Murray River - Bruce's Beach 2 near Yarrawonga

We left Echuca & headed NE towards Cobram, guess what? we planned to camp on the Murray River again! We had a look at a camp on the river there but decided to keep going towards Yarrawonga. There is a camp close to town but it was packed with people, so we decide to check out another one back towards Cobram a bit. A track lead us down towards the river & we found various campsites along the Murray. Some were okay, but not quite right in either access to the water or to shaded for the solar panels. We kept following the bush tracks further & finally came to a sign that pointed to Bruce's Beach 2 & what a campsite it was. Just fantastic, probably the best Murray camp we have found. A large flat grassy area, a bit of shade, easy access to the water & the river was flowing but beautiful & clear water & it's free, wow. There was another camp about 300 meters away with 2 carvans, so we had a spot to ourselves. After setting up we still couldn't believe our luck, this is the life, although we had to make the most of it while it lasted.......

Our camp at Bruce's Beach above & 2 below

You see it was the Tuesday before the Australia Day long weekend & our little oasis was about to get rather busy! The next day we decided to go for a drive around the area. We went into Yarrawonga & looked across the river to Mulawa & got some photos of Lake Mulawa. We then went on towards Wangaratta. All these Victorian towns are bigger than we expected & really busy, it's crazy. We ducked into the local Kmart to try & find a pool ring to float out on at camp, but with no luck & also grabbed a few groceries at the Coles next door. 

Lake Mulawa

We then made our way towards Glenrowan which was the actual reason for our day out. The famous Ned Kelly town did not disappoint & we had one of the strangest days we could remember. First up we did a lap around town, not much here, a pub, a museum, a theatre, a bakery, a few gift shops. 

The site of the Kelly gangs last stand burnt down, so we only found a paddock with a few horses in it. Righto into the pub for lunch. An awesome pub with heaps of memorabilia on the walls of the Kelly's & some huge Murray Cod. A couple of pints of Kelly Gang Draught was consumed & a cracking lunch. It was then time to explore further. Should we do the museum or the theatre thing, or both. Well the theatre is the closest we will check it out. The guy is out the front ringing the bell saying the show is about to start, so we thought we just made it in time, so we line up to pay not really knowing what we were getting in for. When he told us it was $28 each we nearly fell over, but couldn't really back out, so we bought our tickets. He led us into a room that had a door concealed behind a book case to a room filled with lots of props & sitting benches. What followed was the weirdest things we have ever seen. It was a marionette theatre with animations projected on some of the puppets. It took you through various rooms & told the story of the last stand, including the police coming on the train to get the gang, inside the pub where it happened, out the back of the theatre was a gun fight & we even had Neds hanging. 

There was rain, thunder, creepy puppets, a dog that peed water, a guy that threw up, a train, loud banging, gun shots, smoke machines & the hang-mans noose. When we finished you are then taken through a room that is the owners grandkids bedroom that is like a Disney fairytale, as the theatre is part of his house. We chatted to the owner afterwards & it turns out his family was involved in making the Kelly gang armour. I really can't think of anything more unique that I have seen in all of Australia. Yes it's expensive to get in, but if you don't support things like this they will eventually close & may be there is nothing like it anywhere in the world. It has to be seen to be believed! A word of advice though I wouldn't take kids younger than 10 or 12, it was pretty confronting & would be scary for kids. So that was the end of our Glenrowan adventure, what a day.  

The next day we stayed at camp to enjoy the serenity while it lasted. This is really a great camp. I did some hand washing as Mat went for a fish. Not long after he came back yelling with a decent sized fish on his line. It was a Murray Cod, how exciting. They are such a beautiful fish. After some photos, we decided to release it, they are just to beautiful to keep & have enough pressure from fishing & European carp, that we couldn't keep it. To say Mat was excited was an understatement, what a great catch. Despite his efforts & a few carp & yellow belly that was the only Cod he managed to catch. 

We cooked up some delicious Roast  Pork for dinner & sat back appreciating a great day. We even had a swim at 8pm, the weather was so warm & beautiful. We went to bed really happy. As we went to sleep, we were soon woken by a car coming into camp, the lights blazing as they did 3 laps trying to find a spot. Guess what they chose right near us, suprise, suprise. As 3 kids & a dog piled out of the car obviously after a long drive we knew we wouldn't be getting much sleep for a while. The next thing the dog was in our camp trying to pee on our stuff, so it got yelled at to get away, a few words were had with the owner & he proceed to put up the Taj Mahal of campsites & finally stopped banging pegs in at 1am, it just got quiet, when he decided he needed to also move his car 2 meters. God some people are so rude, inconsiderate & have no manners. 

