The first day of adventures in Echuca with Uncle Len kicked off with a bang! Heading into town to walk the shops and check out the wharf and the steam boats alongside it.
We started with a little drive around the town and a stop at the boardwalk around "Horseshoe Lagoon" a beautiful billabong for a look at the river and the house boards as well as a few photos. Then jumping into the car and heading to a sports shop so that I could pick up some Essendon Bombers gear including a footy for Wade and one for myself too with the Bombers logo and name on it, as well as a wicked cap and Aussie cricket jersey that might make Pops a little jealous!
Off to High St for some shopping, finding a great old book store where I added 3 more books to my collection; "The Swagman's bush book" filled with stories and such from around Australia; a Browning poetry book from 1918; and another bush poetry book native to Aus, all things that can only be found in the heart of small town Australia!
Walking down High St we even found the story that Dad and I had walked through in 2007, where I had purchased an old military ruck-sack that I still use to this day at home, it has changed a little bit but brought back memories from our old trip through the Wharf and High St for our last visit in 2007.
Onwards to the Wharf, we headed through the High St passage and worked our way to a tour around the wharf with an incredibly long winded man, he may have been interesting and full of knowledge but god could he talk... Looking a little bit like he had just climbed out of the bush himself, it was a little funny to watch him stroke his beard every few minutes while he spoke for over an hour straight, if he had taken a breath during the tour we didn't see it. After he had said he was going to finish the tour due to a steamboat coming in which according to him was his "timer", but every time he said it he went off about something else or something he'd already talked about or something he had started at the beginning (30 minutes earlier) and somehow steered away from, by the last 15 minutes I shot a look at Uncle Len and he shot one back that basically said "WHen with this bloke ever bloody finish!". By the end we took a quick walk through the top and bottom of the wharf then hunger got the best of us so we headed for a sandwich and a chat before going back to the steam post by the wharf.
The only problem with not going on a weekend is that most of the historical walk through buildings are closed and the doors stay shut so we didn't have the ability to walk through the historical building which was too bad but we bought tickets for a ride on one of the old steamboats and so within a few moments we had walked around all the wharf looking for a pub to sit at and wait for our steamboat ride. We ended up settling at 'The Shamrock' pub which was a great place to grab a few XXXX beers and sitting in the sun watching the cars pass and talking about sports and such. We were there for a few beers before waiting for 2:30pm to roll around for our steamboat, so at 2:00pm we took off to the pier to wait for the boat, getting a few photos along the way of course and seeing the flood levels over the years which were about 20 feet above our heads in certain years in the past.
When we sat on a ledge to wait for the Emmylou steam boat to get ready for the new load of passengers we came across a group that was a little worst for ware as we waited, Uncle Len called it the "pensioners group", we were just being honest as the folks would have averaged probably 75-80 years of age and looked as if they had stolen a bus (as the driver was wearing a name tag like the rest of them) and went off the compound. After that good giggle it was time for our steamboat ride.
The Emmylou is great! A real old steamboat with the steam engine in full go in the center of the boat, the man inside the bottom there, manning the engine would have had the hottest seat in the house but it was great watching the man open up the engine and pop in a bunch of big 3 foot branches from a huge stack on either side of the engine.
We spend the ride either up top on the front, up top on the back, down on the front, back in the pub for a stubby and watching the engine run back and forth. We even got a few free stubby-holders from our beers of the names of 2 of the boats the one we went on "P.S. Emmylou" and another one of the great old steamers: "P.S. Camberra". Uncle Len is letting me keep both so I will keep my Emmylou one and have one for dad of the Camberra when we get home.
After the steamboat we headed for the car for a drive around the local camper park and amazingly beautiful pathways where we stopped at the point where the 2 rivers in Echuca meet where we had a photo in front of a fallen tree, left to fall to the rivers edge but the low water levels that once lapped over the strong trees body but as time went on the water fell far below the roots and eventually the soil and dirt around gave way. By the end of our photo session we were ready to head home after a long day and a lazy day but still lots of fun. Tomorrow will bring a lazy morning of catching up on some reading as my hosts head out to get a few things done and then we will see if our idea for a boat ride pulls through as it is going to rain it seems. Wish us luck.
Cheers for now.
-A.G
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