River Bend Caravan Park Paringa South Australia

We have just spent another 2 days in Renmark visiting relatives.

We opted to rent a cabin in the Riverbend Caravan Park, Paringa.

We enjoyed our stay although it was a little noisy on Saturday night.

You can get that sometimes.

Here are some pics we took on the walking trail that leads out of the park.

Follow the link below to an earlier post on rescuing  Koalas at Paringa.
The Ray Grimshaw mentioned used to own this caravan park back then.

https://geoffthompsonsblog.blogspot.com/search/label/koala%20rescue

Christmas Greetings

"O come let us adore Him!"

To all my readers,listeners,subscribers, chance visitors to this blog and my youtube channel I pray you will have a Christmas time which is joyful and a time of relaxation and reflection with friends and family.
The meaning of Christmas is being pushed further and further away in this age however the reality of Jesus and his arrival on earth and his death and resurrection are still very real.

Have a blessed time.

Geoff Thompson

Kangaroos Christmas Barbecue(Vegetarian steaks of course)

Hot in Adelaide today on Christmas day. Will get to 40c and did yesterday as well.

Saw this guy in Adelaide Hills a week ago.It was hot then and this was how he was coping.

Ps. I have been reflecting a bit as we tend to do this time of the year.
I tend to do far too much internet watching stuff of favourite vlogs and I have not come across any of them as I have looked this past week that have actually written just a post sharing a Christmas greeting.
To cap it off our local memeber of parliament used to send us a Christmas card once, then it became a holiday greeting.
Today  we got a happy new year. Where did Christmas go?

Koala Rescue-Paringa Paddock 1973

Many years ago I had a wonderful day out with my newly acquired father in Law, Dud Foweraker.
Dud was a conservationist and environmentalist from his very young years.
In about 1973 the Murray River was in some degree of flood or high river.
Near Paringa,near Renmark is an Island called Goat Island.
I am not sure that it is still an island these days due to the drying up of a channel around it.
Some years earlier than 1973 I believe the island was stocked with some Koala Bears from the former
Koala Farm in Adelaide which had been closed.
On this particular day I went out in a boat with Dud and his friend Ray Grimshaw in an aluminium dinghy to see how many Koalas had been separated from the island by the flood waters.
Paringa Paddock was quite flooded and navigable by a "tinnie" at the time.
It was great motoring quietly through the flooded gum and box tree forest.
There were in a few places overhead, Heron's nests with young birds peering down.
I managed to get a few reasonable shots on my old Pentax Spotmatic.
We located a large male bear who appeared to have been stranded for some time in a tree not far above the waterline.
We had a red washing basket on board.
Dud managed to lassoo the bear who growled quite loudly and bundle him under the basket and then into the back of the boat.
He sat there holding onto the side of the boat with one hand until we managed to put him ashore back on the Island.
Below are some pics I took of the proceedings.

baby herons

Dud in spotting mode

Dud and Ray

Dud with Camera

Thanks Guys