26 Stitching up the Murray [3a] Paringa SA - Mildura VIC - Robinvale VIC

I was lazy and didn't update the blog with the end of my trip up the Murray. However better 5 months late than never. (I wrote this post in early April 2019 for travel that occurred in November 2018)

At the last blog entry I had reached Paringa, my last stop in South Australia, where I witnessed the bridge lifting.

I stayed in Paringa for a couple of days during a heatwave, enjoying the air conditioned comfort of a cheap motel, and steak dinners in the evening.

Then it was time to leave on the last leg of my trip up the Murray, this time crossing the border into Victoria. then threading up the Murray, crossing between Victoria and NSW where the Murray forms the border. Click on the image to get a larger view.

Day 19

The first day of the rest of my trip, and the subject of this post, took me from Paringa to Robinvale. Before I left, however, I grabbed a very large flat white at the café in Paringa (there's only one that I noticed) and took note of the nearby Black Stump. (More about Black Stumps here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Stump). 

Anyway I took the largest flat white this side of the Paringa Black Stump, and headed east on the Sturt Highway, crossing the border into Victoria, gasping at the flatness and admiring the tenacity of the wheat growing in the very dry hot conditions.

I continued for a long while on the Sturt Highway and turned left (north) just before Mildura onto Paschendale Ave. There were several dry salt lake beds along the way.

After a while I turned left again onto the last few hundred metres of the Calder Highway before going off road (because I can!) to take a photo of the Abbotsford Bridge that crosses from Yelta in VIC to Curlwaa in NSW.

Having satisfied my off-road adventuring for the morning I wended back to the Calder Highway and stopped at the traffic lights for the one-way bridge. That's the last few metres of the Calder Highway in Victoria.

I stopped again on the other side of the bridge to record it from a NSW perspective (quite a different political point of view at the time). A little way across the bridge the Calder Highway meets the Silver City Highway which leads north to Broken Hill and south east towards Mildura..

So south-east this time, following the Silver City Highway for a short distance, then over the George Chaffey Bridge that joins Buronga (NSW) and Mildura (VIC). I stopped at a very nice park on the Mildura side of the river to take a shot of the bridge (for that was my purpose in life ...)

The river banks were lined with hundreds of house boats.

The Ornamental Lakes Park (that is its name) and facilities are maintained by service clubs and the local council to very high standards, with green green grass at a time of dry dry weather.

The river bank reminded me vaguely of Monet's Water Lilies.

 So I stopped in Mildura, bought some food, and headed south again.

Turned left (east) at Hattah.

Then north at Bannerton, and took a photo of the bridge at Robinvale before continuing over the river into NSW.

Should have stayed in a motel in Robinvale. Weather was quite nice while I was in Robinvale but by the time I drove 20km to my next camp site at Lake Benanee it had turned very dark and windy. No rain, just hot wind and dust.

The facilities were great, and in nice weather the park would be great, but overnight in 30ºC+ with the van rocking in the wind (I popped the top, then unpopped it pretty soon after) and the air full of dust, was somewhat unpleasant.

So that was the end of my first day in NSW/VIC.

25 Stitching up The Murray [2b] Renmark - Paringa SA

At the end of the previous post I had arrived at Lyrup, S.A.

But of course that left two crossings to make on the original route inside South Australia - the Lyrup Ferry and the Paringa Bridge.

After that excellent sunset in Lyrup on Sunday night I stayed an extra couple of days to catch my breath and write up the previous post, which took about a two days.

With a heatwave forecast, I packed up on Wed morning (31 Oct) and headed down to the ferry landing.

Enjoyed my final South Australian ferry ride (for this trip)

And headed off to Renmark. I had booked a motel so I could escape the heat (yeah yeah weak Steve, but I didn't really fancy camping in 40º heat with no escape route). I had a couple of hours to kill before I could check in, so I did my laundry, then got a pie'n'coffee, then went for a stroll down to the river. Renmark is another spacious green and pleasant tidy town.

Stalling tactics having done their job, I checked in, had a shower (!!!) and sloped along to the plain but clean and honest restaurant attached to the plain but clean and honest pub, where I indulged in a t-bone. Very nice change from Steve's hash.

Up next morning and down to the Paringa Bridge - my last crossing in South Australia. The bridge has a road lane on each side, and a pedestrian lane through the middle of the structural frame (I'm guessing that at one stage there could have been a rail lane across the middle of the bridge. Upon checking, Wikipedia says that was the case so it must be true.)

Just before 9:30am this gentleman turned up and checked out the traffic on the Renmark side ...

... and the Parings side ...

Then, almost silently, the middle section of the bridge elevated by about 5 metres (have a look at those massive concrete counterweights!)

Then a houseboat passed under the bridge (it is travelling from right to left)

and another, about 500m behind

Then the span began to un-elevate

And before long, traffic was back to normal (I think the cyclist is riding through the middle pedestrian lane, rather than in front of that truck and about to be one dimension less)

And apart from a couple of days escaping the heat, that was the End of the Beginning of my trip Stitching up The Murray. The next part of the trip will be the Beginning of the End, in which I venture into Victoria then alternate between NSW and Victoria as I zig-zag across the river border between the two states, working my way upstream towards Albury.