We camped overnight near Mildura at Psyche Bend, a spot that had been recommended to us. It seems that any campsite on the Murray with "bend" in its name is pretty good.
The next day we headed south to Ouyen before making our way back to the river at Piangil where we had another overnight stop before proceeding on to Swan Hill and then to Lake Boga.
Lake Boga was an inland flying boat base in World War II and Australian and US Catalina flying boats were serviced and repaired there. At its height there were over 1,000 personnel on the base. We spent some time at the excellent and informative museum. We sat through a 20 minute film about the Lake Boga Base after we had walked through the communications bunker which shows the rooms as they would have been during the war.
This time our overnight camp was at the Traveller's Rest Campsite in Leitchville, a small town just off the Murray Valley Highway. This lovely landscaped site is maintained by the local council and we were serenaded by the many birds which call the trees and bushes home. We had planned to stop off at Cobram as we travelled along the Murray Valley but we decided to keep going and spend a couple of days at Rutherglen.
The Rutherglen Caravan Park runs alongside a waterbird sanctuary, and there were plenty of birds around. Ducks, egrets, ibis, herons, galahs and even a tawny frogmouth were around. Rutherglen is in the centre of a food and wine area. There are many vineyards and wineries, olive groves with fresh olive oil and even a brewery and a chocolate factory. No need to starve here - the hard decision is where to go next.
We drove into the nearby city of Wangaratta to do some shopping and drove back through the farmland. It was great to have an extra day to explore so we had morning tea at the specialty Renaissance Chocolate Factory before driving on to Boorhaman to the Buffalo Brewery where we bought some of their boutique beers for later consumption. Sunday morning was market day at nearby Yarrawonga so we checked out the markets in this pretty town where the eucalypts along the highway were in full bloom.
Monday morning we packed up and headed east to the Hume Highway and then north and back into New South Wales.
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