Murray Ferry, too good to hurry
When we drove back from Banrock Station to Adelaide, we decided to use a side road to have a look at some of the Murray River. We found this free ferry which operates 24 hours a day. We got talking to the guy who was running it. He explained that during the day the ferrymen would fish and at night they would sleep in a hut, awaking when an alarm reveals that a vehicle is heading towards the ferry. Some nights they could sleep a whole shift from midnight to 8am without a vehicle using the ferry. Around the ferry we saw lots of evidence of Australian wildlife (we saw pelicans in the water and the tracks of echidnas we recognised because we had seen them walking about at the zoo the day before). This is a totally isolated place with no sign of human habitation apart from the road and the ferry. The ferryman said that he was paid $100 a day (about £35), not an awful lot in a country which has relatively high tax rates.
The picture seems to show the ferry flying the British flag. In fact it was flying the Australian flag (a union Jack with a blue background) but in the dull light it is difficult to see the blue. Not many British ferries fly the British flag.
