Day 69 – Clare to Mildura

My last blog entry today, as we are now back in Victoria, although still a bit more than five hours  drive and a few days from home. This morning we packed up the caravan for the last time, and headed back up through the rolling hills filled with various lush green cereal crops and the radiant yellow canola, to the historical town of Burra.

 

Burra is a beautiful old town, complete with lovely old stone buildings, and a lot of Cornish mining history. We stopped for a short wander down the street, enjoying the spring sunshine on this cold day.

We followed the Goyder Highway, across to the tiny town of Monash, famous for its kid’s adventure park. We weren’t disappointed – it is one of the best free kids parks we have ever encountered, and we had to drag the kids (and Brendan) away. From giant swings, to a flying fox, long slide, obstacle course, wooden maze, and lots of other things to give them a good run around and wear them out before the next part of the journey homeward bound.

 

 

After a quick visit to the chocolate shop across the road, it was back in the car and then we stopped on the outskirts of the Murray River town of Renmark at the Almond factory. This was a huge factory, with a small outlet shop where we tried out some different types of almonds – smoked, salt & vinegar, tamari, roasted, etc. Yum. Then after a look around the busy, large town of Renmark, we headed back across the SA / Victoria border (dumping our fruit and veges in the quarantine bins) and changed our clocks (again!) half an hour forward. At around five pm (after another big days travelling) we arrived at our good friends the Stewart family in Mildura, and it was lovely to sit down to a home cooked meal, and some friendly conversation.

So that’s it for my travel blog for now, as we now have a couple of nights in Mildura, then two nights on the way home in Swan Hill at my sister Janeece’s house. Then it’s back to Sunbury, to stay in a friend’s granny flat at a farm between Sunbury & Riddells Creek for the next few months while our new house is completed.

So after travelling more than 20,000kms, spending over 69 days on the road, staying at numerous caravan parks, and experiencing many sights, sounds and smells all around our beautiful country, what is the verdict?  We would do it all again in a heartbeat!  In fact, we are already planning what we would like to do on the next trip around.

We may be a bit travel weary right now, and after spending 24/7 with the kids in a small box for 10 weeks, we may be glad to have our own personal space for a while, but we are hopefully more tolerant of each other, and after enjoying a family meal out at a restaurant to celebrate the end of our journey, we enjoyed listening to the kids favourite things on the trip.

Lily especially enjoyed the long and difficult (but very rewarding), gorge bushwalks at El Questro cattle station (Kimberley, NT) and Mt Tom Price (Pilbara WA). She is a little powerhouse that just keeps going, determined to do anything her big brother can. She also loved seeing (and holding) the crocodiles in Darwin and seeing the dolphins and dugongs (on a boat trip) at Monkey Mia. Sam was very taken with the snorkelling at Ningaloo reef on the Coral Coast in WA, and the boat trip and swim in the middle of the enormous Lake Argyle.

Lily summed it up nicely when asked which was her very favourite experience of the trip. “Well, as much as I liked all the yummy food we tried, and the walks, and the animals we saw, the best thing about the whole trip was that Sam and I  became very good friends!”   And you can’t ask for better than that!

Thanks so much for following along, I’ve enjoyed your company and your comments. Until next time… J

Michelle