Murray River Ramble starting Dec 2011

 We had a nice time in Adelaide with family, we had Xmas lunch with Lynn's sister and family and then tea at my daughter's and her husband's family ( about 40) . We bought new mobile phones for each other for Xmas ( Samsung Galaxy 11).
We left a couple of days after Xmas and headed to Mannun where we found a spot on the eastern side of the river at Haywood park. It was our first time of crossing on a river ferry and we fitted just nicely., When we planned to use a ferry about 2 years ago we were warned against it  as the river level was so low that trucks were getting caught on some of the steeper ramps.

Marion River Boat at Mannun

 Ferry at Mannum

We then continued up the eastern side of the river and stopped for M/T at Bow Hill and then again at the Big Bend just in time to see one of the River boats come around the corner. At Walker Flat we crossed the river again and after a few false starts eventually found a lovely free camp on a back water just north of Walker Flat . It was rather hot there as we had no shade and a spell of high 30s -40 days. We had a very quiet New Year's Eve there with just the 2 of us. Lynn went to bed but I stayed up till the new year.



 From Lookout above Walker Flat



 Continuing up the river we arrived at Swan Reach and again crossed over and set up camp in the park just next to the ferry. We were joined by a couple of other campers and even had a swim but the bottom was very muddy not nice at all. It was also very windy there so after only an overnight stop we continued on to Blanch town. Here we came across our first bridge across the Murray River.

Proud Mary and Murray River Queen at Swan Reach

When we were looking for a morning tea stop we found Lock 1 which had lovely gardens so we took the opportunity to have a good look around , however there were no boats going through at the time we were there.

Arriving in Waikerie we found the state speed boat championships in progress at Lake Bonney but we went on to Maize Island a few klms on towards Berri. We had a week there so by the time we left we were quite familiar with local shops. My new phone had been playing up so we were able to get it sorted out here.



True Blue at Martin's Bend



 Berri was our next stop on our Murray river sorjoun and we stayed a week at Martin's Bend which was quite a good handy spot close to town but not as peaceful as we would have liked as the local speed baots were  practising for an upcoming speedboat spectactular.

Proud Mary at the Big Bend