Eastern Rosellas 

The next day we were up early as we had to go into Shepparton to get the winch replaced. Let's just say we made a lot more noise than was our normal morning noise, revenge is sweet! We went into Shepparton & found a crazy busy town, we could barely get a park anywhere. We ended up driving just out of town to Mooroopna to do our groceries at the Woolies there. Back to town & we dropped of Ruby to get the winch replaced & luckily there was a pub just up the road that we had lunch at & usedtheir  unlimited WIFI to update all our phones & iPad while we waited for the winch to be put in. After we picked up Ruby we grabbed some fuel & headed out of town. Unlike most other Victorian towns we have been to, we have no real desire to go back to Shepparton. Back at camp & the influx had continued. About 15 camps were now strung out along the river. 

Getting busy

More busy, this is just on one side!!

The next 2 days, Saturday & Sunday we just stayed at camp. Mainly to try to defend a small piece of our camp spot, but we ended up with people all around us. Oh well. Suprisingly most people were really well behaved & it wasn't even rowdy at night. We relaxed, swam, cooked (more recipes to come, we hope you liked the Perfect Roast Pork) & tried to ignore the neighbours. There would of been at least 30 camps & they just kept rolling in. It is a great spot, I can see why they come to it. We did expect it to be busy & were just happy we got a good spot for the weekend. There are a number of ways to get to the campsite, but we are going to tell you the easiest, we thought about letting you work it out for yourselves, but the spot is definitely no secret if the number of people there is any indication. So heading from Cobram to Yarrawonga turn left onto Thoms road (opposite the turn off to Tungamah), follow this until you turn right onto W. Wrights Road & follow this all the way along till you get to a gate. You will follow this along the edge of a paddock, keep going without turning until you see a left hand turn & a Bruce's Beach 2 sign, you will see a large grassy open area beside the river. Sit back & enjoy! Next up, let's go to the High Country!

Map Courtesy of HEMA

Google Earth image of the area 

Perfect Roast Pork

Roast pork is one of my all time favourites. But it has to have the crackling!! We have done it a few times in the camp oven before with mixed results of how the crackling turned out. Normally you can get the skin to crackle right on top near the lid of the oven but the sides don't always work. So I thought I would bring out the big guns & show you how to ensure you get a fantastic crackle. Isn't this a thing of beauty??

Perfect Roast Pork

Ingredients

- a 2kg piece of pork with the skin on

- salt

- canola oil

- boiling water

- veggies of your choice to serve with it, we had potato, pumpkin, carrot, onion & garlic

- gravy or apple sauce to finish it off 

Directions

- start your fire early. You need lots of coals & heat. 

- dig a hole for your camp oven to sit in while cooking, this really helps to regulate the heat especially if it is windy. 

- start a smaller fire in the camp oven hole to preheat it. 

- place a billy of water over your main fire & bring to the boil, you need about a litre. 

- once you have got enough coals to cook, preheat your camp oven over the fire for 5-10mins, you want it really hot. 

- meanwhile make sure you have taken your piece of meat out of the fridge at least 30-45 mins to bring it closer to room temperature & so you don't lose valuable heat from the camp oven when you put it in.  

- remove the plastic bag from the meat & pat dry with paper towel. 

- you will need to score the skin with a sharp knife if your butcher hasn't already done so. 

- place the meat on a trivet over a sink or bucket. 

- pour the boiling water straight over the top of the piece of meat, all over the skin. 

- carefully put the meat back on your cutting board & pat dry again. 

- rub the meat all over with a little oil.

- then sprinkle over a generous amount of salt & rub in. 

- once your camp oven is preheated, place the meat on a trivet & close the lid. 

- put 2 shovels of coals in the bottom of your camp oven hole. 

- place the camp oven on the coals & put 2 shovels of coals on top as well. 

- the first 20 minutes is crucial to get that crackling going. You want it really hot. 

- check after 20 minutes. Your crackling should be well on the way to being crunchy, if not add more coals to the lid. If it has crackled then leave to cook for about an hour. 

