Swan Hill to Loxton

 What a difference a day makes. We awoke this morning to sunshine and clear blue skies, a perfect day for us to continue on our trip to our next destination, Loxton on the Murray River in SA.

About an hour from town we came to Andrew Peace Wines, the winery that made the shiraz we had last night. Alas, like most things in the bush, it is closed on Sundays, so my plan to pick up a few bottles of red to travel with us came to nothing.

 


It is a huge operation with rows of storage tanks behind this building, mainly sells to export apparently

Soon we turn West and head in the direction of Ouyen, the next main town we will pass through. We are now in Mallee country, so it is very flat, wheat farming on the good land and salt flats and scrub on the rest. Wheat silos become more common as we pass Ouyen, and we see our first piece of silo art at Walpeup, on the Western side of Ouyen.


Silo Art at Walpeup

To complete the tourist experience, there is a public garden, Mrs McCrackens Garden also known as the Walpeup Dryland Memorial Garden.




The next "main" town is Murrayville and it is now lunch time, so we plan to stop there for a bite to eat. A promising sign on the way into town indicates the Cobb & Co cafe should be ideal. Sadly, when we arrive into town, it is permanently closed and nothing else is open, so I guess it is off to Pinaroo for a memorable Mothers Day lunch.


Hard to go past the local Aussie Burger as a fitting Mothers Day,


Pinnaroo Golden Grain Hotel

From Pinnaroo it was an easy 1 hour drive to Loxton. We checked into the Loxton Hotel at around 2.30 pm, moved into our room and then took a drive out to the golf course to check if our booking request for a game early tomorrow morning had been received. The course is about 7 km out of town and looks in surprisingly good condition. It is run by volunteers and we managed to find the only one there at after 3 pm on a Sunday. Sure enough our booking had been put in the book and we were expected at 8.30 am tomorrow.

The office is not manned until 9 am, so we are told to just turn up and tee off and fix up the green fees etc half way round.

On the way back to the Hotel, we call in to see one of the tourist highlights, the Tree of Knowledge (not to be confused with the one in Wollongong), an old river gum located in the Lions Club Park on the Murray River. The tree is marked with the river heights during floods since the early 1930's. Not surprisingly, the highest flood level achieved was not in the era of climate change hysteria, but in 1956. 



Plenty of water in the Murray here

Finally back at our hotel, we decide to go for a walk down to the river, a short walk from the hotel.





Next we headed back up into town (our hotel is in the main street) and the place is empty, being Sunday afternoon in the country. Only the Supermarket is open.


Our Hotel


Not much happening on Sunday Afternoon in the main street



There was a good pictorial history of the town laid out on a series of panels along the footpath in the centre of town.




This photo of the Harley Davidson Club in 1916 was a bit of a highlight

After golf tomorrow morning, we head to Clare for 2 days.



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