Adelaide - Mildura

We woke up with a tinge of sadness the last morning at Darryl's as we have to make our way on the long journey home. Brett made the bold decision to sample some of Darryl's morning cook-up, the microwaved rolled oats with honey and dried cranberries. It was a thumbs up from Brett.

Darryl led us out of town, and we headed for the hills, Adelaide Hills, that is, in particular, