Coming Home from Yarrawonga 13/10/22

Little did either of us realise what a long day it was going to be as we set off from Yarrawonga at about 9.30am. There had been plenty of predictions of heavy rain in the last day or so, so we were aware that we would have wet roads and prepared to take it as easy as we needed to, and to stop if required. We figured we would play it by ear, but took the thermos filled and the remaining food with us, and we had a full container of water in the back of the Prado, so we knew we could keep ourselves going fine for a few days if we happened to get stranded somewhere. It was a bit of a pity about that broken shovel.

We took the Murray Valley Highway to Cobram (following the Murray River) and then, since we intended to hopefully drop in at our relatives, near Bordertown , on the way home, we headed to Echuca and then west from there instead of staying along the river. All this way we had rain. We had packed up in the rain, and the radar was showing that we had plenty to come, but were, at present, in a lighter patch of rain than the areas around us. Sadly, the areas we were heading for had already received some huge dumpings and there was much more to come.

As we headed across from Echuca on the C334 and then on to Boort (where we stopped for lunch) we started to see more and more water on the road and on the sides of the road. Sometimes the paddocks looked like lakes. They certainly weren’t needing their irrigation flowing from the Murray at the moment. We drove past ducks, a turtle and, (something we don’t remember seeing before) frogs(!!!) jumping across the road. Apologies for poor quality photos taken through wet car window on phone as we moved along.

We looked for a bakery in Boort for lunch but the only thing that looked promising was a cafe, so we made a mad dash from the car to the shelter of the verandah and past the rubber boots and work boots which had been left outside the door and made our way into a warm and welcoming spot called “Audrey’s of Boort”. The ladies here fed us a delicious lunch but also warned us of local road closures, showed us the Vic Traffic page (which we used after that) and advised that the best strategy to get home was probably to head up to Kerang.

Taking their excellent advice we headed north, and could see on the Vic Traffic page that even heading west a little higher up there were floods near Sealake, so we took the prudent way and sucked up a few more km for the sake of safety, scrapping the idea of visiting the rellies this trip. In actual fact, the route up to Kerang and then on to Swan Hill was quite interesting and bears a revisit at some stage. There is a string of lakes in this area and a string of forest/park areas as well. There is an Ibis Rookery that you can take a look at and it appears to be quite a holiday destination. We must investigate more closely at some stage. We also crossed our longest section of water across the road here (note water almost up to fence height) and saw a policeman trying to unblock a drain on the side of the road in the pouring rain at one point.

We turned west at Piangil and took the long, wet road to Ouyen. It was still raining, but the roads were not so wet. We pulled in at Ouyen to make a cuppa and use the local loos before deciding to go on. By this stage I was thinking we could stop for the night, but Trevor was feeling fine and it was only another 373km to home so we travelled onwards.

As we came towards the SA border, finally, we glimpsed light patches on the horizon, and then (just before 5pm) we were reaching for the sunglasses as we emerged into bright sunshine. Seven-plus hours of rain with reduced visibility and noisy rattling on roof and windows was more than enough. The fruit fly check found no problems with our small stock of food (no fresh fruit and veg on board because we had eaten our remaining baby tomatoes as a snack earlier) and waved us on after a cursory check of fridge and car. In Pinnaroo the road was actually dry as we drove through.

We waved at the red thino at Tailem Bend as we sailed past and admired the Murray as we came over the bridge at Murray Bridge, before hitting another rainstorm as we made our way home through the Adelaide Hills.

Trevor had one more surprise in store for me: Instead of trying to find something for tea at home, he pulled into a park at our local Thai place, trudged inside and ordered my favourite meal. (Crispy Garlic Beef). It was Trevor that deserved the reward, so I shared mine with him.

Then the last 1km to home. We had passed a number of big things on the way (Big Strawberry, Cherry, Murray Cod and Olive) and covered 875km in one very wet day. It was good to be home in our own beds in our own house.

We spend $511.30 on fuel and drove 2666km on this trip and the Prado didn’t miss a beat.