Our Outback Adventure, Day 7

Mungo – Swan Hill 349 kms all 2nd rate dirt roads took 3 hours

We rose early and went out to shoot sunrise over the Mungo Plains, quiet and peaceful out in the scrubland and beautiful sunrise it was, it may have started out cool, but warmed up quite quickly once the sun was up. We headed over to the old Woolshed for photos before all the visitors arrived. True probably not that many, but nice to shoot something without people in it at times.

Mungo Plains

Back to the Lodge for a welcome cooked breakfast, pack and head out of the dusty dirt roads again, this time heading back to civilisation again. We have had no cell signal, nor internet for 3 days! We were all heading to Swan Hill, we went the ‘scenic’ route which was on less than secondary dirt roads and quite rough. We decided to try and find Heywood Lake and ended up on even worse roads, some of which were closed and flooded over!

Our scenic route was actually a short cut (even with detours) and we made it to Swan Hill in three hours! We wandered around town, had some lunch and then visited the Pioneer Settlement for a quick look around. We went out on the Paddle Steamer [PS] PYAP, which barely had 3″ of clearance due to the water levels being so low at this time of year; total water level was 2’3′” normally over 10″ foot deep. So we travelled up the Murray past Murray Downs Homestead and past campsite, houseboats and mighty river red gums (trees). It was such a lovely relaxing way to see the area on the old paddle steamer.

We then checked into our hotel, showered and changed for our last night celebration dinner together at Spoons Restaurant, on the balcony overlooking the river, we saw a magnificent sunset and then after dinner saw the wonderful “heartbeat of the Murray” light show back at the Pioneer Settlement. WOW! what a show, truly amazing and so deserved for all the awards it has won.

This is just a few snapshots off the smart phone……still impressive huh? We all went back to the hotel, a few of us had a night cap and said goodbye…..in the morning, everyone was going their own way. We had spent a week with these wonderful people, old and new friends, we will all see each other again, soon.

Almost done, with only one day to go…

~ Julz

Day 6 | Day 8