Griffith had been reopened that morning. Leeton had just been declared a disaster area as the irrigation channels which normally overflow into the Murrumbidgee River were overflowing onto surrounding land and had flooded it. We had some lunch and then went to Griffith. On the way to Griffith we passed the flooded irrigation channels. There was so much water in them that they looked like rivers.
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| Flooded irrigation channel at Leeton |
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| Water alongside the road |
From Griffith we went north to Goolgowi and then turned west onto the Mid Western Highway to Hay. Travelling across the Hay plains there was a lot of water along the side of the highway, which is normally very dry.
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| Another view of water from the car |
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| Water in channels along the Hay plains. This is very unusual |
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| Watery Hay plains |
Hay and surrounds was being sand bagged and the levee banks were being built up to 9.5 meters. The river was expected to peak at 9.1.metres by this weekend and all were hoping the levees held.
From Hay we travelled through Balranald and on to Renmark with no more issues. We are at the Riverfront Caravan park and our site is right on the banks of the Murray River.
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| Looking acoss the Murray from our van |
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| Renmark Hotel down the Murray from our caravan site |
It is now Thursday and we got a big storm last night with rain, thunder and lightening. But when we woke up this morning it was a beautiful day with a lovely breeze blowing. We are staying here until Saturday when we will head to Port Germein.
