Blog 19 – Adelaide to Mildura

Time to head from Adelaide as we had a deadline to meet in Mildura on Tuesday Afternoon.  We weren’t in a big hurry as we had a planned stop for the night before heading onto Mildura on Tuesday, thus not a great deal of km’s to be covered.

Firstly we had to take the trailer back to the Showgrounds to pack up the remaining mats.  We had left it to this morning as it would be less busy with traffic in and out.  Pack up didn’t take too long and we were soon on our way.  Getting out of Adelaide seemed to take forever, traffic light after traffic light after another traffic light!  Once out of the “red light” district we enjoyed the view of the Barossa Valley – not hard on the eye at all.  😉😉 We spent the night in a rest area above Truro and the view was pretty good from there as well.

Our overnight camp spot just outside of Truro

Onto Mildura and we glimpsed our first view of the great River Murray or Murray River, depends which state you are in.  Absolutely glorious!  Such an easy drive, vineyards, wine storage vats and the great Murray.  

The view on our drive to Mildura

Our deadline was to drop De Trailer in for a roadworthy.  We had been waiting to be back in Victoria as we want to register here.  We now found our new home for a few days on the banks of the Murray River at Bruce’s Bend.  We were in for a treat, not only could we sit and watch the house boats motor past, skiers and jet skiers but on land we were neighbours to 2 male and 1 female goannas.  The males were competing for her attention and in the end the larger guy won.

We had a few days to occupy and of course chose to do so on our bikes mostly.  Riding in and around the river was awesome.

The weather was awesome as well and we took advantage to collect some firewood, light the fire and have a camp oven dinner.  What a great night under the stars, watching the many planes flying over.

We decided to move camp to next door, as our bus neighbours decided to move on.  This spot was much bigger and allowed us to put the awning out.  It also came with it’s own river swing.  I couldn’t convince Fred to have a go.  😂😂

Finally on Friday, many calls later, we got the results of the roadworthy; bah bah FAIL.  The list of issues was the size of an NBA All Star and they didn’t have any time available to help us fix anything for more than a week.  Unfortunately this wouldn’t work for us as we are due in Traralgon on the 11th for more appointments.  We made the decision to kiss $500 bucks goodbye, pay the bill, grab DeTrailer and hit the road.  This we did on Saturday morning but before leaving, I took advantage to have one more quick ride to an abandoned boat I’d noticed a few days earlier.  I found “Reliance” a beautiful relic which was originally commissioned in 1875.  I checked into her history to find she was originally a barge used for sheep trade on the Murray/Darling and then later converted into a 3 mast schooner used for the salt trade and grain carting, ending her days at Bruce’s Bend.  There she still floats amongst the many and varied house boats and paddle steamers.

We travelled to Harcourt and luckily found a camp spot at “The Oak Forest”, part of the La Lara Ba Guawa Park.  A beautiful spot under the pine trees and conveniently at the beginning of several mountain bike rides.  Arriving on a Saturday the place was packed with families with laughing kids riding bikes, a joy in itself, but what made me happier was to find we could just fit (maybe we were a little bit outside our spot), into the last spot available.  We had only just finished parking when about 4 more groups arrived to find no spots left.  We set up, chatted with the neighbours and settled in for a few days of fun and relaxation.

Stay tuned…….