30 Jan 10 – Mildura / Wentworth

By Craig: Mildura was the first opportunity to stay longer than 2 or 3 days in any one place which should have been an opportunity to rest and kick back all the time. Although the tinny did go out onto the Murray, and Sam had an opportunity to hone his fishing skills unfortunately our stay at Mildura signified the holiday as such had come to an end and real life (school for Sam) was starting.
Ths meant setting up school each morning, attempting to maintain a regimented routine to the day, added pressues to our relaxation.

We had a great trip to Wentworth starting at the information centre where we met a local lady who had a deep passion for the Darling River and could tell a story or two. We were sent off in the right direction and ended up visiting Perry Sandhills
(great red sand dunes, often used as a venue for outdoor concerts)and the amazing rivergums buried deep in sand, defying the natural need for river locations. In fact, Craig was pictured beside one of the big river gums which had 10-15m of tree buried under the sand.
We also visited the junction of the two mighty rivers, the Darling and the Murray and visited Lock number 10 hoping to see both the fish ladder and the lock in action. Unfortunately there were no tours of the lock and no passing boats at the time of our visit (bummer).



By Lou: We ended up staying near Mildura for 6 nights but apart from a lovely day drive to Wentworth and Samuel's first day of school, I can’t tell you that we did anything of significance other than sorted our differences and rested. Sam befriended a 9 year old Sean one day and a 10 year old Sean the next. To be sure, to be sure. We were camping on the NSW side of the Murray at Buronga Riverside Caravan Park and I can highly recommend it for clean toilets and showers with piped music. We were right on the river’s edge and enjoyed watching a pair of waterhens tend to 2 eggs in the nest, with one of the hens never leaving the nest.
Also enjoyed: regular visits from a family of ducks, paddle steamers hooting as they arrived and departed from the jetty across the way, rowers paddling to the gong of a drum and plenty of swimmers criss-crossing the river.