From Ceduna we made our way to Port Augusta for the night and then continued our journey through Berri and Mildura. We have visited these places several times before so we decided not to stay and look around them this time, as we are on a bit of a deadline to get to Canberra.

So far we have passed these three ‘bigs’. The galah in Kimba, the orange in Berri and the koala in Hay.

After Port Augusta, we have been camping along the Murray River for a couple of nights, in both SA and VIC. The river currently has plenty of water and an abundance of bird life.

Passing through Hay in NSW, the Hay Plains area is flat and irrigated for growing cotton, legume and cereal crops. The lack of trees remind us of the Nullarbor.

Wagga Wagga is a large city – bigger than we remembered. The combination of locals and tourists makes it a bustling place. The memorial garden at the bottom to town is a lovely relaxing place and the nearby churches date back to the 1870s.

We took a leisurely stroll through the botanical gardens.

Next stop was Talbingo up in the Snowy Valley. It’s pretty chilly up here, on the first day low cloud hung around us but the second was beautiful sunshine. The town is on Jounama Pondage.

A few kilometres away is Tumut 3 Power Station. Water from Talbingo Dam (which is the largest of the dams on the Snowy Mountains Scheme) is used for the hydroelectric station and then flows into Jounama Pondage. The water is then pumped back up to Talbingo Dam or flows downstream into Blowering Reservoir. The diameter of each pipe is shown in the third photo.