Echuca is the city of steam boats in Australia and has a cute old town. The historical quay with the old steam engine boats and old hotels was fascinating. At the harbor we learned about the fast growing industry of steam engines in the 1850^th and in the Star Hotel we followed the underground bar and tunnel which was a popular place to have a drink in the old times of prohibition.

The upper floor of the Bridge Hotel hasn’t been changed so you can have a look at the old rooms and furniture. The steam enginges and old cars where so fascinating that we decided to go to the Steam Rally the next day.

At the rally we just realized how much easier it is today in industry and farming. Old steam engines moving tractors, producing hey balls, power, light, steaming milk, used for fire fighters to pump water, producing power for the sheep shearers and so on.

Damn isn’t it easy for us now to switch on the light or turn on the water tap. Well on our trip we experience right now no running water and light only from the head torch. But still we have way more luxury than in the 1850^th.

And for sure there were plenty of old cars from 1930 till 1970. So we enjoyed the day and took plenty of pictures.

It’s easy to forget how easy everything is today…

So we followed the Murray River back towards Canberra. It is the third longest navigable river in the world, next to the Amazon and Nile. The total length is 2520 km and spans three states – Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia.

Crossing the river on the small free ferries was fun although we lost sometimes a bit of track in which state we are in. In Morgan we had a look around the small museum and about the big flood in 1957 which lasted 7 month.

On the way we found beautiful empty campgrounds along the Murray River – waking up with kangaroos and birds. After another 100 km dirt road we reached a very nice place to stay overnight. The Rufus River emerges into the Lake Victoria where all the dead eucalyptus trees sticking out of the water. This looked so surreal.

The scenery, the little towns and villages around the Murray River are really beautiful so we took our time. At Echuca we stayed longer since it had an interesting history but more about Echuca in a separate report.

Slowly we made our way towards the Snowy Mountain to meet Cynthia again in Cooma where she is working in a ski rental shop. The closer we got to the mountain ranges the colder the nights got. We really miss a nice warm room and a hot shower.