The journey continues.

Much of our time since arriving in Victoria has been spent close to the Murray River, which forms the boundary between Vic. and NSW.

Please click on photos to enbiggen.

This is the Paddle Wheel Steamer the "Melbourne" that we did the river cruise on from Mildura.

One of the river features that we saw from the Melbourne was the weir and lock system used to maintain river levels, here we are approaching the lock which will lower us about 16 feet to the level below the weir

Upriver from Mildura is the town of Swan Hill where the old paddle wheeler "Gem" has floated in a small pond for many years serving a variety of purposes ranging from an art gallery to a resturant, she is currently under going a restoration for her next venture... whatever it may be.

Our next stop was at Echuca which boasts one of the busiest ports on the river, the Canberra is one of the many paddle wheelers that ply the river catering for the popular tourist trade.

It's spring time and the roses are in full bloom every where you look along the riverland, this beautiful display was in a roadside garden bed at the old wharf area at Echuca and contained dozens of these beautiful two toned yellow roses.

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After 2 long days behind the wheel of the i30 (900 Kms on day 1 & 800 Kms on doy 2, (that’s a bit over 1000 Miles BTW) we arrived at Mildura, our first planned destination.
This is the Victorian border town where Julie has been living for the last 14 year’s, it is located on the Murray River near the junction of the Darling River and has a strong connection with the early riverboat days when the paddle wheelers provided the main means of transport of our young nation.
In keeping with this theme Warren and I went on a 2 hour trip on a renovated paddle wheeler named the Melbourne which was built in 1920 as a work boat, the Melbourne still uses the original steam boiler that she was fitted with in 1920. The trip took us through a “lock” and up to inspect the weir that was one of many built on the Murray to ensure year round traffic up & down the river. (This is an interesting story about which I will post later).
We had a couple of very pleasant meals with Julie and now are about to head for Shepparton in central Vic to spend a few days with my sister Merle, as I have no internet connection until then I’ll leave this post to finish later.
Well we are now comfortably installed at Merle’s home in Shepparton where we are being spoiled by her attention; I find that we people that live alone are so pleased to have company that we tend to make good hosts.
The last few days of relaxation have got us back to “normal” (stop laughing!! those of you who know us) so we are set for some more action, if anything exciting happens I’ll blog about it later.