Mildura to Wipena Pound - Flinders Rangers S.A (Monday 29th March 2010)

Alarm went off at 6am. We wanted to get on the road early. We packed up the camp trailer in the dark and the rain. What an initiation!

We were on the road and off to Wilpena Pound by 7.30 am.

Just over the border into South Australia is the Yamba Fruit Fly inspection Station were we handed over our weeks supply of fruit and vegies!. The only thing we could keep were the carrots.

NOT HAPPY JAN. After that shock to the system we decided to stop in Paringa and have some breakfast. The girls had some happy snaps taken infront of a huge tree root and 'The Funny Dunny'.

In between listening to Harry Potter (audio book) we tuned into ABC radio station and realized that we needed to turn our clocks back half an hour.

While Pete fueled up, the girls and I had a look around the historic town of Burra, before stopping for lunch at Peterborough where we opened up the camp trailer to dry it out a bit. At Orooroo we restocked our supply of fruit and vegies and finally after a bit more driving rolled into Wilpena Pound about 4.30pm.

Here we met fellow Melbournians (from East Hawthorn). It's true when they say everyone talks to everyone.

The girls were taken by the kangaroos that come right up to you at your camp ground. They're so cute or are they?

In the middle of the night I am woken by crunching and munching outside our tent. What is that? I wake Pete. We unzip the tent door to be faced with one fearless kangaroo eating the cardboard box that our hot plate is packed in! Then more munching. Another kangaroo is sifting through the bag of rubbish we'd left out! A little tidying up then back to bed for a great nights sleep in heaven. This place is great.

Melbourne to Mildura Sunday 28th March 2010

All week leading up to our holiday it was late nights with early starts and the morning of Sunday 28th was no different. It went like this. Grace up at 6.30am. Girls up at 6.38am. Pete strolls in at 7am! As soon as Elizabeth's eye's opened she began to talk....and talk....and talk. It was all too exciting she didn't know where to begin telling me all that was going on in her head.

The morning progressed with us all starting calm and collected and by the end we were all feeling the pressure of trying to get out the door at a reasonable hour and where on earth were we going to put all the bags etc lining the hallway. The trailer was already full!. So much for packing lightly. Pete doesn't know why women don't understand the concept of packing lightly. Do we always have to bring everything bar the kitchen sink?

10am on the road.

Pete wouldn't let me video tape him driving off past our house, he said it was toooo 'woggy' and just couldn't allow me to do it. So I've only got a snap shot of him backing out the drive. Oh well it was worth a try.

We travelled up the Calder stopping at a few places along the way. Pete made the mistake of pointing out a beautiful old house (Tivey house) off a side street in Inglewood and I stood there taking way too many photo's of it. Pete told me to "get in the car" it was time to keep going. There were plenty of treasure's I'd love to have purchased in antique shops, but that was never going to happen.

As we got closer to Mildura it started to rain. I rang the caravan park we were staying at for directions and wrote them down carefully. After several wrong turns and U turns we rolled into the park at 5.30pm. The mood in the car wasn't great! As the rain poured down we set up the camp trailer and the girls sat in the car. Once that was done we headed into town for yep you guessed it, McDonalds. Even in Mildura not alot was open on a Sunday.

We were all in bed by 8.30pm. It rained ALL night!.