August 2017

We’re back in Tocumwal and we wake to the sounds of the Murray, a million birds shrieking and singing, a rowdy cacophony. It brings back so many memories, the warmth of a tent on a summer morning and the boys sneaking icy cold beers in the Terminus Hotel on a hot afternoon after getting supplies.

Tocumwal is on the Murray River on the New South Wales side. It is a thriving river town with charming old shops, neat houses and a levee bank to protect it from river flooding. In the Summer Tocumwal swells to overflowing as thousands of campers descend on the banks of the river returning to their favourite spots like homing pigeons. We spent eight summers camped on the river with a hoard of friends who each year returned from all parts of the globe just to dangle their toes in the river and contemplate life. We even saw in the millennium from the banks of the Murray. I doubt that we could have chosen a better spot to be etched in our memories forever.