Jetty Tour Day 29 - Mildura (Vic) to Goolgowi

Not since Broken Hill have we had a day with no jetty in sight. In fact, for much of today, nothing was in sight because the flatness of the country made it impossible to see anything in detail. It could be seen but it just looked a long way away.

Our last day on daylight saving time and another impossibly late sunrise. I've always been pro daylight saving but keeping it going into April is a bit silly when sunrise is 7:47am. Regardless, we were on the road by 8:15.

First stop was Balranald for morning tea. Nothing flash but it wet the whistle. While I caught up on so correspondence, Sue went for a walk and found an enthusiastic bunch of blokes who run a men's shed. Their prized possessions are life-sized replicas of the planes of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith: the Southern Cross and the Lady Southern Cross. The original Southern Cross is on display at Brisbane Airport and the only part of the Lady Southern Cross which remains is a wheel which is held by the Powerhouse Mouse in Sydney. The rest in the sea of Burma.

Then out we went onto the Hay Plain and its unrelenting flatness. We had a second close call for the day when an oncoming truck driver made an error of judgment in overtaking and our windscreen became full of truck until I moved off to the left with our tyres rumbling in the gravel. An earlier version of the same event happened not long after we had started from Mildura.

Lunch was in the conveniently placed RV parking lot in the heart of Hay, on the site of the former Caledonian Hotel. Remnants from the Hay Mardi Gras were still on the street from the previous weekend.

The last leg of the day was driven by Sue - her first drive of the tour. We arrived in Goolgowi to a council owned caravan park. Bit of an exaggeration: a flat, grassed area of land away from the main roads that intersect at Goolgowi, which has a newish amenities block, power and water. You pay and pick you key up to the amenities block at the RSL club. Cheap as chips, very tidy, very pleasant. We sampled the crowds at the RSL (dead, lest we forget) and the Royal Mail Hotel (altogether to lively). At the Royal, Daryl Braithwaite was singing about horses, Sue was drinking ancient red wine and we happened to be there when ten blokes in their twenties emerged from a minibus in Hawaiian shirts and emptying a couple of dozen stubbies into the bin outside before singing their way inside. We left discretely in case someone played Horses again.

Click the camera to see today's photos

Another long drive tomorrow. This time Dubbo and a day off to follow. Tamworth on Tuesday.

Not much in the way of photos today.

Hair Cut & The Hay Plain

Murray NP to Hay - Renmark(SA). Mildura(Vic), BaJranald (Sturt Highway) 471 kms

Sue decided it was time to hit the trail, so our intended three night stay was cut to only one. My disquietude had been the reason for her insistence we move on. She reminded me that when I was
bored, I was at my most unpleasant, so moving on made sense in the context of the range of behaviours she was prepared to accept!

As the last few weeks of the trip had unfolded, I had become increasingly keen to return home. The
relaxation and sights we had seen - not to mention the benefits we had derived as a family - had been fantastic, but there comes a point when enough is enough. For me, this had started to nag away at me at Flinders Ranges, but since Adelaide, the feeling of wanting to head for home had intensified.

Our short time in Victoria consisted of about two hours after crossing the border on our eastward route to our lunchtime destination, Mildura.

It had been further decided that the mop of hair which was now residing on my head and gradually
claiming my neck and shoulders, would have to go. Given I was soon to meet up with my sisters, it would not do to look like a refugee from the sixties, so it was the clippers for me. Apart from inane conversation, the ordeal was relatively painless and within thirty minutes I emerged with washed, cut and blow waved hair for only $11.

Lunch was taken by the Murray River, in a delightful parkland setting which extended for quite a long way on the Victorian side of the watery border. The day being mild in temperature, we enjoyed our sandwiches and tea under the shade of the spreading eucalypts, whilst watching the Mildura Croquet Club go through their paces. It was an exciting match and one which would be sure to bring the crowds back!

Across the river, we returned to our home state after seventy seven days absence and the prize was a free ice cream for Sue when we filled with petrol - part of a promotion being conducted by the particular Caltex we called at.

After following a south west heading for 80kms as far as Euston, we picked up a general easterly direction for the remainder of the afternoon and returned to the flat, unending plains we had first experienced in Queensland, west of Longreach. The vegetation was a little more exciting here, but the profile of the land remained much the same and there was little to relieve the boredom for over 200kms into Hay.

Impending rain caused us to avoid canvas and we made the decision to use our funds for comfort by staying in a cabin. A surplus, created by judicious management gave us the flexibility to enjoy a few extravagances in the last week of our trip and a solid roof away from the damp was one of these.