The Riverlands of South Australia

It was good that Barry wrote on the blog. I have been trying to get him to have a go for a while as I thought it might give him something to do. Once he knew how to log on he was away.

As Barry said we spent Christmas and New Year with some people we met in Albany in WA. Lovely people who originate from Geraldton so they knew quite a few people that we knew.

We shared the cooking for Christmas dinner and had a cold meat and salad meal in the mid afternoon. The day was quiet but the weather was nice. Not too hot but lovely and sunny. We didn't do much but sit around and chat but it was very pleasant.

The caravan park at Kingston-On-Murray was very nice but the water is pumped straight out of the River Murray and tasted awful. There was almost no pressure so we had to keep filling up our tanks and using them to shower and wash etc. Barry added a couple of filters to get rid of the mud and we bought water for drinking. We found some quite cheap water in Woolworths.

Kingston-On-Murray is one of those small peaceful little towns where I could live quite happily. Adelaide is 220 kms away to the west and the next large town is Mildura to the east across the NSW border. The Murray River twists and turns all over the place and is dotted with little towns. The first one you come to when you leave Adelaide (where the first lock is) is Blanchtown. We didn't see much of this town but we got photos of the locks from the bridge where we stopped for lunch on our way to KOM.

We took a drive to Waikerie which we discovered was the place where we got lost on the way back from Melbourne with the new caravan a few years ago. We took three trip around the town before we found the correct way out on that occasion and when we did eventually get out we carried on down a road that took us directly to a ferry which Barry was a bit worried that the caravan and the car would not fit on. He was also concerned because he could not see an easy way for us to turn around. As it turned out we got on no worries.

On this trip we discovered that there are no bridges across the Murray in this area. Waikerie has a ferry, as does Cadell and Morgan. None of these ferries cost anything to cross and we have spoken to people who drive from one to the other just for the experience of crossing on them. We crossed the Murray at Cadell (which was where we crossed with the new van) and drove on to Morgan which is very small just for some photos. We then drove back to Kingston on the other side of the river passing Overland Corner which has a really old pub and is obviously something of a landmark in this region, back around past Barmara and home to KOM. A lovely day out as the views are spectacular of the River Murray.

There are eight locks on the Murray between Blanchtown and the border with Victoria. This is almost the border with NSW also but there is a bit of a kink and the NSW border is about 12 kms away. This keeps the river and a lot of the wetlands full but interestingly has caused some problems with the ecology of the area. There are lots of dead trees in the river which has been caused because the river has not been allowed to dry out. These river gums are able to survive with there roots wet for about 18 months but if the river does not dry out (which it would normally do like most rivers in Australia) they drown. Another problem is that the water in the wetlands is very shallow and the evaporation rate is huge. These wetlands would also normally dry out during the summer. The Murray has 3 introduced fish species that are damaging the river very badly. The worst being the European Carp which can grow to over a metre long. These fish are bottom feeders and are permanently stirring up the mud on the bottom of the river so that a river that you used to be able to see the bottom of even when fairly deep is now permanently murky and choking the native fish. The Murray River Cod is protected and there are very strict fishing controls regarding them. Because South Australia is still in the middle of a very severe drought they are experimenting with damming off some of the wetlands and allowing them to dry out. They are hoping this will kill off a lot of the European carp as well as reducing the evaporation is these shallow areas. This of course makes some of the areas look pretty ordinary but I can see the value in what they are trying to do. Most of the agriculture seems to be wine grapes but there is still a lot of other fruit grown in the region. Lots of stone fruit and citrus of various types. There were also quite a lot of nut orchards around. The farmers in South Australia are struggling as they are only allowed to take 15% of their water allowance. This means that in some cases they have had to make some choices and it is not uncommon to see whole fields of dead vines. Barmara in particular seems to be struggling with lots of businesses closed and a large number of houses for sale. The locals have hope though. They claim that there will be a flood this year. 1 the pelicans have built their nests higher in the trees than they usually do and 2 the red gums are flowering abundantly which is a sign of good rains. Lets hope they are right. As Barry said in his post we went to Renmark a few times and we went to Berri several times (this was the closest place to shop with a Woolworths and Coles as well as Big W and Target Country. There were several fruit stalls on the way into Berri with some exceptional stone fruit and nuts. We stocked up before Christmas.

On one trip to Berri we carried on across the river to Loxton. Both Berri and Loxton are very pretty towns with large areas of roses growing in public places. This is particularly true of Loxton which was looking amazing when we were there. Renmark lays claim to the National Rose Garden which was looking very ordinary when we went there. So much so that we chose not to pay to go in to the garden. The drive back from Loxton to KOM showed some clear views of where they are trying to dam off some of the wetlands. Before I saw what looked like a levy bank I had remarked to Barry that the whole are looked dreadfully dry compared to the areas where the river is running.

We have taken heaps of photos but I haven't got around to downloading mine yet so there are none added here. We spent 25 days in the riverlands and we loved it there. On days when we did not drive anywhere we still walked along the river with Foxy and watched the houseboats and water skiing on the Murray. We talked to the locals about their problems with water and they told us what it was like to live there. We stopped on the way through the caravan park and talked to fellow travellers as we do everywhere we go. We have met some really interesting people and fortunately no awful ones.

We sadly left Kingston-On-Murray on 14 January to return to Adelaide to see Ann and Ashley who were flying over from Perth to stay with family here. More of this in the next blog which Barry or I will try to do in the not to distant future. As Barry says we leave it too long and we can't remember what we have done.