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We were up at our normal time and because we had prepared the previous day it only took us 20 minutes to pack up and leave our spot in Echuca. We picked up a coffee and then we are driving to Swan Hill and not sure if we will be here for three or four nights, we will see how much there is to do. We drove to the Big 4 in town where we had stayed last time but they didn't have a spot for us so we drove back to Swan Hill holiday park where they had lots of spots available. The park is older and a bit dated but we did get a really good private drive through spot, the rates are good and the amenities are clean. After we set up I prepared lunch and when we were finished we drove into the Information Centre, which was closed, and then onto Coles to pick up the few items we needed. When we returned to the van the weather was perfect for sitting outside so we took advantage of it and didn't move inside until early evening. I had a few jobs to catch up on so I took care of these and then prepared dinner, we had some meat left over from a roast so I cooked some new vegetables and then reheated the meat and gravy. It was a good meal, again. After dinner we moved inside for a movie before I would be due to go to bed. Tomorrow we will visit the Information Centre in the morning to pick up information, hopefully it is open this time, we have a bit of an idea what we will do in the meantime.
We drove to McDonalds for our morning coffee and then onto the Information Centre, by this time it was 9.30 and the sign told us the information Centre wouldn't be open until 10.00am. Back in the car heading towards Lake Boga for a bit of a look around. We noticed on the drive in that there is a caravan park on the lake with lots of sites overlooking the water it is a very pretty spot and somewhere to remember for the future. We drove past the caravan park to a picnic area beside the Lake where we wandered for awhile. There was an impressive looking pump on display not that we know anything about machinery but for the time it was made you can't help wondering how it was possible to move this machinery and also to be thankful someone took the time to restore it. Lake Boga is huge with a 38,000 megalitre capacity, that means nothing to me but I am sure someone will understand and the area has an interesting WW11 history, it is known as the home of the Catalinas. It is worth anyone with an interest in all things war to read about the very important Lake Boga played in the second world war. We walked around to go through the Catalina museum but unfortunately with Covid it was not open, we have noticed quite a few museums just find it too hard to manage with the restrictions. There is a great cafe beside the museum though which seems to be very popular. We passed a donut van on the way back to the car and Robb couldn't resist helping the local economy. There isn't much to the town centre of Lake Boga, one very large hotel and a couple of shops, similar to many small towns in Victoria really. From Lake Boga we drove to Pental Island which is on the outskirts of Swan Hill, we think this follows the river around but you don't see much of it from the drive so about 14kms in we decided to drive back.
We then finally managed to visit the Information Centre and a lovely person helped us with brochures on the area, there is a very good page on things to do in Swan Hill and we asked if she wouldn't mind crossing off everything that is not open, there wasn't much left after that and unfortunately we had already been there. From here we started driving to Tooleybuc just because the name took my fancy not realising until we were a few kms away that Tooleybuc is actually in NSW and of course that is a no no for us naughty Victorians but it was a very pretty drive through grape growing country, I think there were vines nearly the whole way. We passed a few cute towns that we thought we might stop off at on the way back, there was also an honesty pumpkin stand outside one of the properties so we stopped to pick up a pumpkin as they looked pretty good. We took time to look around Nyah on our return journey, we were particularly interested in a free camping spot at the rec reserve that has river sites, another place to return to. There were a few wood carvings on the river and we stopped for photos of these. We also made a pit stop to the Beverford Tavern which looked inviting, it was very busy but we were able to get a table out the front for a well earned beer then back to the van for lunch. The weather is absolutely beautiful so we have been sitting outside since we returned and we should still be able to get at least another hour our here. It is a lovely setting and there are so many birds in the trees singing away even with Covid life is pretty good.
We were not sure if we would have three or four nights in Swan Hill but I think we have seen everything there is to see so we will move onto Mildura tomorrow. In the morning we visited a coffee shop, La Mangia, for our morning coffee and read. Robb ordered fruit toast and I had a corner of it, coffee was a bit on the weak side but not too bad and the toast was tasty, service and pricing good so we would recommend here for a quick stop off. From here we walked over to Target, Robb was after a beard trimmer because we had missed our last hair appointment and his beard did need a bit of trimming. While he was making his choice I thought I would walk around women's clothing and managed to find a couple of clearance items that were a bit of a bargain. After paying for our goods we drove around to the Swan Hill Town Hall, we were hoping to go through it but this was just one more thing closed because of Covid so I took a few photos from the outside. It is a very attractive art deco style building and we would have loved to look inside but maybe next time.
I noticed an optometrist just up from the town hall and I needed my sun glasses tightened a bit a a new case for my reading glasses so with all this taken care of we drove back to the van for a read before lunch. After lunch we packed up what we could for our move on tomorrow, we have been doing this every afternoon before moving on and it is working well for us. While sitting outside the van I noticed this gum tree opposite our van, it is very weird that part of it looks burnt out but the older part looks ok, hopefully someone with a bit of tree knowledge might be able to explain what has happened.
