Just a few photos of the trip up on our biggest river, the Murray, which is running pretty high due to all the rain we have had lately, at a place where my ancestors had a farm of 600,000 acres. Yep that’s not a typo!
We stayed there a week and then travelled across the southern side of the Murray in Victoria (the river forms the border between Victoria and New South Wales) to my home town of Swan Hill to catch up with relatives, one being my last aunt who is 96 and doing very well. Unfortunately I forgot to get some shots but will do as soon as we are planning another trip up there. To give you an idea how quiet it was on the way, we only met one car in the space of 45 minutes then when we stopped for lunch it was so quiet, only one car and a large truck passed by.
Well the roo’s farewelled us on a frosty morning and the wattle trees welcomed us back home.
Well take care and if you come over I’ll take you for an exciting road trip! It reminded me of the time we visited friends in Scotland and the gentleman told us of his drive from Adelaide to Sydney and said in his broad Scottish accent, “Eight Hundred bloody miles and there was F…… nothing to see, not a F……. thing!!”
Pat's 1:72 Military Diorama's 
theimperfectmodeller
Great photos Pat. Given the size of the world’s population it’s incredible to think there are large parts of it which are still mostly devoid of people. I reckon most of them are in Australia too!
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patmcf
thanks mate, even though I was born out in the sticks it still amazes me how you can be so alone in some places.Whenever we are out on a wilderness hwy I say to the wife,”Hey! navigation a bit easier out here, not like when you had your work cut out in the UK”.
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lordcommandereloth
Looks like a great little trip, but I must say they are some funny looking rabbits you got over there 😀
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patmcf
HA HA ! I think our cat that was brought up in the city thinks there bloody big mice! I carry her around the boundary fence most morning so she can get a better view of them.
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John@justneedsvarnish
Those are great pictures, Pat! 🙂 I never think of Australia as cloudy! Glad you enjoyed the trip!
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patmcf
Thanks mate, down the bottom it’s always cloudy and wet in winter but up where we were it was unusual, though they say it’s one of the wettest years we have had and so many frost 🤔quite strange really. I hear your copping a bit of extra warmth and there are terrible bush fire in Europe.
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John@justneedsvarnish
Yep, we’ve had our highest temperatures on record, there have been fires breaking out (nowhere like on the scale in Europe) and parts of the country have declared a drought! This all tends to be in the news when it affects London and the south of the country. Not as bad for us since we’re much further north and on the coast but we’ve still had a few hot days! As for a drought here, it was raining cats and dogs yesterday evening!
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patmcf
Wow mate I never would have thought there would be fires in the UK😳. Weird that you up top are boiling and us down here are having a cold and unusually wet winter.
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Dave Stone
Great photo’s of your trip Pat, and such wide open spaces, very interesting to see what’s left of your old school. As for the weather it is certainly flipping the world around, next you’ll be telling us the roos are making snow angels ! LOL
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patmcf
😅😅👍🏻Thanks Dave, we had a great time and after living in Melbourne renowned for having four seasons in one day we can put up with anything, especially when retired 😉. I hope your wrong about the snow angels but it’s certainly been colder this year, a heap more frosts🥶.
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ericritter65
Very nice road trip indeed. I love seeing the countryside of Australia. It one of those places I think I’d like to see, but just not sure I’ll ever get there – so that’s for showing off your vast lands!
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patmcf
I’m glad you like the scenery Ec, I’m also into seeing other countries landscapes, I have been lucky enough to visit a few but as I’m getting on I don’t think I’ll get to see anymore as it’s always a long boring flight to anywhere from here🥴.
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Pete S/ SP
Looks a fantastic trip Pat. Great post.
Cheers,
Pete.
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patmcf
Thanks Pete we had a great time 👍🏻🤓
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dave2718
I love the wattle at this time of year, particularly those big cootamundra wattles.
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patmcf
They spec but it’s a shame its all over so quickly 🥴.
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dave2718
true; a couple of decent showers and they’re gone
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Kuribo
The pictures are fantastic, Pat! I love seeing cactus in the American Southwest or at the local botanic garden and I’m glad you had the opportunity to see some. Also, those drop bears can really climb up there, can’t they? 🙂 I learned about those from one of your fellow Australians and I find the urban legend quite entertaining! Not that we don’t have our fair share in the US or anything.
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patmcf
Thanks Jeff, it certainly reminded me of the old westerns I watched as a kid, you had me there with the drop bears 😳wow wouldn’t have thought that trick had got to USA😅😅, it’s an old one but it still gets used, and some times it works👍🏻.
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Kuribo
I only know about Drop Bears thanks to Azazel (I think you follow his site too but I might be wrong) and he’s from Oz like you so don’t give this American too much credit. Its probably amusing to me because we have nothing like Koalas here so the idea seems outlandish here but I understand why it would hold some weight in your country at the same time.
