Allthego has had great trouble spelling Euchcuca, no it is Echuca. Postcards that he has sent have had errors in them. But he is getting on in years. We are headed for Echuca after leaving Rutherglen and stopping overnight at Tocumwal. By the way Allthego only sends postcards to himself and Homealone on these trips, no one else does, so why not? At least we know where we have been when we eventually get home and read them! There is a great pile of them back at Bedwell Place with interesting stamps!

We are trying to do that Farm Gate Trail. Success is almost immediate when we pull into Cactus World. You walk through the gate and think you are in southern US or Mexico, Cactus everywhere, or is that Cacti? Great walk around in an unusual attraction. We had a coffee/tea after checking out the cactusss (plural?) and tried a piece of cactus cake, based on carrot cake but having a slab of prickly pear substituted for the carrot. Not unpleasant but the honey treacle and a dash of creamy stuff helped indeed!

We dithered around at the Cactus place a bit long before heading off trying to find some of the other Farm Gate Trail places as we headed towards Echuca. We wandered down side roads and beside irrigation canals on the lookout for these establishments but it was so frustrating, not many to be found. Or they were at the back of beyond and people were not home. The interesting dairy and cheese place was not open, closed for some work on the facilities. Ah! Ah! It was back to the main road and on to Echuca.

It was getting late in the afternoon and the chosen booked van park was at Riverbend Echuca. Now Allthego sometimes reads things and takes them at face value. He is a reasonable sort of chap in this regard. Somehow, he thought this place was about 6 km out of town, Echuca that is. Now this was an error. This campground was 20 km out of town and actually beside the Goulburn River, Victoria’s longest river that joins the Murray somehere in the scrub where we are to stay. But, it was a pretty good van park, devoid of guests and very quiet. Still a bumpy 20 km drive into town to check out the sites and sights.

The only issue though was the road in, for 10 km it is sealed but the last 10 km or so it is potholes and corroguted dirt. The major drama was crossing the Goulburn River, the bridge had suffered some recent flood damage and Allthego was reluctant to take the single lane crossing to get to the campground. The bridge seemed to have seen better days.

So, we decided to take the adjacent relatively new concrete bridge instead! No worries there.

The weather turned here at Echuca and our first day at River Bend was declared a day of rest by Homealone. It rained on and off most of the time and we holed up in the van. The sun came out the next morning and a vital load of washing was done before we headed off to see some Echuca sites and sights.