Gaz was up and at ‘em early again, doing his exercises in the pool. It’s a very nice tourist park with good amenities, and the water in the pool is warm enough, even for Gary! I was tempted to also have a swim, but I had other fish to fry.
As pre-arranged the night before, Marian and I left on our bikes at 9am to do a reccy of the Echuca Port in order to ascertain the plan of attack for the day. Having sussed it out, we raced back to tell the boys to get ready as we needed to be back at 10am to board our paddle steamer cruise which began at 10:15am. The paddle steamer was The Pevensey, built in 1911, and was the one they used in All the Rivers Run. It was a nice one hour cruise where we got to see a little bit of the Murray River and learn a bit about the history of the river trade and paddle steamers.
After the cruise it was a short wait until our guide, Jenny, joined us for a one hour walking tour of the historic section of the Port of Echuca. We were regaled with stories, facts and figures, and generally learned even more about the history of the town and the river trade, as well as recent efforts to restore and promote the history of the area. It was fascinating and Jenny was an awesome guide with a colourful history of her own. She gained her masters ticket on a paddle steamer in 1987, something almost unheard of for a woman in those times. She was certainly the font of all knowledge in regards to all things Echuca and Murray River.
The cupboard was getting a little bare so Gaz and I did a some shopping after the tour and then headed back to the cabin for lunch. I had forgotten my secret stash of chocolate sultanas so was overjoyed when Gary reminded me and that topped off a great meal. At 2:30pm Gaz & Kev headed off to golf and Maz and I were back on the bikes exploring. A lady had stopped us this morning and told us about some bike tracks we could try…so off we went.
It was pretty hot and windy which made for a gritty experience when we were on dirt tracks but we also found some pathways and reasonably quiet streets as well. I think we did pretty well – we rode for well over and hour through bush, over bridges, on tracks, roads, and pathways, and eventually found our way back home. We had forgotten to take water and were VERY thirsty, finally finding a bubbler only minutes before we got home. It was a good ride.
With it being my turn to cook dinner, I then did some prep, went for a quick swim, and then joined the others for happy hour when the boys got back from golf. My beef goulash went over quite well, we polished off Gary’s chocolate peanuts for dessert – the chocolate sultanas were long gone – and about 9pm sent the Priests back to their van with promises to be ready by 9:30am in the morning to head off on our next adventure.
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