- check after an hour & add the veggies if it's all going well. Add more coals on the bottom or top if necessary. If it all looks okay leave the heat as it is, as you will only cook the meat for another 20mins. 

- check the meat with a skewer & if cooked remove from oven to rest, covered loosely with some foil, not to tight or you will ruin your hard earned crackling. I bet you can't resist trying a bit of that crackling!

- add more coals to the top of the camp oven to finish off the veggies & cook for a further 20 mins or so. 

- slice up that beautiful pork, EVENLY share out the crackling & serve with your veggies. 

- some gravy or Apple sauce seals the deal. 

I think the photos speak for how spectacular this turned out. YUM. 

Echuca

We left our camp on the Murray at Nyah Vinifera Park & headed south to Swan Hill. Swan Hill looks like another very nice town on the Murray River, but after getting our photo with the big Murray Cod we decided to venture on towards Echuca.

Wow another great town & God it was busy. We saw there was a free camp just out of town in our Camps Australia Wide book. We decided to check it out. As we drove in it looked like there were a fair few permanent camps which isn't ever really a good sign, but we managed to find a quiet spot on the banks of the Murray again. Seems to be getting a habit, but who can resist such awesome free camps. We set up in record time & went back into town to explore. It was even busier, we drove around for 10 minutes just to get a park crazy! Echuca has a great mix of all the essential big shops but heaps of smaller touristy places as well. We wandered the Main Street & found ourselves at a pub for lunch. Surprise surprise. We then headed back out to camp  to watch all the water skiers go back & forwards in front of camp. 

The next day we stayed at camp & fished, cooked, read, relaxed & took photos of the birds around camp. It was a very quiet Sunday. 

On the Monday morning we decided to test our winch as we are making our way towards the high country & guess what it didn't work properly. It had been having issues with the controllers, but this time it would not winch the cable back in, great, time to look for a replacement. We headed back into town to talk to the various 4WD shops, but with not much luck in that they couldn't fit one until at least Thursday. Echuca is a nice spot but we didnt want to wait around that long. We called a few other shops in nearby big towns & ended up booking it in at Shepparton on Friday, so we would be able to move camp closer. Then we finished having a proper look around town without the crowds, although it was still busy. We did our grocery shopping, had a good look in the main street & ventured into many of the great little shops including a fantastic book shop, lolly shop, chocolate shop, cheese shop, camping shops, the list goes on. We then grabbed some drinking water at the information centre & decided we may as well head into NSW as we were this close & crossed the bridge over the Murray into Moama, we did only get fuel & come back, but it did make us feel a bit closer to home ha ha, we then headed back to camp. The next day we packed up & moved again, can you guess which river we ended up camped on next? Stay tuned to find out!! Oh by the way the weather has been fantastic!!! Loving it!

Tuna cakes

This is a great recipe to use up leftover mashed potato. These were really tasty. Putting the grated Parmesan in the bread crumb mix makes them go delicious & crunchy when cooked. Great for lunch or a light dinner. The ingredients photo only has 1 egg but I found I needed another when it came time to form the mixture. Pretty simple with minimal ingredients makes them a great camping option. Kids would like these ones too. 

Tuna Cakes

Ingredients

- 2 cups of mashed potato

- 2,185gram tins of tuna

- 1/4 of a red onion finely diced (spring onion would be great as well)

- 3/4 of a cup of frozen peas & corn

- 2 eggs

- salt & pepper

- 2 cups of multigrain breadcrumbs (normal are fine as well)

- 2 tablespoons of finely grated Parmesan cheese 

- canola oil for frying

- sweet chilli sauce to serve

Directions

- in a bowl combine the breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese & some salt & pepper & set aside

- in another bowl combine the potato, drained tuna, peas & corn, onion, eggs & some salt & pepper

- mix until thoroughly combined

- wet your hands & shape mixture into patties

- once all patties are made, place them in the bowl with the breadcrumb mixture & coat them all over. 

- heat your pan over a medium heat & add enough oil to coat the bottom on the pan. 

- fry your patties in batches so you don't overcrowd the pan. 

- Turn them about. 4 times making sure they don't burn. 

- You want to get them crunchy on the outside & warm in the middle. 

- remove from pan & drain on paper towel. 

- serve with your favourite dipping sauce. We did sweet chilli sauce but mayo would be good as well. 

These can be served as they are or made  into a complete meal with some more veggies or salad. You could also make them smaller sized & put them in a wrap with some salad. Yum.