Deniliquin

This April when we were in Scotland visiting our dear friends - the Rushforths - we met Ian and Christine who happened to be eating at the same restaurant as us one evening.  We got chatting as you do when you are the only ones there and to cut a long story short we exchanged details as they were from Deniliquin and invited us to drop by when we were there later in the year.   So we had already contacted them and were invited for lunch on Thursday, 7th December.  Hence our needing to get to Mildura after the airport to allow us time to get down there the next morning.  

We arrived just after 1.30 pm and Christine had made us the "best" sandwiches we had in our whole time in Australia!  Ian is an earth mover amongst other things and has his own business so was not home from his current job which is 300 km away but wasn't far behind us.  They felt there wasn't much to show us in Deniliquin but they agreed to pick us up about 5pm and would show us around before going out for dinner at the local Chinese restaurant.

As you will be aware by now, we love painted murals.  We had seen some water towers and silos before but what we didn't know was that there are hundreds all around the country.  Deniliquin had a silo.  Christine mentioned it to us and since we have bought a book which shows where they all are.  Sadly the printers didn't have the copyright to print all the pictures yet so we will have to go and see them and take our own pictures; not going to happen this trip - but we will see as many as we can.

I learnt so much it was fascinating.  Deniliquin is considered the Ute capital of Australia.  They had told us that before.  They have a festival every year - Deni Ute Muster - in October which lasts the whole weekend and they are in the Guinness Book of Records for having the largest parade of utility vehicles.  People come from miles and stay.  We didn't go into the museum as it was shut.  I loved the gates to the showground and obviously had to go and see the famous 'Ute on a Pole'.

David actually knew but I didn't, the difference in round and square bales and why some round ones are wrapped in plastic.  We had long discussions about silage and I didn't know that huge pits are often dug by farmers to put the hay in to convert to silage and then covered over and left for years and years.  What David didn't know was silage is an awesome cattle feed and generally used in times of famine or when other options aren't available.  

Deniliquin like so many others used to be a huge centre for the buying and selling of live stock.  Also they were renowned for their Merino sheep and although the sheep are still farmed in huge numbers, they aren't sold in town any more.  So many of the old pens are just left to blend into the natural scenery as they are no longer used.

What I would call a combine harvester, locals call them "headers".  When the mother lode is full it goes to empty its load in the silos but here they have huge mounds of grain which they cover with blue tarpaulins - I thought they were piles of sand!  I found it all fascinating.  A couple of days later we even got to watch them filling up a grain freight train from the silos.  Like the sugar cane ones there had to be at least 100 cars and it had 4 engines at the front.

A lot of farmers have started to grow rice as well as grain as they get double the yield from rice.  We had never seen rice growing so Ian rang a friend of his who was actually out on his "header" to ask if we could come onto his land to see it.  We understood that Ian had dug out all the trenches and put in the irrigation system.  The rice was planted by plane drop - I bet that would be a sight to see.

As it had started to rain we went off for dinner.  Hopefully it wasn't going to last long as the area was still recovering from having received 12 inches in one day last week which flooded everything and the Edward River (a tributary of the Murray) had burst its banks.  

Echucha, Victoria

The Murry River runs along the NSW and Victoria border so you are constantly crossing between them.  Today Christine and Ian were picking us up to take as to Echucha for a trip down the Murry River on a paddlesteamer - we were so excited as it was something we really wanted to do.

On our way day down, Christine taught us a kid's rhyme she was taught for when you sneeze, Echucha - Moama - Mathoura - Deniliquin; you say it fast and it is a bit of a tongue twister.  Quite catchy and helps you remember the towns in order along the B175.  

Sadly it was still raining but we were hopeful it would brighten up - was supposed to be in the low 30s.

We were booked on the Pevensey at 10:30 so while we waited we had a look around the museum which covered the story of trade on the Murry river.  As with all museums it was fascinating.  

We went up to the old bridge across the river and then turned around and chugged (I don't think paddlesteamers sail) down to the new bridge.  We were given a lot of information about industry on the river in the 1800s and the history of the paddlesteamers that were moored along by the museum.   As the journey progressed the sun began to shine and had dried the replica wool bales, our seats for the trip, in no time.  These wool bales used to hold around 200kg, depending on how compressed they were.  The flag they flew was the Murray River Flag which was made up of the Union Jack, the 5 stars representing the colonies at the time and the blue bars were for the 4 rivers which make up the Murray river system.  David took a great video which had the whistle going (I love that sound) but sadly it was too long to put here so we have put in the shorter one of the engine running the wheel.  They burn red gum wood to generate the steam which smells lovely.

Echucha itself is a pretty little town.  Very tourist they have tried to keep the road along the river still looking like it would have done in the 1800s.  They had some lovely quaint shops including a local wine shop, fudge shop and the most amazing Christmas shop.  After having lunch at the bakery we went to get ice cream - the best next to the ice cream shop in Nairn according to Christine.  I agree as now I too have had both.  Whilst we were there the weather turned again and a huge gust of wind sent all the umbrellas and anything not secured down, flying.  When we commented to one of the store owners they said "that was nothing compared to the storms the previous week when the wind had taken up the tables and snapped some the umbrellas in half".

Christine asked if we would like to go further into Victoria and visit Rochester as there was another painted silo there.  "Yes" said I before David could say anything as immediately I thought it would be fun to take a photo of the town sign and then Whatsapp it to my mum to say "put the kettle on mum as we are in Rochester".   Unfortunately mum was busy and didn't see it immediately but I thought it was fun.  The silo's were lovely and all of us got a special treat as they had added a duck billed platypus to the back which neither Ian nor Christine had seen before.

We had such a great day and it was so nice for David not to have to drive as I chose every opportunity not to do so.  I have driven once for about half an hour and when you consider we have so far done about 12,000 km that's not much!  On the way back home Ian suggested that they drop us back at our trailer park for a bit of a rest and then suggested we come to them for a BBQ - brilliant.  Soon after his phone went and friends of theirs were ringing to invite them for a BBQ on the river that night.  They got us invited to.  

Their friends were Craig and Wendy who were the same friends they were in Scotland with.  Craig is a sheep farmer.  He had recently sheared 280,000 sheep with 8 shearers over 2 weeks.  This is only 2/3rds of his flock as the rest are for meat.  We learnt loads about Marino sheep farming - the problem is remembering it all hehe.  It was a lovely end to an amazing experience and Christine and Ian were such wonderful hosts whom we hope to meet again.  They all want to come back to the UK as they haven't visited Kent and we offered to show them around should they make it and we really hope they take us up on our offer.

The next morning we bade farewell to Deniliquin but not before David and I went back into town to have a look at the park.  We had driven past it a couple of times when it was raining and we wanted to see it in the sunshine.  Deniliquin really is a beautiful town and I can see why Christine has spent her whole life here.

Thank you Ian and Christine for an amazing couple of days.