TERRICK TERRICK & CHRISTIE'S BEACH

Continuing on our travels, back in late February, we took a detour south to Terrick Terrick National Park in northern Victoria. The main purpose was to look for the Plains Wanderer, a rare and endangered endemic that is found in the protected grasslands in this area. We were unlucky in our quest to find this elusive bird, and I was doubly unlucky in losing a fairly new pair of prescription glasses when we were spotlighting for it along the back roads one night.  

The park is actually named after Mt Terrick Terrick, also known as Mitiamo Rock, a 95 metre high granite outcrop below which we camped.   

Looking across the park from Mitiamo Rock

Sunset from the Rock

Terrick Terrick Galah

The weather here was hot reaching 38 degrees so we only stayed a couple of nights and headed back to the Murray where it was quite a bit cooler on the banks of the river, which was very slowly rising thanks to the record rainfall in the catchment area further upstream.  

Sailboat on the Murray at Christie's Beach

The "sailor" Jeff,  joined us for a cuppa at our campsite after we yelled out to ask him if his was the same boat we saw the week before at Barmah Lakes. It turned out it was and next morning I spent a couple of hours out on the water with him experiencing the thrill of sailing on a stretch of Australia's longest river.

Heading back to shore

Watching a Murray sunset

Grey Teal on a park lake in Echuca

On our second night at Christie's Beach campground we had a huge downpour and hadn't realized the van was in a dip until we woke the next morning to find some of our gear floating around outside.

More water views

The gum tree below was one of a few we saw in nearby Millewa Regional Park just over the border in NSW. The contrasting patterns of the bark caught my eye, but I couldn't find anything similar when trawling the web for identification.

Eucalypt sp.

Close-up of  trunk

MURRAY MUSINGS

After leaving Jindabyne we headed to Victoria via Tumut. Along the highway we pulled up to observe the damage the huge bushfires of 2003 had wreaked on great swathes of the foothills and mountains.  

A devastated landscape

This is similar to what it would have looked like before the fires. It will take up to one hundred years to get back to its former glory.

View from Black Perry Lookout

At one of our camping spots in northern Victoria we spotted this wallaby browsing on some low growing shrubs.

Swamp Wallaby

Our first camp on the Murray River was at Greenbank Reserve near Yarrawonga, well clear of the River Red Gums that have a habit of dropping limbs at any time. 

We had some nice views from our front yard. 

And some noisy visitors dropped by for some human watching. These corellas were in flocks numbering hundreds, their raucous calls heard all day as they moved up and down the river. They are the cheekiest of parrots and I love watching their antics.  

Little Corellas

Another of the parrot family that we observed nearby was this rosella, nowhere near as obtrusive as the former but a bit more colourful.

Eastern Rosella

Our next stop was Barmah Lakes campground where for a day and night we had the place to ourselves. The next day a large group of school kids came in for a spot of camping and canoeing,

reminding us a bit of the recent corellas, but not as cute! 

River Red Gums at Barmah Lakes

The bird life here wasn't prolific either but I was able to snap a couple of shots of woodland species. The first a superb vocalist that is always a delight to hear. The second a bird that spends almost as much time foraging on the ground as in the trees.

Grey Shrike-Thrush

Brown Treecreeper

We also came across the burnt out remains of this massive Red Gum on one of our walks. 

Clare in gum