Australia - Day 4

As I write this, at 3:30 in the afternoon on Wednesday, April 1st, the vast majority of you are tucked away in bed dreaming about what tricks to play in the morning. I am sitting on the upper deck of our rented houseboat, under the canopy drinking a beer – and have wireless Internet connectivity. It is warm today at 34 degrees, but it cools off nicely as soon as the sun sets. The only thing that is annoying is a few flies (actually a lot of flies) buzzing around.

We are on the Murray River, at a small town called Mannum which is east of Adelaide about 120 kms. We have been on the houseboat for two days and are enjoying it immensely. It is a far cry from the hustle and bustle of Buenos Aires, with the major noise coming from the birds squawking at one another. Being mid-week, the river traffic is sparse although we expect it to pick up by the weekend a bit.

The houseboat is well equipped. It even has two Lazy Boy chairs! We are able to pick up 3 channels on the TV which has a standard antenna. The Internet connection was a surprise, but the town of Mannum has installed the wireless hub, specifically for the houseboaters, like ourselves. The kids are enjoying attempting fishing off the back of the boat. We just stocked up on worms from a local store, and the lady assured us they were “Gold” when it comes to catching fish here. The technique here is different than I have experienced elsewhere – you throw out a weighted line that has two hooks on it and you let it sit on the bottom for about 10 minutes then reel it in and cast again.

School has been going well on the boat as well. I sprung a snap reading comprehension and a math quiz on them this morning. They both did very well. Kate has been reading books like a maniac. We bought 3 new 400 page books for her on Saturday and she has got through two of them and has a good start on the third. Tom is reading a bit more, but it is still slow going.

I have attached several pictures on the Murray River. I hope to get out my paints before the week is out and do some painting. They are in year three of a drought, and the land just past the riverbanks looks completely parched. The river itself is almost 2 metres lower than normal, but isn’t posing any problems for us houseboating.

Cheers for now.. Ian

Murray River Houseboating