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patmcf
😅😅off course it would be our mate Azazel, a very interesting fellow 🤔.Koalas and Roos are commonly see but a large amount are nocturnal so are never seen, whereas you amazing creatures generally get around in daylight. One I would love to see live would be a raccoon 🦝 as they have always fascinated me from when I was a little kid.
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Kuribo
Something that is kind of funny is that in the US, if you’re lucky enough to see a Koala in a zoo, people here go crazy for them, including me. I don’t know why but they aren’t that common here. On the opposite side, raccoons are very nearly pests here. They’re very common and can get in your trash or attic and cause you headaches. When I went to Paris and visited a zoo, the Europeans were going crazy for raccoons in a way that is kind of funny considering how Americans view them. So its all a matter of perspective and where you live, I suppose 🙂
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patmcf
Well if your raccoon is a pest ours is the possum😡they are a protected species but there are so many of them they do exactly what you’re little fellow does😡so you are correct on the perspective bit 🤓. They were taken to New Zealand and as a pest they are killed, the funny thing is their fir is so soft the make gloves and sweaters out of it and ship them to Australia, my wife swears by them and has quite a few pairs. Put that one in the weird facts book eh 😅😳😅.
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Kuribo
That is pretty wild! Possum are around in the US but not nearly as much as raccoons and deer. I can’t imagine buying possum gloves but if there are too many of them around, that is a good use for them. I can’t imagine they make for particularly good eating for example! 😀
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patmcf
They can be eaten, when it was introduced to NZ in 1837 it became a pest so people were encouraged to kill them them people thought We might as well eat them. One has to be careful though as they carry diseases like TB, I feel things would have to be very crook for me to try one 😉. Weird facts, your own president, Jimmy Carter ate quite a few of them 😅😅👍🏻.
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Kuribo
Yeah, Possums are kind of gross, scavenger types so the disease thing is real I would imagine. I think Possums live mostly in the South and Southwestern parts of the US where it is hotter and that’s why I’ve only seen one wild one in my life. I still have trouble imagining them being pests! All I can say is that, Jimmy Carter is very old now and still makes public appearances so maybe we should all be dining on them 😉
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patmcf
😅😅😅👍🏻mate that’s to true, I’m 67 and the youngest of a family of Six and on my mums side (two brothers and her ) live through the Great Depression as would you Mr Carter would have and had to make do with what tucker was available and thus had better health, no sugary treats and those bloody donuts , ( sorry mate but I can’t for the love of god bring myself to eat such an abomination 😱) have led to so many health problems 🤔. So when you and your lovely wife come over here we shall go on a healthy trip eating only what our indigenous folk trap for us 🤔😦🤭. 😅😅😅
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Kuribo
Haha, if my wife finds out this plan, I doubt she will visit! 😀 I was never a big fan of donuts growing up myself, but there are some really good ones here in Chicago that are hard to resist. If you visit and try one, you may change your mind! 🙂
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patmcf
Well you never know Jeff, said once that I would never eat dill or coriander ( cilantro) but now I do and enjoy them both enough for me to grow them both. Some years back my girls turned us into vegetarians but when they left home I went back to seafoods so I now rate myself as a bad vegetarian 🤔😅😅👍🏻
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Kuribo
Haha, our tastes do evolve as we age! I’m more open minded than I used to be too. There’s nothing wrong with branching out from vegetarianism either. Its not a diet for everyone and my wife is someone who prefers a bit of red meat every so often for example so don’t be too hard on yourself!
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patmcf
To true mate , as they say rules are only there to be broken, sometimes I even eat that strange food that McDonald’s serve up but only if I’m on my own , it’s weird but handy and can be consumed in a matter of minutes 🤔. My wife has never even thought about it 😅😅, it’s real good for her if we are travelling around by car, oh how I have mellowed 😉.
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Kuribo
That is very true and thank you for supporting a small business that is local to me 😉 McDonald’s started in the Chicago suburbs and has a strong presence throughout the city. I shouldn’t be surprised that they’re in Oz too since there are few countries they can’t get into, I reckon!
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patmcf
Oh mate I love to help out small businesses 😉, I think there would be a lot over here as they seem to be in most reasonable sized town we pass through. Funny thing is the vegetarian in me fades when I see that little cheeseburger wth the weird but somewhat enticing flavour 😅😅😅👍🏻.
