Nirebo Motel Echuca

... in the west. The River is at low volume now - about 15 feet - because of the recent droughts in the area, but we saw the high water mark of 33 feet in 1975 when Paul swam across it during a camping trip.

Echuca was settled in1838 by a couple of Lancashire convicts, Maiden and Hopwood. Each set up a pub and punt (ferry) at the same riverbend, across from each other. About 30 years later the railroad line to Bendigo was completed to take ...

... are deprived of technology. Oh no, we have the mobile phones - luckily before leaving on this road trip we discovered 3 phones have three months free email connection and we're find it very useful, GPS and Ipod touch. BUT HERE, in Echuca-Moama, our expectation of high speed contact has not been met. The Optus wireless braodband so bad is really, really slow, right here in the middle of ...

... to a full body relaxation massage which I swear to God was the most amazing thing ever. It lasted an hour and I spent the entire time drifting in and out of sleep, it was so relaxing. I wouldn't be able to afford it every time but it was definitely worth every cent. When you're not having any treatments you can just chill out in the spa and steam room - that was good for sweating out all of yesterday's alcohol. I felt sorry for the therapists who were doing our ...

Set off this morning to go on the paddesteamers. We all had an enjoyable time and then pushed the excitement levels to the next step and went on a horse and carriage ride. Was nice to step back in time but was gald to leave it all behind after going to the penny parlour (although the boys seemed to enjoy it) and the old 3 stooges movies - sorry for those that are fans but they don't do ...

The boys didn't want to say goodbye to Sam as he went to off to school as we don't know when it will be next until we see him (or the rest of the family) again. Very sad....aawww! Not long after we left Melbourne behind and headed towards Echuca (near the Murray River). It's not really on the way home but Jeremy wanted to go to see the Paddlesteamers. Got in not long after ...

... right on the edge of the Murray river. We were in a one bedroom, spacious apartment, with breaky provisions provided.

Friday dawned unfortunately raining. Undeterred we ventured into the Port of Echuca where we found a fabulous belgium chocolate factory, good coffee at the Black Pudding Deli, and even better red wine tasting at St Annes Vineyards. We noticed Oscar W's wharfside redgum ...

... We got to go on an old paddle steamer & train & went in to the underground pub & escape route. We nearly got locked in to a café/pub because the owners didn't know we were upstairs. That would have been a bit freaky hehehe. We than went in to a Big W for the first time in weeks. There was nothing there which was a bit of a shame. We than bludged back at the motel & went & had dinner out & than went to bed. Tomorrow would be our trip on the paddle steamer.

... mo**d**isch. 45 Minuten walk und das, bis auf die 4 Baeume am Strassenrand, ohne Schatten. Gluecklich**weise hat uns auf halben Weg eine Frau mit in die Stadt genommen, doch den Weg zurueck sind wir nur gelaufen, was fast un**traeglich war. Die Hitze kann man sich einfach nicht vorstellen. Spaet** als die and**en vom Feld zurueckkamen haben sie uns gesagt, dass wir vom Gleck reden konnten, dass wir nicht g**beitet haben. Spaet** am Tag hat es angefangen, v**daechtig nach Rauch zu ...

... found the free computer games so now they weren't interested in leaving. As we were leaving we found out that Cathy works for Echuca Primary Health Service so we gave her the crutches that Fraser was given at Proserpine Hospital which will go a long way to increasing the funding of the Victoria Health system to the detriment of the Queensland Health system! Arriving back at the caravan park it was sad to think that this would be our very last night of a fantastic trip.

I made a last minute decision to head up to the Murray River, the border between Vic and NSW, for my New Year's Eve this year. It has to be the best new year I've had. I left straight after work to drive from Geelong to Echuca which took me approx 3 hours. The drive wasn't bad, a bit hot but exciting due to the spontaneity. I arrived in Echuca at about 8:30pm which was the closest town to our camp site. I had friends meet me there so that I could follow them back to the ...