Murray East

It was a lovely sunny morning to be heading out on the drive to Wodonga. Not being in a particular hurry was lovely and my first stop was the impressive Paddy's River Falls not far from Tumbarumba. It is possible to walk right down to the falls and I am told that the locals will even clamber behind the falls themselves, although this was not something I was going to risk - the rocks looked very slippery and the water was belting down at a great rate. Back on the road I soon came to the "Southern Cloud Lookout" near Tooma. This roadside view point looks across to the ridge line where the Southern Cloud, a tri-motor airline, crashed in 1931 with 8 people on board. As such it was the first airline disaster in Australia and prompted significant safety changes to the Australian airline industry. The crash site was not found for 27 years when in 1958 a worker from the Snowy Mountains Scheme stumbled upon while bushwalking. Despite the somber story behind the lookout, the view was rather special. From there I drove on down into the Murry River Valley and crossed back and forth from NSW to Victoria and back to NSW, finally popping out on to the Hume Hwy some 50km north of Albury. After refueling and restocking with a few groceries it was time for a picnic lunch by the River in Noreuil Park. There was also the opportunity to enjoy a very pleasant ride for about 8km along the river to the Wonga Wetlands. This is a series of lagoons which are home to over 150 species of birds and which has a very pretty 2.5km loop walk which I enjoyed. The other interesting part of the ride was the series of indigenous sculptures along the way - known as the Yindymarra Sculpture Walk it features a series of stunning contemporary Aboriginal sculptures lining the Wagirra Trail from Kremur Street to Wonga Wetlands. Fifteen sculptures created by local Aboriginal artists have been installed along the trail and they are really pretty cool. Getting back to the car it was only a few minutes drive across the causeway to Motel 24 which is home for the next 3 nights. Unpacking and settling in didn't take long so I was able to do a little work before heading out for tea at the Albury Brewhouse 4.5km across the river and an easy ride. There I enjoyed some flathead tails and a really rather nice chocolate porter before heading back to the motel.Read more