Day 30 – 7th May

We drove into Swan Hill today and had a walk around the streets checking out the town, quite nice down by the river. There was a chilly breeze blowing in Swan Hill, so it was quite cool walking around.

We had another leak on the T piece between the tanks and we were sucking in a lot of air. Chris figured we had a crack in the T piece where it must have been hit with another stone. We ran the tanks dry so Chris could replace the T piece. While we were parked by the river on bitumen Chris thought it was a good opportunity to do it. The T piece did not want to come out of the hoses, Chris cut one end off but he didn’t have enough hose to be cutting off all ends. He was on a travel blanket under the van, in shorts and T shirt with water dripping out onto him, he was freezing, his hands were very cold and sore, he was not a happy chappie. After quite a long time he finally managed to get them off and has replaced the piece but not after saying he was going to re vamp the plumping underneath and do it far better, with a lot easier bits to replace if the need should arrive. I made him a nice warm toasted Sand for lunch.

While we were in Swan Hill we picked up a little booklet that was reduced to $3. Its part of a series called Murray River Access. This one starts East of Gunbower and goes to Barmah, covers all the twists and turns of the Murray and roads leading in and along it, it’s very detailed. The series covers most of the Murray and most books are only $6.95, well worth getting if you were following the Murray for a while. We have gone in and out of several roads and tracks looking for a place to stop for the night as there is nothing much in the Camps Aus book. Some of the tracks aren’t really suitable for getting the van in. We eventually found one approx 9km out of Echuca, a nice spot on a bank overlooking the Murray. Tomorrow we head into Echuca.

Towns and camp areas on the Murray are nice but when you are away from the Murray it is quite dry and the road isn’t very exciting, flies also come back away from the river.