It was off into the National Park area today to experience a bit of eco tourism as we joined a 2 hour cruise on the Murray River at a national park near Barmah, about a 30 minute drive from Echuca. I did remind everyone that the SS Minnow was only scheduled for a 4 hour cruise and look how that turned out, but Maz assured me that the Murray River was no Pacific Ocean!
Our driver and guide, Benita, was very good – very knowledgable and entertaining. She pointed out wildlife and talked to us about the ecology of the river, how it changes with floods and so on. The nearby forest holds the largest area of red gums in Australia – and just hearing about how they thrive in this flood prone area was fascinating.
The area of the river we cruised in is called a choke as it is narrower and therefore the river runs at twice the usual pace. Unfortunately we didn’t see a whole lot of wildlife – a couple of little kingfishers, a few whistling kites, a snake (I missed that, but others saw it). All in all it was a fairly pleasant time without getting too exciting.
After the cruise, we set off in search of a nice picnic spot. Ironically we found lots of nice spots, but they didn’t have picnic tables, so we ended up back at Echuca Port, only a couple of hundred metres from our tourist park. None the less it was a very pleasant picnic!
Everyone decided a quiet afternoon was called for – I had a swim and generally chilled out and Gaz had a short snooze. Then it was time for an awesome dinner provided by Kevin and Marian – another great BBQ. Tomorrow we’re off to Swan Hill!
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