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On March 27, we drove the short distance from Murray Bridge to Mannum where we met our 5 friends and took possession of our houseboat for the next week. After all the preliminaries, including training in running the boat, we moored further upstream at Mannum's town centre for an overnight stop. Some of us went for a walk around town. It's very small but pleasant. It's a tourist place and obviously gets a lot of income from the houseboat visitors.
This is our second houseboat trip on the River Murray. In September 2000, 6 of us hired a houseboat for a week and enjoyed it so much we wanted to do it again. Sadly, one of the 6 has since died but the remaining 5, plus 2 others, are on this trip. We have a 5 bedroom, 4 bathroom boat with a large lounge/dining/kitchen area. It's very well-equipped with a full kitchen, barbeque, spa and seating on the top deck - we don't believe in roughing it!!
We stayed overnight in Mannum because we'd ordered dinner cooked on board by a chef. We did this in 2000 and were amazed to discover that it was the same chef! Even more coincidental, 4 of our group who were in the Barossa Valley last week visited his restaurant in Angaston! It is a small world. Dinner was delicious - as good as the 2000 dinner - and we weren't disappointed.
The next day, we set off up river to a place called Bowhill (36km) where we moored for the night. Bowhill is a section of the river where the limestone cliffs are quite spectacular. There are many holes and crevices where the birds roost. We stopped at Bow Hill on our 2000 cruise and have fond memories of the cacophony of bird cries as the birds came home to roost in the cliffs. The cliffs are just as magnificent but we were disappointed there weren't as many birds. There were lots of galahs (different to the WA ones) who were roosting in the trees and we saw raptors, pelicans and others but no birds roosting in the cliff crevices. We realised that our last trip was in October (spring) and wondered if the birds only use the cliffs in spring when nesting. Dinner was on board - a delicious seafood risotto cooked by Ian.
Next day, we went from Bowhill to Swan Reach, the furthest point of our trip up river - we're not allowed to take the houseboat further upstream. It was a long stretch (60km) and took 7.5 hrs. We passed through more very picturesque parts of the river, lots of limestone cliffs and more birds. We moored at Swan Reach, next to a cable ferry across the river, and went for dinner at the local pub.
Next day, Thursday, we cruised downstream from Swan Reach to Wongulla (32km) where we moored for the night opposite the cliffs. We chose this spot because, on our upstream cruise, we'd noticed lots of cockatoos and corellas roosting in the cliffs. We had some rain that day and it was quite cool and very windy. By mid-afternoon when we moored, it had brightened up so Grant, Garry and Margaret went ashore for a walk to the Wongulla township, Lagoon and boat ramp. We saw an amazing sight - a group of maybe 40 caterpillars walking across a road in conga formation. A wind gust blew them apart and one caterpillar was left outside the formation; it kept trying to push back in but had to try a number of times before the others would let him in. None of us had seen that before and we saw it twice - on our outward journey and on the return.
Towards sunset, we were treated to the birds' roosting performance which is what we'd hoped to see again. Once the birds had roosted for the night, we had a bbq dinner on board. It was cold but a beautiful clear night.
The next morning was very cold but it was a beautiful morning and there were just us and the birds around.
We had planned to cruise from Wongulla to Young Husband for the next night but Sue had been bitten on her finger by something. Her finger and hand had swollen up and she was in pain so we decided to get her to the nearest medical centre which was in Mannum (64km). The houseboat company was very helpful and made an appointment for Sue at the medical centre. It took us over 7hrs to get there but we made it in time and were all relieved to hear that Sue's bite isn't serious - anti-histamines should fix it. The weather warmed up during the day and it was a very pleasant journey. We had another bbq on board for dinner.
Next day was 1 April and we travelled from Mannum to Murray Bridge for the night. That was only 38km downriver so we arrived early afternoon. We moored at the Sturt Reserve, a pleasant park along tbe riverfront, and went for a walk around the park and to the town. We had dinner at a restaurant on the riverfront called the Riverscape which was approx 250 metres from our mooring, so we could keep an eye on our boat!
Our final day on the boat was spent returning from Murray Bridge to Mannum where we arrived mid-afternoon. We went for a walk around Mannum, after which Ian cooked pizzas for our last dinner on board. Next morning (3 April), we returned the houseboat and left Mannum. It was a great week and cruising the river was very relaxing and enjoyable. We had travelled a total of 268km (upstream and downstream) so we saw a lot of the river, parts of which are very picturesque.
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