Day 77 - Wednesday15 March - Wimmera River Region

Day 77

Wednesday

15 March 2017

Dimboola – Little Desert National Park – Lochiel Pink Lake – Nhill – Natimuk – Horsham – Dimboola

And another day begins. I am starting to feel like “Ground Hog Day” though the places are never the same. I was awake early, well 7.30 is early for me, so I read for an hour, enjoying the intrigue of my new book, Jasper Jones.

Paul stirred a while later and went off for his shower, by the time he arrived I was up and getting breakfast organised. He had spoken to the caretaker from yesterday telling her about the friendly possum, she was quite surprised Paul had been able to pat it last night. I am hoping for a return visit tonight.

Once I had a shower and breakfast I mapped out our journey for today and we were off, though not far, just into Dimboola.

We walked the main street checking out the signage, shops, public street artwork and old buildings. It might only be a small spot but there is plenty to wander around.

We made our way down the road for fuel and then it was into the Little Desert National Park to go for a walk and check out a lookout at Pomponderoo. The walk was through soft sand lined by scrubby bushland. I am surprised anything manages to grow here, but the Aussie scrub certainly thrives.  We saw a couple of kangaroos bounding off, but not much else. I took some photos of the desert banksia flower before the self-guided loop returned us to the car park.

Our next location was the town of Nhill, with a quick roadside detour in Lochiel to check out the Pink Lake.

Nhill is quite a large centre with a few pubs, always a sign of a larger population, or at least there was once. We stopped and wandered around. The place is quite lush with plenty of rose bushes taking centre stage at the main intersection. We ate lunch at a shaded park bench watching the life pass by and admiring the architecture.

Back in the car by 1230pm and on the road passing through the centre of Little Desert NP on our way to the second of the four “Framing the Wimmera” stops. We had seen the “Grampians View” on Saturday and now we were on to “Mt. Arapiles View” in Natimuk. We passed the mountain as we drove along and a smaller knobbly rock to its left called Mt. Arapiles Tooan. I took photos as we approached and as we continued on we noticed a parking area and people further up the rock, climbing.

The framed view was only a few k’s further down the road. We stopped took the pictures and then it was on to the third frame “Wimmera River View” just outside of Horsham. This one was off the main road and you had to walk the dirt track to get to the spot. Unfortunately, there were many trees down across the river so it didn’t really make for the best photo.

With the third one complete we made our way into Horsham, stopping at Coles for extra supplies and then we followed the GPS back to Dimboola and the comfort of the van. With the air con on we hibernated for the next couple of hours enjoying the down time. I rang the Wildcats, speaking to Abbey, ensuring our membership would be paid for next season, only 7 months away.

Paul read his book, while I put through the photos and the blog. The afternoon disappeared pretty quick. We both rang home before dinner and then we ventured out around the town afterwards. There wasn’t much happening around the place. We did come across the Sidney Nolan Studio, turns out the artist spent time in Dimboola during WW2 when he was with the Army.

Once back we had showers, keen to remove the mozzie repellent from our skin and the Paul went to bed while I stayed up hunting possums. Unfortunately the friendly one wasn’t around tonight and the few that were around wanted to stay well away. After a short while I joined Paul ready to call it a night.