We left home Thursday morning for our holidays. We left at 9am and arrived at Echuca at 7pm and it really did feel at times that we’d never get to our destination!

We drove to Echuca which is on the NSW/Victorian border and it would have been nice to spend a little more time there learning about the history of the town. The cabin we booked was lovely with a decent bed which made for a good night’s sleep which is always a good thing when your travelling! It was great to sit and relax with my sister Jo, her hubby and a couple that are their friends.

Friday morning we breakfasted at McDonalds (as you do when travelling) and as I’d noticed some rather old churches as we drove in that was our first ‘to-do’ after breakfast – to get some photo’s of some old churches for a scrapbook I’ve wanted to make for a while now.

We then headed to the Old Port of Echuca where there was a thriving business up and down the river in the 1800′s. They still run some of the paddle steamers from that era and no doubt have spent a small fortune in their maintenance. Some of you may remember a mini series on TV called “All the Rivers Run” – it had John Waters and Sigrid Thornton in it to name a couple – well one of the steamers they had in that show was the “Emmy Lou” and is driven by a completely restored 1906 steam engine, and built to the highest world classification standards. She was built locally during 1980-82 in the style of the 19th century paddleboats, and is 30 metres long and 10 metres wide, steel hulled and timber decked.

The port is lovely and have set it so its like stepping back into the 1800′s with the sand roads and cobblestone footpaths. You can taste the local wine and fudge as well! You can stroll through and see how they did wood turning and the original tools the blacksmith used and all his gorgeous items for sale.

There is the stagecoach you can take for a ride through the town and these Clydesdale horses are just stunning animals and so well groomed.

They didnt budge when Caitie wanted to give them a pat and the handler was great and let her pat them but just asked her to stand beside them for their safety and hers!

Down at the old port they have these trees with the signs for the level particular floods got to. Its hard to imagine the water rising so high but it did.

These days the water is controlled from the Snow Mountains therefore they regulate the amount of water over flowing to the surrounding areas.

This photo shows you just how high the floods actually got in previous years. I got the girls to stand in front of the tree to give you an idea – have you noticed the one right up the top which happened in 1874?

We are now staying in Cobden with family till 8th October but plan to do a few ‘sight seeing’ trips while we are here.

Although I got a great picture of the Cathedral at Bendigo I need more photo’s of old churches and know there are a few in and around Warrnambool so no prizes for guessing where one of our trips will be to! Hopefully it will stop raining long enough to enjoy a couple of day trips while we are here!

I do hope the nephew is looking after my stamps and fish and they arent missing me too much!

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