Quality Hotel Grand Mildura

... town, with large shopping centres and lots of shops. Marcus headed off to get a haircut, while I updated my blog.<br><br>Having tea at the RSL Club tonight.<br><br>Tommorrow is a longer ride of about 160kms to Balranald - we will cross into NSW, and our forth state on this ride.<br><br>We hit the big 3,000kms today!! Only just over 1,000 to go - boy, doesn't time fly when your having fun!

After another look at Mad Max's Car and Silverton we headed south through the saltbush to Mildura. We were all very excited when we hit border into Victoria. We set up camp on the banks of the very picturesque Murray River and went into town to see a lock and a paddleboat.

... lunch (we had checked out the famous restaurant, but figured that close to $350 for a meal with the family would be hard to justify). The food was magnificent (aside from the slight problem of Alec's pasta containing chilli, a problem which the staff quickly resolved).<br><br>We walked beside the river (sorry, "the Mighty Murray") and returned to camp for a necessarily light meal and another restful night.<br>

... a slight variation of Collingwoods, going something like, "Good old Werrimul forever". Not really that surprising. I feel the need to put in food highlights from the day which those that were there would understand. These included Dads foam biscuits, killer pythons (especially the blue bits), Cruisers and Rubys million dollar choc buttons that she proceeded to drop all over the car. I seem to ...

... is rather dry). Once it got dark, the nightlife came out, spiders that glisten in the beam of your torch and a scorpion that is larger than life an inch long. Fortunately they stayed out of the caravan and the car. It was a lovely quiet campsite with lots of serenity.

... drove to Mildura on Sunday the 15th and started grape picking the following day. Grape picking is less strenuous, but still tiring, as you are bending and kneeling to find the hidden grapes. It has been good though and we will look for more work when this job finishes on Saturday the 21st. This job has been especially good because it includes a place to park our camper, a hut with a camp kitchen and a hot shower. Happy Trails

And people thought Melbourne was hot well they haven't felt anything. One day in Mildura the temperature got up to forty seven degrees Celsius, we could barely move with the heat, and the other days weren't exactly cool either. This was also around the time of the bushfires near Melbourne and people contacted me to see if I was near. I was actually about five hours away from the nearest one as Mildura is on the border of Victoria and New South Wales ...

... que te lleves un bidon extra de gasolina para que no te pudras en medio de las aridas y secas llanuras.... Mildura, God weet waarom wij hiernaartoe zijn gekomen, origineel is het wel want we zijn de enige toeristen hier. Veel valt er ni te vertellen buiten dat we na honderden dode kangeroes langs de weg eindelijk onze eerste levende marisipulami hebben gezien. Hij was zoals verwacht nogal verlegen maar toch knap.

... straight picking which means just picking everything on the vine and filling buckets. These grapes are either for wine or sultanas. This is easier as you pick everything but you need to be quite quick as the buckets are usually only paid at 68cents each! I did manage to get an hourly paid job, picking grapes, cleaning off only the squashy ones, not all the bad ones and filling big boxes, but after a week or so I was fired for not being fast ...

... mall! Natties well pleased with this one! Its not a very big site but has a great kitchen and lounge and wireless internet so we book for 2 nights. Camping again! The tent goes straight up but its getting very hot again - so the girls leave jim in peace and go check out the shops! Two hours later.... Theres even a wendys icecream counter just across the road so jim gets his favourite as a takeout / peace offering- moccachino! The girls go ...