Murray River VIC

“How’s the serenity?”

It is quiet; too quiet! At night you can hear your heart beating. During the daylight, the birds talk all day. Meanwhile the brown water sweeps silently westward.

The Murray River is Australia’s longest river at 2,520 kilometres, and the third longest navigable river in the world, after the Amazon and the Nile. It is unique in that there are no major cities situated along the route. Although Albury Wodonga is a growing city.

We wake at midnight startled, sitting straining to hear anything unusual; like cats with fur standing on end, our senses are heightened. Nothing, but we are spooked. There is no one else about and it’s too quiet. Eventually we settle back to sleep until daylight.

We are camped alone at Masters Landing on the Murray River. It looks well used and has fire pits, some firewood, and drop toilets. There is a rope tied to a high branch so people must swing out from the high banks into the river. Water skiers must love this spot on the weekends and during the summer holidays.

Mick fishes and catches an 80 centimetre Murray Cod. He calls to me from the bank so that I can take a photo, but I don’t hear him. The cod does a lazy flip, shakes the hook free, and swims away casually. Mick intended to release the fish anyway, but we have no photo proof of the catch. At least he knows. I go for a swim, reliving days of my youth when I swam in the river at Tocumwal. Once I squelch through the thick mud I glide out into the strong current, not game to venture out too far from the edge. As a teenager I would have swam across and back without thinking twice.

There is an old hut here. It is leaning sideways but remarkably intact considering it was built in 1860 by Frederick Masters using red gum and grey box eucalypts. He married Emma Taylor and they had thirteen children. Frederick worked as a deckhand on the paddle steamers, as well as selling fish he caught. It must have been a hard life here back then. Three of the children died, Charlotte drowned in the river when she was just two. Walking through the hut is creepy as old furniture remains. Apparently, descendants of the family lived here until 2010. It really needs to be cleaned up (inside at least) by Parks Victoria.

We have camped at three places along this stretch of the Murray. First at Pental Island caravan park which is tucked away on a private cattle station. The grass is a thick green carpet and luxurious to walk barefoot. The bend in the river is a perfect spot for fishing and we walk under the river gums during the hot days. There are a few other campers here but not many and birdsong fills the air.

The next stop is near Koondrook beside the Gunbower Creek. We camp off-grid alone right next to the full creek, although we can see other caravans nearby. Mick fishes from dawn to dusk. He catches shrimp and yabbies for bait. He catches and dispatches more carp. They are an introduced species and a pest in this environment. We see a turtle. The wind is strong, and we decide that we won’t light a campfire even though there are no fire restrictions at this time.

Our next stop is at the country town of Cohuna and we stay at the free off-grid 72-hour RV park in the town. There are about four other campers here. We go for a swim at the local pool. There is a caravan park nearby beside the lake, but the reviews on Wikicamps are enough to keep us away. We head off the next day.

Driving through the Gunbower State Forest with our caravan is a bit of a mistake. In search of the perfect riverside spot, we negotiate dirt roads with long deep ruts. In wet weather this would be a bog. We get our first pinstripes on the caravan trying not to get wedged between scraggly trees. Eventually we find Masters Landing near a boat-ramp not far from the small town of Gunbower. After our spooky night we head into town and book into the Gunbower Caravan Park. Here we wash the beige dust from the caravan and car. There is a nice swimming pool, relief for the hot days.

But then Victoria goes into a snap lockdown for the third time due to an outbreak of the virus at Melbourne Airport. The caravan park will close. We discuss our options: stay put; return to the farm at Horsham; or cross the border into New South Wales. After discussions with the caravan park owners, they allow us to stay because we are self-contained. Next Wednesday we will reassess the situation, hoping to move on.