It wasn’t really too mouldy in Mildura but if it had have been wetter perhaps. We stayed in a park that had a waterplay area so the kids were ok with it. Even though it wasn’t waterplay weather for anyone with any sense. Not that it was bad. We had lovely sunny days and chilly nights. Mildura is a nice enough place and there are more orange and grape farms than you can throw a fruity wine bottle at. The Murray is very impressive here but as we found out, it is only running because of the thirteen locks along the river. In it’s natural state it runs dry during dry times.

Our riverboat master told us that. That was our big achievement while we were there– a two hour cruise. The Minnow went on a three hour cruise never to return, but there was such dramas for us. We did get to use lock 11 which was our first ever river lock experience. The paddle steamer was powered by an original steam engine. When we first got aboard I said to Monja ‘look at all that haze about—what’s going on?’ Huh.. I look up and all the ’haze’ was the smoke from the funnel. They were burning river gum to get the steam up. 

One interesting fact we learned was that the Murray actually belongs to New South Wales and the border runs in parallel with the southern side of the bank two chains in. No wonder those Victorians are still fuming.

On the road along to Mildura, or it might’ve been on the way to Hay, I got to tick off another one of my ‘really want to see Aussie animals list’. As we drove we saw two huge wedge tailed eagles just to the side of the road, presumably snacking on some road kill. Amazing sight, sorry no photos.