With a short window of opportunity for a getaway we packed up the Motorhome to head off for a week. Since our last big trip in the middle of the year we’ve had a busy time as we entered our 3 acre farm garden in the Open Gardens for Griffith Spring Fest. Spring Fest brings a massive influx of tourists to our lovely Riverina town to check out the famous Citrus Sculptures and the open gardens. There’s a Street Party, events at many of the cellar doors, a market day in the Main Street, and the Biggest Lap saw hundreds of classic and unique cars on parade down the Main Street. It’s a fabulous time to visit Griffith. Put it in your diaries for October every year!

We welcomed a record number of visitors to our garden over the 2 weeks of Spring Fest including 14 coaches and walk-ins over the Open Garden weekend. This all helped raise a significant amount of money for our charity, Hanwood Public School P&C, who did a mighty job serving delicious food and drink to the many garden visitors.

I’ve always wanted to visit Cruden Farm, home to the garden created by Dame Elisabeth Murdoch. Cruden Farm is located on the Mornington Peninsula near Frankston in Victoria.

The story of Cruden Farm is one of a life long passion for Dame Elisabeth Murdoch. As a new bride in 1928 she was gifted the small farm as a wedding present from her husband Keith Murdoch, a journalist and newspaper man. Over the years the modest weatherboard cottage was added to and updated and used as a weekend retreat for the family.

The garden has had a variety of garden designers over many years including the famous Australian landscape designer Edna Walling.

Dame Elisabeth lived to the ripe old age of 103 and remained a passionate gardener to the end. On the Cruden Farm website it says

In the words of her long term gardening companion Michael Morrison, ‘She loved every square inch of it, from boundary to boundary. There wasn’t a plant or patch of grass that she didn’t know intimately.’

In her will Dame Elisabeth left Cruden Farm to a Charitable Trust that now runs the farm. Cruden Farm is open everyday to the public and once a month they hold a special Sunday guided tour with one of the gardeners. We have booked in for that on Sunday 16th November. On that Sunday Cruden Farm is also host to the Aston Martin’s Concours d’Elegance & the Rolls Royce Owners Club Australia picnic. Richard is definitely looking forward to that.

Our first stop on this trip was to Braymont Garden near Tumbarumba to visit the owners, long time friends of ours Jim & Chris Brayne. We had a wonderful catch up with them over dinner and wine before settling down for the night parked in their parking area. Braymont Garden is a large farm garden with a cafe serving amazing food and even B&B accomodation. Check out their Facebook page for opening times and menus. You can book accomodation via Airbnb, just search for Braymont Garden.

The next morning we enjoyed further chat and a coffee with our hosts before setting off southwards via Tooma and Towong then turned right to follow the Upper Murray River. It is a gorgeous drive down through the mountain valleys and it was all looking very lush and green. Coming down towards Tooma we could see the snow capped main range of the Snowy Mountains in the distance.

Travelling along beside the Upper Murray River was beautiful with lush green valleys and spectacular mountain views. The Murray along this stretch is quite shallow and was running very fast. The water is very clear and it’s calming watching the water tumble across rocks along its way.

Near Tintaldra we came across a sculpture of a giant Bogong Moth with gorgeous views across the river into the valley beyond. Bogong Moths are large 3cm long moths and were hunted by First Nations people who roasted the moths and enjoyed their fatty, protein-rich, nutty flavour. They sound delicious….NOT!

We continued on and came to an information stop in front of Burrowa-Pine Mountain National Park. Pine Mountain is huge! It is made up of pink and grey granite and is one single enormous rock. It is one and a half times the size of Uluru and rises to 1092 metres from the banks of the Murray River. It’s really quite staggering. We stopped to read all the info boards and both declared them very well done. The stop includes a huge stainless steel statue of a Lace Monitor.

Interestingly, the National Park is home to some unique plants that are found nowhere else in the world.

Our First Nations people know Pine Mountain as Yabbarin which means ‘place of great talk’ and it is known to have been a meeting place of at least three First Nations peoples including the Wiradjuri, Walgal and Dhudhuroa people.

We pulled into Neils Bend Reserve a bit further along the road for a lunch break and managed to find a spot on our own with lovely views of the river. We could hear the river bubbling along below us while we ate our lunch.

Further along, past Walwa and the turnoff to Jingellic, we decided to make camp for the night and headed into Gadds Bend Reserve. This is a large grassed free camp right on the river and there’s plenty of room for lots of RV’s including Big Rigs. The reserve is along 250m of very pretty river frontage. The road is in gravel and suitable for 2WD vehicles.

There is no fee but there are also no facilities so you need to be self contained. You are allowed to have a fire (when no ban is in place)

We were the only people there for a short time before two caravans came in and set up further along the river bank. What a lovely spot. Check out the view from our door.