Friday, March 13, 2015

Riverina


I've crossed the Murray River into New South Wales, and am now in an irrigated area they call Riverina.  It's a very flat area through which several tributaries of the Murray flow, allowing irrigation of rice, grapes, fruit trees, and cotton.

The weather has been sunny and comfortable, with mostly southerly winds, so I've often had tailwinds.  I'm going to pay for that, I know.

From Hopetoun, I rode to another small town to the north, Sea Lake.  It was Friday night, and after dark a few other campers arrived on their holiday weekend travels from Melbourne.  It was hardly crowded, and I got my oboe practice done before they arrived.

From there, I rode to the tiny village of Ultima, where I stayed at the hotel in 2001 during a rainstorm.  The town got its name when it was the last stop on the railway.




Last Stop



Ultima


Ultima Hotel

The weather was fine this time, but there's no "official" camping.   The toilets at the sports ground were locked, and I couldn't find anyone to ask about opening them up.  There was a small park with a working toilet across from the hotel, but I couldn't find anyone to ask about camping there, either.  I was about to stay in the hotel again, but the publican talked me out of a $25 room.  Neither he nor either of the other 2 guys at the bar could think of any reason why I couldn't just camp in the park, so I did.  The only problem was that every dog in Ultima barked all night.


Ultima Campsite

It was an easy ride from Ultima to Swan Hill, a major center.  The caravan park was expensive, and packed for the holiday weekend, but there was room for my little tent.  It turned out to be a lot quieter than Ultima.  They had a nice, clean electric barbecue, so I cooked a steak for dinner.  I've added to my load a plastic spatula for future barbecues.

The Murray River flows past Swan Hill, dividing Victoria from New South Wales.  It's the biggest river in Australia, heavily used for irrigation.  It's a mere trickle compared to the Mississippi, but it's all they have.  Recently, there have been some restrictions on irrigation in hopes of restoring some of the natural habitat of the lower Murray.  It's controversial, of course.


Swan Hill Oboe Spot by the Murray River

The morning I left Swan Hill, I met 3 Australian cyclists at a cafe.  They were on a supported tour, roughly following the Murray River, so we had a nice chat.  They were somewhat less heavily laden than I.

From Swan Hill, I crossed the border and rode to the small town of Moulamein.  I started to see irrigation canals and some irrigated crops about 20 km before Moulamein.  The caravan park there had new owners, a friendly couple who had just moved up from the Melbourne area.  Both are artists, hoping to generate some income from the caravan park while they practice their art.  Sandy works with ceramics, among other things, while Joe is a wood carver.  They were pretty busy fixing up the caravan park, so not much of their art was on display yet.   It was a nice spot, so I spent two nights there.  Right across from the caravan park was a nice shelter by a small lake, where I did some reed work.  The lake itself is entirely artificial:  Excavated, with a berm and island, and water is pumped uphill from the river.  It's basically made of petroleum.  I didn't try to walk around it, but it looked less than a kilometer across.  One very expensive lake.

It was too far to ride from Moulamein to Hay in one day, so I took a slight detour to Maude, which consists of a little shop, a pub/hotel/caravan park and a couple houses.  My grassy campsite was only $5.  It's the first place I've encountered the traveling work crews.  One of them was cutting firewood, but I don't know about the rest. Most of them seemed to be smokers, which at $20 a pack must consume much of their income.

The dogs were fairly quiet in Maude.


Maude Pub






Maude Campsite

I left fairly early this morning for Hay, another major center, to be sure I got here before the shops closed.  For the first time in a couple weeks, I had a serious headwind, so the 52 km took nearly 4 hours.  Most of the route was pretty bleak, very flat and dry.  There are irrigation canals, but many are dry now.  Just a few fields were green, no doubt due to limited water.  Near Hay, there are some orchards and grapes, and I thought I saw a cornfield in the distance.

Hay seems a nice town, and there's free camping by the river, so I'll probably stay here tomorrow, and try to get some new reeds working.

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