Mildura On the Murray

We've ventured to the north western corner of Victoria - to Mildura.  We're staying in Gol Gol at the River Gardens Tourist Park on the NSW side of the mighty Murray River for 5 days exploring the area, and there's plenty to see.  Our main reason for visiting Mildura is to get another spare tyre for the car before we venture into the outback.  Once again we've had trouble getting a tyre (we've bought a second spare wheel in Canberra) and the Bridgestone dealer in Mildura was able to get one for us.  We did have some excitement just after we arrived as our battery charger died.  The excellent customer service from the Projecta agent in Melbourne meant we had a new charger in 24 hours, replaced under warranty.  Luckily we were hooked up to mains power.

We took a day trip to Wentworth, about 35km north in NSW, the oldest town in the area (50 years older than Mildura) and we found some real gems.  Wentworth is where the Darling and Murray Rivers meet.  

The levee banks have had "the treatment" from the gardener.  One side has had the artistic  treatment with coloured barks so that the house roofs on the opposite side of the road line up to reflect the houses - even the telegraph pole and trees line up.  We stood at the appointed place to take the obligatory photo.  Further along the bank, hedges are trimmed to read "Wentworth" and also to show a Ferguson tractor.

A few kms from town is the Perry Sandhills.  This expanse of red sand dunes covers about 400 acres and it has been used in many films.  Some people were "sand surfing" down the fine red sand dunes.  The "God Tree" has its trunk buried in the sand and you can walk in the crown of the tree.

The Inland Botanic Gardens are near Mildura.  The plants are grouped geographically with Australian, African, European, Asian and New Zealand areas.  Even though it's winter there are some flowers around.  The formal rose garden would be very pretty when the roses are in bloom.  

There's a rest area with the ceiling decorated in seed pods.  The Wow Tree is a mallee gum with the underground lignotuber estimated to be 2,500 years old.  The above ground parts of the tree are about 700 years old.

Near the cafe is a sculpture of an emu and chicks.  There is also a bush church complete with pews, pulpit, lectern and cross.

Orange World is one of the local attractions and we spent a pleasant hour being entertained by Mario as he drove us around his 50 acre, 2000 tree citrus orchard.  The mandarines are grafted onto orange tree rootstock.  We had fresh orange juice and freshly picked mandarines and oranges.  Only 4 pickers are used to pick all of the fruit on this farm - pretty hard work we reckon.

From Mildura we are heading off into the bush for a couple of weeks.  We'll spend a few days at Lake Mungo in the Willandra Lakes World Heritage Area, then travel north to the Menindee Lakes and Kinchega National Park before we arrive at Broken Hill.  We'll be relying on our satellite phone until we get to Broken Hill.