Giant Cod and Giant Moth

Five years and a couple of months back, we were in this part of the world and one of the places we visited was the tiny town of Tintaldra, not far from Corryong and on the Murray River. There is a pub, a general store, an old iron bridge over the Murray and that is about it. What makes the place so interesting is the general store. On our last visit it was being run by 80 something year old Betty Walton. She has run the store since the 1970’s. We were keen to visit and see if she was still around.

On arriving in Tintaldra we parked down by the river in the shade. The first thing we noticed was a gigantic Murray cod on an old bridge pylon in the middle of the river. It must be new we thought, as it was not there last visit.

Actually, the cod wasn’t the first thing we noticed… this was, it was so hot the picnic furniture is beginning to melt. Either that or someone reversed into it!

We walked up to the store… Betty was still there, being assisted by one of her daughters. She is 91 years old and as sharp as a tack. Her daughter said she’s ‘blind as a bat’ but otherwise can be found in the store each day! She lives next door where she still hosts her own B&B. She is disappointed that the hotel over the road is currently closed, looking for an owner / investor to get it going again.

We looked around the museum part of the store after consuming ice creams. Had a lovely chat to Betty and her daughter as well.  Apparently the giant cod has only been on its pylon perch since November.

The sign said it all, and they had plenty of teapots to back up the statement too!

After farewelling Betty and her daughter we drove towards Walwa to pick up a couple of geocaches. One was at a nice lookout. There has been works here recently, with another sculpture in the form of a giant rusting moth to lure visitors. The view was great, although on these summer days in the heat, it is very misty.

Adding to our creative letter box collection was this minion…

Of course, after lunch in the caravan it was back into the creek. This time, we had upgraded from the ill-fated, no longer inflated lilo, to a couple of tyre inner tubes J picked up in town.

The next morning we didn’t venture out, but instead had some more time in the creek. The kids enjoyed floating from the bridge all the way down to the camp site a couple of times.