After nearly four months of lockdown, we are finally released. It just happened to coincide with a long weekend – Melbourne Cup was on the Tuesday. Thinking that many families would take advantage of camping on the weekend we set off on Cup day. We only picked up our new caravan the day before lockdown, so we hadn’t even slept in it. You are supposed to have the first service after travelling a thousand kilometres within three months, so we had to ask for an extension of the time.
When we had an off road camper trailer we would head up north to get to warmer weather as soon as possible so haven’t really done any travelling within our home state of Victoria, nor South Australia or NSW. Having a caravan with a diesel heater means we can travel in these three states whatever the weather throws at us, to a degree. I draw the line at floods and bushfires.
The most popular silo trail starts at Rupanyup and ends at Patchewollock, but I found another Silo trail with artwork that I thought was prettier. Starting at Goorambat (just north of Benalla), then Devenish, St James and Tungamah which are all within a short distance of each other. Then we would loop around and see Picola and Rochester. We stayed close by a couple of the silos so that I could get pictures in the golden hour or after sunset but there really wasn’t any special sunsets or sunrises.
After the silos, we headed to Wahgunyah – don’t you just love these names? The little campground on the banks of the Murray River was only a short walk into town and only two kilometres into Corowa. Lindsay had booked a table at the Italian restaurant for Friday night in Corowa which is in NSW. Unbeknown to us, the border was still closed between the states and only opened at midnight on Thursday, just in time for us to go to dinner! Friday night was balmy so we decided to walk the two kilometres, crossing the border to D’Amicos.
In Corowa we visited the Whiskey and Chocolate Factory and Café – the chocolate shop sells liquorice from Junee. Everywhere we went we had to show that we had checked in to the Covid App and our double Vax certificate or we wouldn’t be allowed in. The café is set in an old warehouse with distressed brick walls and has a lovely atmosphere, but the coffee is only so so. Because of Covid, they can’t do tastings in the chocolate shop, but she sneaked a couple to us. We bought a number of goodies that were devoured in no time.
There are seven local walking and cycling trails in the area and I would love to come back here with our bikes. There is also the rail trail to Rutherglen.
John & Jo recommended visiting Gooramadda Olives. We arrived just in time to join a tasting of several olive oils, olives and capers. All the olive oils were extra virgin. We came away with a chilli & garlic oil, a balsamic oil and a 2lt cask of oil, which has a very long shelf life. Once the bottles are open, you should use them within three months as the oil has been exposed to the air.
The area is well known for its wines and we visited two vineyards – All Saints and Cofield wines, tasted a few different ones and bought a few bottles too. Another recommendation was the bakery at Rutherglen for their vanilla slice. The coffee was better than at the Chocolate Factory and the vanilla slice was pure heaven.
The warm and humid weather had unleashed thousands of midges which loved me. Even spraying myself didn’t really deter them and in the end I just went into the caravan, because I can! We don’t like to change campsites during the weekend so waited until Monday to move on. On the way here, we had driven past Lake Mulwala, which I thought looked really pretty as it’s a man-made lake and full of dead trees. I found a campsite right on the banks of the lake, so we made that our next stop. I might plan a rough route but we are always open to making changes.
We were advised to drive the full length of the road as there were campsites all along the shores of the lake, then turned around and found an area that looked quite good where two other people were camped – they were both leaving that morning! The first day was sunny and windy, with the following day being sunny and calm. There were lots of birds in the area. A sign said that the Rainbow bee eater was a seasonal visitor. The lady at Colfield winery had told me that she had photographed them recently in Wahgunyah. It is the season apparently – I did see one, along with a few Sacred Kingfishers, Long-billed Corellas, Superb Fairy Wren, Yellow Rosella, Kookaburra, Sulphur Crested Cockatoos in their millions and something that looked like a Mulga parrot but I can’t be sure. Taking a pair of binoculars on a walk into the Stock Reserve section made the walk much more enjoyable. Yarrawonga is not far away and there is a bike track that can take you right into town.
Ann said I must visit Cactus Country – a garden full of different cacti and they were in flower which was excellent timing. October and November are the best times of the year to visit. The gardens are sectioned off into coloured loops and it takes quite some time to get around it all.
The weather outlook wasn’t looking good. We had planned to catch up with Ann and Simon but hadn’t chosen a place as we didn’t know where either of us would be as we were coming from different directions. While we both ended up visiting Cactus Country on the same day, we were hours apart. Ann mentioned Ulupna which I had marked as a day trip to see the giant Sulphur Crested Cockatoo sculptures. There was a campsite on the Murray nearby and we decided to meet up there. What a pearler of a spot. There was one other camper there, plenty of firewood and our very own koalas! One, which I will call mine as I saw her first, came down the tree and walked right in front of us.
The rain settled in at 8pm on the second night. There is nothing more miserable than camping in the rain, caravan or no caravan. We had planned on moving along anyway but this cemented it. We had thankfully packed up the mat and put away the awning the night before. We reversed out of our campsite to get back to the road to go out, turned the wheel and nothing. Once you break the crust on clay you are done for. Out came the winch, pulled us onto some grass and off we went. On the way back to the main highway we saw a family of Wallabies and later on some emus.
Two more silos to see at Picola and Rochester. The artist of the Rochester ones also painted the ones at Goorambat. Being only three hours from home meant we could arrive late afternoon and unpack a few things.
Luminosity Trails 