Wentworth

We spent the day sightseeing around Wentworth. Although it’s a small town there is lots to see. Our first stop was Perry Sands. This is a huge expanse (over 400 acres) of sand hills just 5ks out of Wentworth, where you would think you were in the Sahara Desert. The sand has built up to such an extent it has completely covered the trunk huge gum tree. It was fun to climb up the steep hills. What an amazing phenomenon.
On the way back we stopped at the Folk Museum Pioneer World. This was one of the best museums I have seen for a long time. It has some unusual displays as well as an area where they had life like models of ancient animals like a giant kangaroo, giant goanna and giant wombat. They have found fossils of all these animals in the surrounding area.
Back to the caravan park for lunch and then rode our bikes to a small island which has the Murray flowing on one side and the Darling on the other. It is a wild life reserve – there were some magnificent old river gums here and then the track became narrower as the rushes closed in. At the end of the island you come to convergence of the two rivers.
After that we went to view the weir and Loch 10- one of the many weirs and lochs on the Murray that were put in to control the water levels. The result of this is a constant level in the river which was beneficial for all those using the river for transport, trade and water. However as usually greed prevailed and much too much water has been extracted for irrigation and has resulted in drawing the salt to rise to the surface causing salinity which has caused a lot of the trees to die and the land to become useless. It is an ongoing battle between those who irrigate and those who want to save the river.