Days 47-55, 720-890km Wakiti Creek to near Kerang

What a lovely restful, fattening week! Well, definitely the latter for the boys, and quite probably for myself too! The theme of the week has been family visits, with my aunty and two cousins all coming up to visit us separately over the course of 5 days.

From Wakiti Creek, after being wined and dined by the friendly hay-gifting folks from Mansfield, we set out across some more flat irrigated dairy country for the 4 days to Gunbower, detouring south a bit to avoid Echuca. The highlight of that section was farmer Henry who stopped by our camp with a bale of hay. And gosh darn if that ain't the best gift imaginable! I mean sure, you can give me food and I'll be greatful, but give my boys food and I'll be your eternal ally and will be forever in your debt and you'll have my heart in your keeping for as long as you live....

Anyhoo, Wednesday saw me and the boys rolling along some very scenic irrigation channels (these channels range from drab half-empty plastic lined drains to quite spectacular winding creek-like affairs complete with pelicans and swans.... turns out Micky is terriefied of pelicans. What a weirdo.) towards Gunbower, where my total legend of an Aunt, Cindy, had booked a lovely little house with a lush paddock behind it for the boys. Cindy drove all the way up from Melbourne to spend the day with us, and stoically put up with my shopping spree in Echuca... Sorry! Essentials were bought and I shed a few tears of sympathy for poor Micky who would have to carry everything.

And then, after waving farewell to Cindy, my cousin Greg and his two kids arrived on Friday arvo, and we spent the evening giving the kids rides on Mr Richard. Mick-Mac was a bit wary of their high energy and inability to cut his carrots up small enough for his baby teeth - ha ha!

We set off Saturday morning, heading around Kow Swamp, which was surprisingly really very pretty, and then on Sunday I got word that ANOTHER cousin was coming up to visit... Jeez, family overload! Ha ha, not at all, it has been so lovely to see everyone and I feel really touched that folks made the effort to drive all the way up here just to say hi! Amber and Ben also brought up a giant toy horse, which absolutely made my week 😝

This morning I was treated to a mobile breakfast service when local dairy farmer Jess and her kids dropped down with some coffee and a roll for me and some carrots for the GGs (reckon Mr R is going to turn orange soon!) - thanks guys, you're great!

And then this afternoon came to a close with an impromptu gallop on Mr Richard that may or may not have been preluded by a spontaneous bolt by the boys, a moment of chaos at a crossroads when Micky pulled a hard right and Richard went straight ahead, I followed Richard hard on foot only to see him come trotting back towards me after a few 100 metres looking both embarrassed and terrified to find himself all alone, so of course I scruffed him and galloped off after Mick-Mac, who I found happily grazing next to some new horse friends across the fence. Ah #horselife - you just never know how your day is going to turn out!

But all's well that ends well, and although this trip is FAR from over, tonight we have a perfect camp with loads of grass and everyone is happy. From this random roadside, we'll be heading towards Swan Hill, then still using the river as a bit of a handrail, keeping North-West towards Mildura.

Meanwhile, does anyone have any ideas for a 1000km party? It'll be coming up in a few days, and so far all I have planned is to share a bottle of warm flat beer with my boys xx