Thursday 30 th June

 We had an uneventful and short drive (150km.) to our next

stop at Mildura/Buronga. On the way we had discussed the possibility of Rob

playing golf and me having a kayak when we arrived. We settled in to a lovely

park, right on the river. We had stayed here before and it is really picturesque.

We couldn’t believe the low cost of a powered site ($28). Apparently it is a

Winter special and considering it is the Victorian school holidays we thought

this was pretty good. I’m sure it will be much more in Queensland! I didn’t get

to kayak as the authorities have had to open the weir and let out a lot of water

so the river level is quite low. This is due to the fact that a 93 year old man on a

gofer had gone into the river and they were trying to find him. Yuk. I decided it

wouldn’t be a good idea to go into the water. Instead we did some exploring of

Mildura, in particular the old Mildura station, a recreation of the station that

was once here and also some of the Chaffey brothers (famous for bringing

irrigation to Australia) buildings, pumps, family graves etc.

Wednesday 29 th June

  As we are not in any particular hurry, we decided to stay

an extra night in Renmark. We drove to Berri, went for a lovely walk along the

river-front, visited a memorial to Jimmy James, the Indigenous tracker,

admired the beautiful memorial to all veterans from post WW 11 to today and

finally stopped at a very busy and funky café on the riverfront for coffee. From

here we drove out to the Murray River National Park, before returning to the

caravan for lunch. Following lunch I went for a little wander around the old

section of the Renmark Cemetery to find a few relatives!

Tuesday 28 th June

Our first stop after leaving home was the weigh bridge at Cavan. Rob is just a little pedantic about ensuring we (the caravan and vehicle) are not over weight. Anyway after taking several measurements all was good and he was pleased with the numbers. We stopped at Truro for a visit to the bakery. With coffee, Cornish pasty and a finger bun, we left very satisfied…… the weight of the vehicle and van may not be a problem but if we keep this up, Rob and I could have a problem! Leaving Truro, we kept hearing a call over the UHF radio coming from a truck, “8 metres, pull over”. It was becoming clearer which meant we were getting closer to the 8 metre wide load on a truck. We heard that the driver was pulling off the road at a service station at Blanchetown. This was probably in preparation to cross over the bridge which would need the bridge closed for the crossing of the load. We drove past it and saw it was a house being transported. Glad we were able to pass it so easily. We arrived at Renmark, set up, did a little shopping and then late in the afternoon headed to the Renmark Club for a drink. We had heard that there was a light display (Illumination) on the river and in the surrounding parks so as darkness fell we went for a walk to see it. I was impressed with the Aboriginal story and the illumination on the river but Rob was a little underwhelmed. Can I say that we have had beautiful weather but the clear skies have meant that Renmark at night is the coldest place in South Australia? Apparently it will get down to -3! Glad we have power and the heater will be up and running tonight. (I said to Rob that I will only write short entries in on the blog this time….but clearly this hasn’t happened. 

Not long now

Not long now, we will be on the road by the end of June.