Murray River Ramble Part 2

 After our time in Berri  we continued on to  Mildura and for a change thought we would stay at the Psyche Bend Pumps. We found a nice spot to camp but there was very little access to the river so the next day we went back to our favourite spot a Merbein.

 Psyche Bend Pumps

 We were very surprised to see so few vans there, only a couple of camper trailers that pulled out shortly after we arrived.  We stayed at Horseshoe Bend or Merbien Common and since we were there last a swimming cage had been set up to allow small children access to the river. As it turned quite hot we had lots of swims and when Bruce and Dianne arrived their dog Tricky would wander down and have a swim there any time he got too hot.

One day while Bruce was up the street he saw a poster for a trip on the PS Ruby from Wentworth so we made enquiries and booked for their Australia Day trip on the Murray for the afternoon. Diane and Bruce were moving on so they packed up their motorhome and drove over and we just took the Ute and went over a bit later but caught up with them for lunch before we boarded the boat.
The PS Ruby is a refurbished paddle steamer operating out of Wentworth and  I wrote a blog devoted to her in  2010. It was great to see her in use as last time we saw her she still needed all her certification to operate and take passengers.




 Lynn and Diane enjoying the scenery from PS Ruby

  Our trip was late getting away as it took quite a bit of organizing to get her away from her mooring, but we were eventually away for a lovely afternoon and were surprised that there weren't many others on board. We went up the Murray river for about 1.5 hours and then made our way back to the wharf at Wentworth but we were back late too so we were away for longer than the planned time.





 A Caravan on the water ????????

  When we got back to the van we were amazed at how many people were in our area, all day trippers and lots of people with boats as there is a boat ramp there and lots of the locals use it. It had been quite busy the previous weekend too.

 The next day we packed up and drove to Robinvale and camped at  Beggs Bend which was a huge area but the water access was again poor. The area looked like it had been badly affected by floods and the beach had been washed away leaving behind lots of mud.

 So the next day we moved on again and ended up at Nyah, at the riverside camp behind the Harness Club where we also caught up with Bruce and Diane again. It was quite a nice spot with toilets and water etc but the river was low and very muddy. While we were there we drove in to Swan Hill to do some shopping and look around . On our way back we took the long way as we had lunch at Murray Down Club and then drove back through NSW and came back to Nyah via the historic bridge .