And tonight we are back in New South Wales!
And more than that, how fickle this all is! So let me speak to that: to
excuse our random behaviour more than most, you need to understand the great
fuzz that is hovering over all of our otherwise sensible travel plans.
We are
keen to set off west to explore Western Australia but are also cognoscente of
the sultry heat of the north during the southern summer months and the fact
that much of the northern reaches are frequently cut off by the rains during
that period. We are also aware that the distance required to cover this
expansive area, through both Western Australia and the Northern Territory, are
not to be sniffed at nor to be duplicated in an irresponsible manner. And then
in the middle of that, we have a family engagement to which we have been summoned
back in New Zealand, initially understood to be in mid-January 2013. Based on
that we committed ourselves to spending Christmas with our oldest daughter and
her family, she being our one particular “child” who cherishes Christmas beyond
our own personal adherence. We subsequently learned that the Special January Occasion is likely to be
celebrated in February to fit with genuinely important considerations, which
would have triggered a later return to New Zealand rather than the commitment
for Christmas. However a commitment is a commitment, and at this stage apart
from that, we are still in the dark as to what date we can expect to return to
recommence our travel. All of this wafting about, totally self-inflicted
because of our wise or unwise sense of obligation, has created Plans A through
to Z. You will be aware that we have abandoned those first considered Plans,
and are now up to about Plan D and more recently, even this morning, we moved
on to Plan M, N, O or P!
Chris was also concerned about the forecasted rain and aware that we
were camped in an area very much at the mercy of the weather. He was also not
too sure how passionately I was about wanting to stay on for the Country Music
Festival. This morning after packing up lunch for an outing, we spoke frankly
about our options, which considered the fact that the area probably did not
have enough to keep us here for too many more days. We decided to uproot and
move on to this camp in Mildura. We were quite surprised to learn of the availability
of a powered site here, however we will be leaving the day before the festival
kicks off.
So we came on through late in the morning, just thirty kilometres or so
through, skirting around through Dareton and Coomealla, past vineyards and
orange orchards where irrigated and through areas not unlike those pasted
through as we had travelled south from Broken Hill away from the river.
Arriving here, we could not believe how canny we were in selecting this camping
ground; it is truly delightful situated right on the banks of the river directly
across from Mildura, which sits in Victoria.
We spent our afternoon across in that state spending money as if we were
suffering from withdrawals: new toilet chemical and refilling with gas from BCF,
sourcing a replacement for the water filter from the Jayco agent, having
printing done at the ever helpful Officeworks, re-provisioning at Coles in the
city centre and purchasing the follow up volumes to that my husband bought me
for my birthday more than a month ago; the infamous Shades of Grey trilogy. And
should you have been waiting for further comments regarding this literary work
since I first mentioned it, I will say just this. It is a bit like Shortland Street; not worthy of artistic
merit, quite ghastly, titillating and you just have to know what happens next.
And that is as much as I will say!
But I should mention before I close how cold it was beside the river
last night; we snuggled up tight in a rather futile attempt to ignore the temperature
of 1.7 degrees Celsius. In Victoria, summer is still a way off! The internet
suggests it may be a barmier 7 degrees overnight here tonight. We shall see.
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