By the time he opened his eyes everything was pegged out and the coffee was on.
It was a pretty hazy, hot looking day and when we checked the forecast, we found out there was a storm front moving towards us from Bourke. Which of course meant that we would be driving into it in the next few days, since we are heading directly north! Ah well, nothing new there then!
We threw the pooches into the Triton and headed into the historic river port town of Echuca.
Echuca is on the Victorian side of the Murray River and Moama (where we stayed), is on the NSW side.
Echuca means "meeting of the waters" and was founded in 1853 by two ex-convicts from the UK. Only 50 years later, the whole of Australia was a major world economical power, purely because of the role Echuca played as the main hub in connecting the country via its rivers.
It still has a thriving Paddlesteamer fleet, although today it serves tourism instead of commerce.
The other great thing about Echuca is that is the most dog friendly town we'd ever come across.
We decided to go on a morning Paddlesteamer cruise - with the dogs! We went into the Discovery Centre (with the dogs) to get our tickets and also booked into a guided tour for afterwards. Oh and did I mention we were allowed to take the dogs too?!
The cruise on the PS Canberra was awesome. We chatted with the 76 year old skipper who had handmade most of the netting and woven matting that's used on the vessels. The dogs were treated like VIPs and Sunshine even had a steer!
After the cruise we went on a walking tour of the town. It was so well done and the guide, Bluey, was fantastic. He really brought it all to life and we learnt so many new things things, like how Bendigo was and still is, the richest gold mining area ever in the history of the world. And how when the town only had a population of 5,000, it still had 78 pubs! Lots of thirsty wharfies means lots of beer!
Possibly the best part was visiting an old Speakeasy underneath the Star Hotel, complete with secret tunnel to evade the police!
It was quite spooky, especially when we emerged out of the tunnel and the Publican pounced on us and yelled in our faces to get the dogs the hell out of his pub!! We later discovered he was new and thought of by the staff to be particularly ignorant and arrogant. The pub is owned by a Town Councillor and we were assured he would not be at all happy with the way his employer behaved! Hah! Rude idiot!
We waiting demurely outside until the tour guide came up and apologized profusely. All good and we finished the tour on a high along the oldest part of the wharf, which was purpose-built to be three stories high to cope with the huge range in river height through the seasons.
Back to the campsite for a rest before New Years Eve! We had a BBQ chook Caesar salad and a few drinkers before checking out the celebrations going on at the big communal kitchen.
It all looked a bit crowded, so we sauntered back to the van for our own private party. Several more drinkies later we decided to hit the hay with the idea of getting up at midnight. Yeah right, like that was ever gonna happen!
Whatever is the opposite of party animals, describes us to a tee!
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