Did I mention things were changing , been a hell of a month , doctors appointments , scans , more scans , specialist appointments and more scans . One angiogram in Sydney later , and I'm good to go - got a better report than 1st thought , just have to get cholesterol & blood pressure down .
So after that little hiccup , we're off - did I mention the little invasion happening as well - diesel prices climbing , just as we go to drive 4,000 kilometres !! Topping up with fuel before we leave Moss Vale , we made it to Yass before we topped up again - figured we'd keep the tank as full as we could . Anyway we stopped for a couple of days at Wagga Showgrounds - time for some food shopping , oh yeah , the now obligatory visit to the chemist to pick up some drugs - prescription variety of course 😉 and to top up with fuel again . Saw a cheaper service station to fill up at and thought we'll do that tomorrow - hmmm price went up 10c a litre overnight to $2.29 - lesson learnt !! The chemist also suggested I have a shingles vaccination , and booked me in for that . Certainly wasn't my favourite , feeling like crap for the next 24hours or so .
Leaving Wagga , we stop for fuel again at Narrandera & Hay , before having a night at a free camp at Balranald . Still plenty of trucks and caravans on the road . Next day we headed to Mildura for a couple of days to use up food before going through Quarantine at Renmark . Time to unhitch the van and have a little look around Mildura . The Murray River figures highly here , for irrigation and house boats . Here's a few of the latter .
The river is flanked by thousands of Red Gums
There's also a few paddle steamers going up & down the river doing tourist runs .
This is an old pump station building with murals of the river
This old red gum is only dead on one half , still living on the other - the trunk is about 2m wide .
Seems the main crop around here is grapes , both table and wine varieties and there are 1,000's of acres of them . Talking to the caravan park owner , and she said the recent rains had caused a lot of the grapes to split , and the watermelons were ruined as well on her brothers property , so goodness knows how many other farmers had the same problems with the storms .
Next day we went down to Red Cliffs , beside the Murray River , on the way we stopped at Bruces Bend to check out campsites and also a house boat hire & storage area .
The hull and some timber are all that remains of an old barge or paddle steamer nearby .
The campsites would be good , but equally bad if you got caught up in the rain , the ground is just fine river bank silt and turns to crap with the addition of some water . A camper I talked to had been here for 8 weeks , and relayed some stories of how people were getting bogged all over the place - he chose to stick it out , not sure why , but he did .
Further down the road & river , we found Red Cliffs - an area beside the river with reddish cliffs and also a raised lookout .
Houseboats were chugging up & down , with the odd fishing boat as well .
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