Today at 4 p.m. we went for a two hour cruise on the Balonne River, St George. We are staying here for six nights as it is such a lovely town.
The temperature today reached 22 degrees. Warm and sunny after a slightly cold night.
A very leisurely journey, although Piper hated every minute of it, the sounds of the motor (put putting) and the vibrations were not to her liking at all.
When the wind dropped the reflections were very good.
Our boat (the flat-bottomed boat on the trailer) being launched on the river. There were ten passengers! This was not quite the boat we expected to see, rather something a bit more substantial. It did have a toilet in one corner, a portaloo in a tiny room.
However it turned out to be a very relaxing two hours, with plenty of information from the driver.
The river is dammed, otherwise it would be just a small stream at this time of the year, which is the dry season.
The weir (dam) in the distance which also includes a bridge for vehicles too.
The weir was built in 1956 and the water is used for the town of St George as well as for irrigating vineyards, crops and the cotton crops. The latter is water greedy as the cotton requires the fields to be flooded which takes much water, and of course the run off has pesticides and fertilisers in it. The driver of the boat was very negative about cotton growing in Australia, as are most people, except for the huge corporations that grow it, plus the government too. We all love our cotton clothes but no one thinks about the damage cotton growing does to the environment, especially in the ultra dry areas in Australia.
Most of the land alongside the river is crown land which means that it is free for people to use as they wish, which is lovely for those people that like to camp, fish or go boating. However, the people who have built houses on the areas that have been developed also have the right to use their river frontages as they wish. One or two people have dug out small harbours for their boats.
There were three sets of irrigation pipes for irrigating vineyards.
One of the very large houses being built along the river edge. It has three sections to it, the middle one being the kitchen and dining area.
By the time we returned we had a view of the sunset over the water. It was not a brilliant red sunset but very beautiful all the same.
We also went to a winery today, no wine for us, but we had a lovely lunch. More about that tomorrow.
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