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Kuribo
Haha, they are certainly a modest sized business! 😀 Vegetarian burgers have been popular of late in the US and even fast food places sell them now. Maybe if that trend makes it to Oz, you’ll change your ways, though no judgement if you don’t! 🙂
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patmcf
I have seen that they can now make a burger that bleeds, 😳I myself can’t imagine why you would want that 🧐. Jill and I are quite small so we don’t need to much food to get us through the day, our problem is in restaurants as over here they want to give so much tucker 😳, when we do eat out on our trips our daughter in residence loves it as we come back with heaps of doggy bags, that’s why we always travel with a reasonable sized Esky to to bring it back home for her 😅😅😅. I’m tempted to try anything mate but I’m not going to pay more for something artificial than the real McCoy 😅😅👍🏻
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Kuribo
I did not know they made a burger that bleeds… I inherited my Dad’s like of things being well-done so that is how I ate meat and what I prefer now as a vegetarian too. I’m with you on not loving huge portions. I’m 5’5 in American and so a lot of American restaurants serve waaay too much food for someone of my height. I wouldn’t think that you guys have it in Australia but look up Cheesecake Factory, a chain restaurant that’s in a lot of cities here. The portions are absolutely insane and unhealthy. Some things are easily 3-4 meals worth of food! I think what they serve there is what people who haven’t been to the US think we actually eat all the time haha!
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patmcf
Wow mate I just looked it up and yep your US cheesecake mob are with us and you are right about the food🤮. I n my family I was the only one that like meat cooked well , dad used to call out “hey your boot leather sole is ready “, when I went to live with my sister in Paris long ago I ordered a steak 🥩, worst mistake I could have made as they only passed it over a candle for a minute😱. And like yourself I just scratch in at 5’1 on a good day so I can survive on the smell of someone cooking 😅😅👍🏻.
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Kuribo
That’s too bad about Cheesecake Factory! I’ve been once or maybe twice many years ago and I don’t know if I would go back.
I agree with you on how you like meat done. There is a nice flavor with something well done. I even like my french fries just a little bit overdone at the ends if I can get them that way. I guess some of us are just born with this preference 😀
And 5’1!? I would never guessed. I don’t run across a lot of men who are shorter than me but anybody around my height is good people as far as I’m concerned. You understand the challenges that being shorter than average presents 🙂
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patmcf
😅😅mate I wouldn’t change my statue for anything, you have to be tiny to know the benefits, 😉. Everyone thinks you’re young , they let you get away with fooling because they think you just a weird kid 😅. I have never felt that I have been handicapped as my friends call me the equaliser as I can’t stand bullies and tend to put an end to those that try that kind of crap 😉. That’s probably possible because I’m not found in the Cheesecake Factory getting fat and slug like 😅😅👍🏻. It’s interesting as you say, may be we are born with eating preferences, we must do more research 🧐.
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Kuribo
Haha, well when you put it that way, I can’t argue with you! Its certainly easier to blend into a crowd when you’re shorter, if nothing else 🙂
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patmcf
😅😅👍🏻
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patmcf
😅😅mate the only challenges I have being on the short side is reaching things on high shelves, there are many advantages apart from that but they are secrets that us shorties are sworn to keep, if we don’t the Hightists will use these against us 😉.
Back in the eighties one of my sisters and I went through the English language and listed the Hightist saying that exist, terrible if one was sensitive 😅😅.
I’m a bit late with my reply as our youngest daughter is visiting from the city, I as her about the Cheesecake Factory and she said she had visited one and No Father, done go there it would make you very cross 😡😅.
French fries have to be well done if nothing else is 🤣👍🏻
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Kuribo
Haha, yes. There are a lot of stereotypes that short men are angry, don’t make as much money as taller men, etc. I don’t believe them to be true or at least not in our case! It sounds like your daughter knows you well and we don’t want you feeling cross either! 😀
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patmcf
😅😅there are a lot of stereotypes that seem to fail I have found but love to surprise people when I tell them I have “ small man syndrome “ , 😅😅😅I love to see there reactions 👍🏻. I have found that a lot of short guys can be very cheeky and mischievous 😉I think my friends would put me in that category 🤔.
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Kuribo
I think I would put you in that category too, mate! 😉 😀
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patmcf
😅😅👍🏻🤓
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patmcf
Maybe we should stick with your wife’s idea and stay along the beaches and enjoy the creatures that the sea provides 👍🏻🤓
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Kuribo
Haha, she would be okay with that! As a vegetarian, I’m not too bothered because I don’t eat sea life or delicacies such as possum. She does eat meat though so we’ll probably have to keep her happy 🙂
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M.B. Henry
Looks like an amazing trip!
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patmcf
It was matey, cool and wet but the scenery is at its best over here in winter🤓.
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rantingsfromunder
Beautiful scenery, 600,000 acres! I didn’t realise I was talking to Aussie royalty! 😁
Cheers Roger.
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patmcf
😅😅😅if only mate ! It’s a bit scary to think what that would be worth now 🧐.
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imperialrebelork
Sounds like a nice trip mate. Great photos
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patmcf
Cheers mate 👍🏻it was great just to get a few degrees up from what we are having 😳, talked a lass who’s daughter is on a holiday camp in your favourite neck of the woods Strathbogie area 🥶she said it shit and bloody freezing! Oh how I miss school camps 😅😅😅👍🏻
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Guru PIG
Great road trip. There is always plenty to see even if it is plenty of “nuffin”!
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patmcf
👍🏻🤓
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ausevor
Reblogged this on ausevor.
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