Today we zigged, interrupting our northerly passage with a westerly turn to the Barossa Valley to see some grapevines. We passed Wolff Blass's operations as we drove into our stopover site for tonight, at Nuriootpa. Wolff Blass is huge.
We have visited Nuriootpa before with some fond memories of the place so it did not take much to convince ourselves to set a spell. We have had a relaxing afternoon to prepare ourselves for a day in the Barossa Valley. Who knows what may spring from that.
Our day started bright and early this morning to a feathered cacophony. Hundreds of corellas and galahs roosted in the red gums on the Murray's bank, right alongside where we were camped. 4.30am is always a good time to arise .... not. Anyway, this exceptional experience was had in parallel with a "heads down" experience. There were several ducks in the caravan park and they left little packages all over the grass. We, and others in the park, walked around with our heads down trying to avoid the packages. It was impossible.
Not to worry as we eventually, clean footed, made it onto the highway to Blanchetown. The Murray River was at our side all the way so we were not surprised to find Blanchetown was a riverside town. It had a weir across the river and a lock - Lock 1. We had missed the Murray Princess passing through the lock but did see the paddle boat cruising down the river a little earlier.
It was hot today and some more days like this are expected.
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| 121114 The Murray Princess |
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| 121114 We waved and no one waved back to us |
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| 121114 Paddle power |
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| 121114 The weir and lock at Blanchetown. Note pelicans below the weir |
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| 121114 The lock in the foreground |
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| 121114 9,000 megalitres per day currently |
The Murray River is beautiful, great photos of the paddle boats!
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