After another night at Tocumwal Town Beach we woke to a gorgeous day. Lots of blue sky with fluffy white clouds. That made for a change after the previous two gloomy, rainy days.

We decided over breakfast that we were both impressed with Tocumwal Town Beach and say hats off to the Foreshore Committee for all their hard work maintaining the campground. It is obviously good for the economy of the little town of some 3,000 people. Imagine how much money all those campers spend in the town. Fuel, groceries, chemist, butcher, bakery, restaurants, pubs and the club. The Tocumwal Club even provides a Courtesy Bus that will come and collect campers and bring them back again. Both nights we stayed the camp was almost full. The camp has 65 campsites.

The only real downside for us was the number of campers. We usually like to find places with not so many people however the spot we had right at the end was not as squashy as those along the beachfront.

A minor downside is the noise from the highway just on the other side of the river. When the big trucks go by the sound is amplified by the river.

Before leaving we used the dump point to empty our very full grey water tank and empty the toilet cassette. We filled our water tanks too and were ready to go.

With no real destination in mind we set off heading east along the river. We stopped in to check out Forges Beach camp and found this to be a lovely spot on a big bend in the river with lots of green grassy sites and open spaces with a lovely big beach. As it was only mid morning we continued on.

We had a look around Yarrawonga Common where we’ve camped previously and found quite a few camps set up that looked like they’d been there for a long time. Is the number of people permanently living in caravans on the rise?

After a short drive through Yarrawonga we crossed the bridge into Mulwala on the NSW side and drove past the famous Mulwala Water Ski Club and out to Kiffins Reserve. Kiffins Reserve is a fabulous free camp with lots of room for many RV’s and it’s only approx 3km into Mulwala along a paved bike path. We’ve stayed there a few times and it’s a very pleasant spot alongside Lake Mulwala. This time though we just stopped for a lunch break before heading back across the bridge into Yarrawonga where we did a quick stop at the bakery for fresh bread.

What a gorgeous spot is Bundalong just east of Yarrawonga with lots of very lovely homes, some of them even with the river right at their backyard. We reckoned they’d be worth a few million dollars each!

It’s a lovely drive through productive irrigated farming all along the river. Coming into Rutherglen you start to see vineyards and olive orchards. Rutherglen is one of Australia’s well known vineyard regions and many recognisable winery names such as Campbells, DeBortoli’s, All Saints, and Morris’s are there.

Using WikiCamps we found a spot not far from Rutherglen called Police Paddocks. It is situated along an anabranch of the Murray River called Murphy’s Creek. Murphy’s Creek and the Murray surround a large island and this is where the police used to keep their horses back in the 1800’s hence the name of the campground. Police Paddocks covers a large area alongside the creek with plenty of space for many campers. Finding a spot that doesn’t have River Red Gums hanging over it is a bit challenging but we managed to find a good spot and set up camp. Not long after another van came in and set up about 40 metres away.

We spent a very pleasant evening around the campfire sharing yarns with our neighbours. It was an extremely late night after partying hard and we were in bed by 8.35pm!