Creeks and cows

Just one more swim before we eat
Lance Brooks, jam it all in, January 2026

We started our last morning on the Murray with a beautiful paddle, actually truth be told Lance had already done a swim, walk and yoga, but I started with a paddle upstream and a lovely float downstream.

The night before Lance had tried fishing for Murray Cod with no luck. However when he checked his line in the morning something had taken the hook and bait, The one that got away must have been big!

Lance had to do something work calls after breakfast and my plan was to wash my hair using our warm shower. I turned on the hot water, no problem. I tried to attach shower head, big problem. By the time Lance was finished with his calls I had still not worked it out. He was straight up and clips it in easily. Typical klutzy me. Anyway the shower beautiful and my hair is now clean(er).

We began our pack up at 11.20am. We were distracted by our neighbour who was helping a Mercedes driver who got stuck in the gravel. He chatted as we packed and gave us some more advice, some of which was pretty useful.

We left at 1.30pm with a 4 hour drive to our next destination Sheepyard Flat in Howqua Hills Heritage Area. I had been here briefly when we visited Merrijig on a girls weekend and remembered how beautiful it was. With a couple of rest and fuel stops along the way we didn’t start the long steep drive down the Howqua Track until nearly 6pm. It seemed a little ominous heading down as there were still fires to the west and thunder and lightning all around. As we pulled up to the campground there was only one other group near us and a few tents over on other side. Apparently it is usually heaving with people at this time of year but the fires ha5made people cautious.

We set up in the pouring rain and managed to be sitting down with drinks and snacks within the hour. We are slowly improving. We prepared our dinner (chicken skewers for those following along) and went to bed reasonably early.

Our camper is waterproof and cosy and we woke up this morning late to the sound of cows mooing. The whole area is available for free roaming cattle. There’s also lots of horse riding trails, which is something I would like to comeback and do sometime in the future.

We had a quick morning refresh in the creek.

Lance went for a run and discovered more beautiful campgrounds further up the road. We went for a drive and explore before breakfast and found more beautiful swimming holes and a tunnel. Apart from the alpine scenery this area is also known for its connection to golf mining. We ate *breakfast * at 1.30pm.