Day 59 - Saturday 25 February - In the Murray Region

Day 59 

SATURDAY

25 February 2017 – 

Murray Bridge – Tailem Bend – Meningie – Raukkan – Narrung

We woke to a lovely blue day though Paul had spent much of it awake with a headache. We read in bed for a while before finally surfacing to greet the day. We had decided we would take in the some outer areas of the Murray and Coorong, so with our things set we headed first in to Murray Bridge to check out the bridges, the river, farmers Market and stop in at the shop for rolls then it was on to Tailem Bend. 

This town is on the Murray and as the names suggests at a bend. The town itself isn’t on the banks of the Murray though, the Princes Highway runs between them. We drove in one end and out of the other thinking we had seen most of it along the way so we continued on to Miningie.

Miningie is situated on the edge of Lake Albert, this is where we parked up and walked through the town and then along the interpretive lake walk. It had come in quite overcast and was cool with the wind whipping up over the lake. There were some heading out in small boats ready to bring in a catch of Coorong Mullet.

We stopped at the Birdman Ostrich statue, where you could climb aboard and pretend to be like the outlaw who once road an ostrich evading the local constabulary. Of course I was clambering straight on to enjoy the ride much to Paul’s char grin.

With my ostrich riding days done we returned to the car and followed the road out to Narrung, stopping first at an Aboriginal settlement, Raukkan to check out a few old buildings. The town itself is small but well cared for by the local indigenous people.

We then moved on the Narrung and the river crossing. We passed a well-used RV stop before driving onto the barge and travelling 100m across Lake Alexandrina. On the other side there is Point Malcolm lighthouse, this is the only inland lighthouse in Australia and was used to help paddle steamers navigate between Lake Albert and Lake Alexandrina. Lake Alexandrina is the lake that the Murray River finally empties into. 

With the photos taken we continued back to Tailem Bend where we stopped this time and had lunch at the park though we didn’t bother to look around. Following lunch we drove back to Murray Bridge and checked in at the pub to ensure we had somewhere to watch the Wildcats tomorrow and then we walked the streets. We stopped in at the Cottage Box Chocolates and picked up some delicious candied almonds coated in chocolate and some chilli chocolate.

We followed the road down to the riverfront and checked out the old Round House building built for the construction of the first bridge to be built over the Murray River in 1873. It was later used as a number of different things, including a school in 1881. The views from the verandah were awesome.  

After checking out the homestead, we returned to the car and back to the showgrounds to rest up. I went through the photos and messaged friends at home with time slipping by quickly.

By 430pm we were out the door again and back into Murray Bridge to join other diners on the Paddle Steamer Captain Proud. We were fortunate enough to end up at a table on our own while many others were thrown together if they weren’t in large groups. We settled in, listening to the singer Maxine Kay and then the captain before we departed up the river about 5km and an hours worth of sailing.  

We checked out the view from the aft end of the boat, chatting to a couple who had lived in the USA. It was lovely to have others to chat to for a change. I took some pictures of the view before we returned to listen to the singer before our dinner was finally served.

When we were finished I checked out the ladies loo where you had a view of the paddle rotating and then we ventured to the top deck to chat to the Captain and I was allowed to take the wheel for a bit and a photo. He gave us some info about the area and what we were seeing and we wished we had him commentating for the whole trip.

Once back in our seats we were served our dessert and continued to listen to the music before we finally made it back to the dock about three hours later. The sun had just set and it was starting to darken. We disembarked, checked out what the fishermen were catching and then returned to the showgrounds to listen to the noise emanating from the speedway just down the road.