We recently travelled to Wodonga for the State Country Swimming competitions held over the Australia day weekend - Rebecca is the swimming coach, I'm the coach driver
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif)
After the rush was over we left Wodonga via Hume wier and continued along the Murray to camp at Buroweye on the Murray River for just short of a week. We were surprised to see the river level rise by almost a foot and fall a couple of times - dont know if this was related to increased power generation at Khancoban which would put more water into the system or not. Water there was flowing well and provided a few challenges trying to paddle against the current in a canoe but a lot of fun was had. To our surprise there were no other campers there. The most we saw were a crew from one of the Power supply companies who had been installing posts and called in for lunch and a cool off swim. The temp's there were in the low to mid 40's every day.
We left there and wandered around to Corryong before heading back towards Wodonga and then making our way down to Benella, Mansfield, Jammieson and over to Sheepyard flat on the Hoqua river. Stayed there for 4 days. Saw three other campers spread out across the area while we were there. One had a family with them, one child had his BMX bike and was hell bent at diggin holes to make jumps and cutting trees and roots with his tommy-hawk until I let him know that we would report him to Parks Vic. He sulked off and we never saw him again. It astounds me that parents let their kids loose with no thought of the consequenses of their acitons. I'm no greenie but ring barking trees, cutting their root systems etc is only going to lead to problems later on eg trees get stressed and die, drop branches on campers and kill them - where are the parents then??? The temp hit 46.7 in the shade on one day but we just wallowed around in the river and ventured around the bush. Sometimes watching the thermometer just makes it hotter, not watching it is just hot and you soon get over that. Had lots of king parrots visit and feed from our hands, didn't care too much for their screeching kids though. A thunderstorm hit the area while we were there and I swear one bolt of lightning "missed us by that much" there was a flash which came with a searing loud crack that made the camper and us bounce - man it was close, I was sure we were fried and the bright light was not the pearly gates!
From here we headed down to Skipworth on the Golburn river, another lovely place to camp and keep cool with only two other campers in there. After these great places we made our way down to Woods Point and across to Marysville before heading to Melbourne and home. These trips certainly make you appreciate the bush, free camping and remind you how bad it is having to travel in city traffic. cant wait to get out again.
Tony & Rebecca.