We left the Adelaide suburb of Hallet Cove and headed East. Destination Mildura.
Why Mildura? Because it was the right distance away. We drive around 4 hours when we change locations. We find that is optimal for the tired factor. So we looked at a map. And picked Mildura.
As you leave Adelaide, you basically drive through the desert. If you read our previous posts, there have been a number of schemes to convert the desert to productive land. So we passed through a number of winery areas… but mostly
We finally arrived at the Murray River area… and wow. Suddenly everything turned green!
We stopped at Loxton for lunch
We then continued along, and ended up in Mildura. Our hotel had a pool, so we hopped in and relaxed for the evening.
The next day we set out to explore. Rick had found a place that rented Kayaks and provided a guided tour… unfortunately, when we arrived, apparently they USED TO do that… not a soul around.
So on the way there we spotted this:
Rick really enjoyed it! interesting history about the Australian Car manufacturing history. The last car was made in 2017. Now they only import. 😦
From there we headed down to the shore to explore. And ended up at the Art Center… which has a free exhibit! And a historic house. The Rio Vista
The art on display was by W Blamire Young. An English math teacher who came to Australia to teach and ended up painting WATERCOLOUR! This display was made for me!!! Unfortunately no pictures could be taken in the gallery… but pulled this from the internet!
We then went to view the house.
The house was an Interesting historical look at the area. The Chaffey Brothers… who originally came from Brockville Ont. And then moved to California, where they made a name for themselves as irrigation specialists. They then came here, they are known here as “the Americans”. But they were actually Canadians.
The one brother designed the town, and laid it out “like his home town”. There are streets with names like Ontario and Huron
A wonderful inspiring day.
Today… we headed back to the river front for a paddle boat cruise along the Murray
We went through Lock 11. As much as I have lived next to Locks all my life, I have never actually been in a boat going through locks. I’ve seen them in action many times: but this was a different point of view
Some interesting things… the last major flood was 2023
Also, we enjoyed some of the art in the area
And of course, inspired by Blamire Young, and mini painting of the grey gums on the side of the Murray
Our Wicked Walkabout 
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