Monday 2/8/2010 The Darling River at Bourke

(The Darling River at Bourke)
Aahh, slept in and then had a hot shower!
Today we mostly relaxed and read.
I went for a walk to the river which was 10 minutes each way to where the PV Jandra is docked. We're actually camped on the levee bank behind a large flood zone area.

At 1500hrs we all walked down there and went on the PV Jandra for an hours cruise along the Darling River. Very relaxing and quite educational.

Hundreds of corellas. They pick a tree and strip it bare.
There used to be 15 million sheep here, now down to about 50 thousand. It was the largest inland port in the world in it's time, with the record for the highest number of wool bails transported.
The Darling River floods approximately every 2 to 3 years, but had no flood between 2000 and 2007. This year was the first time on record that they have had 2 floods in the one year, and there are still 5 months to go! The water level was up by about 8 metres.
Along the bank are huge river redgums, with coolabah trees further back (with the silvery green foliage). The redgums survive for 9 months in flood before they drown.

The bridge was made in England back in the colonial days. It was shipped over then transported to Bourke up the river.

Very cold wind, and no firewood tonight. We just had scrambled eggs for tea and then cereal as desert.
Jordan and Erin entertained us for a while with their video chat.
I checked in with Peter about staying there the next two nights, and let him know that we wouldn't get there too late as we were able to do the river boat a day early.
Off to bed early to keep warm and read.
Col got a bit of a head start and packed up the chairs and kitchen stuff before coming to bed.