Wednesday, 2 April 2008

Up to Mildura: back to the warmth!

Our longest day of driving so far in Australia saw us cover over 400km north from the Grampians to the city of Mildura, at the very edge of Victoria state on the banks of the mighty Murray River and the border with New South Wales. I say 'mighty' as that's what the locals say - in truth it's not that wide here and controlled by locks and weirs, so actually pretty languid. This also disguises the fact that the Murray region is in a state of severe drought. But hey, the old paddle steamers doing the rounds of tourist cruises round these parts are a pretty enough sight...

P1000841

The drive north was interesting for its sheer nothingness. Vast plains of parched and barren farming country gave way only occasionally to tiny villages consisting of a grain silo, a railway siding, and a couple of houses. The slogans of these villages, marked on the signs welcoming the motorists speeding through, got duller and less imaginative as the roads wore north... 'centre of the wheat belt' or simply 'barley country' were both seen more than once. We stopped for rest breaks and to change drivers at the towns of Warracknabeal and Ouyen. On an Autumn Sunday, with everything closed, this was long enough. There is no real Outback inside the state of Victoria but this drive was certainly enough to give us a sense of what to expect beyond Mildura.

Mildura is the biggest place for hundreds of kilometres in any direction: the city boundary is actually over a hundred kilometres out, although the population of the whole region is only about 50,000. Reminding us a little of Mendoza in Argentina, irrigation from the Murray supports citrus farming and viticulture, helped along by the warm climate - yes, we are back in shorts! What a relief after shivering our proverbials off further south. We ended up staying three nights in Mildura, which was longer than expected, as we needed some work done on the van (poor Tara!). However this we did not really mind, as although Mildura is probably not Australia's most exciting city, the locals are friendly (almost everyone has an Italian surname, which probably helps to explain the wine business around here), the campsites are amenable - even providing wireless internet (so explaining the fact that this blog has been updated more quickly than in the past...) and the weather is fab. Evidently autumn is a good time to be here - in summer the place is stifling apparently.

Robin

We are now looking forward to our trip north to Broken Hill. The tourist information pamphlets are filled with photography of beautiful scenery, typical to the 'outback.'  Yes, we are officially going 'outback', as confirmed by the mechanic at the garage. After the usual g'day and 'how you going?' (to which you reply 'fine thanks, how you doing?' he imparted the following wisdom: "Watch out for 'roos. About 150k's from here (Mildura) and you need to take it easy" or word to that effect. "So that's real outback then?" we asked, "yep" was the reply. 

Hannah

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