LEAVING MIRROOL

6TH MAY, TUESDAY

Late departure from Mirrool, lovely stop, very clean toilets, fantastic hot showers and very friendly people from the community who look after the rest area.  Drove through Ardlethan, Yenda and on our way to Griffith.  We drove up and down the longest shopping strip, then headed out to Darlington Point.  This town has grown since last I drove through, about 24 years ago.  Lunched at a nice park, then saddles up for the straight drive to Hay.  Things have changed, where once there was sheep properties, there is now cotton.  Miles and miles of cotton as far as the eye could see.  As ever, Hay was a friendly stopover for us.  My niece Susan and her partner Dirk welcomed us into their home for a lovely cooked meal and a comfortable bed for the night.  It's never long enough when I visit Susan, but we had to keep going, heading west towards Mildura.  One of the highlights of our visit was catching up with Philippa (Susan's daughter) and her adorable little boy, Charlie.

Drying my eyes, we headed out to Balranald..    Such a pretty town on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River.  We found a top spot on a river bend for lunch, where my faithful camera caught some great shots.  Onwards towards Euston and Mildura.  The country side changed from grain farmers to vineyards and citrus orchards.  Mildura is a very large town on the banks of the mighty Murray River, lots and lots of very large boats everywhere.  The overnite stay was on the banks of the Murray on Merbein Commons, it can be a popular spot, thank goodness it was quiet for us, with just a few travellers spread over a large area.

7TH MAY, WEDNESDAY
\The next stage of our trip was straight across to Renmark in South Australia, again on the Murray with the usual collection of huge boats lined up and down the shore in both directions.  We were amazed by the huge number of grape vines we saw.  In places the vineyards started beside the road and went on and on in all directions,and over the horizon.  Keeping company with the grapes was, of course, citrus orchards and the largest orchard of almond trees.  We wondered who eats all these almonds.

Darling River at Renmark

Beautiful stone building at Burra

Miners accommodation (Paxton Square) at Burra
these buildings were on all four sides of a large block

Open cut copper mine at Burra

Ferry across Darling River at Morgan

Grapes, grapes and more grapes as far as the eye can see

Prickly Pear in bloom

Old church in Peterborough

One of the many, many ruins we have seen on our travels.
Stone built, no mortar, they are everywhere, crumbling away.

If you look really hard you will find Don standing under the wind blade
This blade is 44 metres long and the pylon is 80 metres tall.
We lost count of wind mills at Hallett Hills Wind Farm, S.A.