Trying to outrun the rain - and failing!

Well, Trev decided it was time for us to visit the Flinders Ranges and also check out Lake Eyre while it still has water in it - so, despite the fact that it's winter and we're heading west instead of north, here we are on our next adventure.

We left on Friday morning and arrived in Yarrawonga, Vic in the afternoon.  We dropped into the visitors information centre (very helpful), got some maps then set up camp at Forge's Bend on the Murray River, just past Yarrawonga.  It was a nice area and we got a fire going to cook a tasty beef stroganoff in our camp oven.  It started to get a bit chilly, but we enjoyed sitting by the fire eating and drinking to a beautiful moonrise over the river.  Very pretty.  A couple of drinks, then bed.

I was fast asleep when I was suddenly woken by Trev saying: "Something just crawled over my head!'  He switched on the light, and we checked the bed, where I discovered a small furry animal, (bigger than a mouse but smaller than a rat) crawling along the channel at the top of our slide-out bed - it quickly ran along the edge, then disappeared through a tiny hole to the outside!  Seriously, this was a little unsettling!  But we were both happy that it was something like a marsupial mouse, rather than a rather large spider - I don't think either of us would have slept well.  Trev called him 'My mate Murray, the Marsupial Mouse.'

So, next morning we were off to Echuca.  The plan was to spend a couple of days there, have a trip in a paddlesteamer, check out a couple of wineries etc.   We found a campsite near Christie's beach on a really pretty bend on the river, then headed into town to find about Paddlesteamers and wineries.  We were in the old Port town which has been restored really well, has lots of character, where we found we could do a paddlesteamer and lunch at Morrison's Winery trip for a reasonable price, a perfect combination.  So we planned to come back the next day and do that, weather permitting.  Back to camp where we again got the fire going and had chilli con carne in the camp cooker - lovely.

Of course, overnight the rain started - not too heavily, but enough to spoil our plans  for the next day - neither of us particularly wanted to sit on a paddlesteamer in the rain and pretend we were having a good time, so early next morning we packed up and decided to try and outrun the rain and head for Mildura.  So we are now sitting in a caravan park just outside Mildura enjoying the pitter-patter of rain on the roof, hoping that tomorrow the weather will clear up and we can either do a paddlesteamer cruise here or in Renmark.  So, a good start so far.  Hopefully my next instalment will be a bit more interesting!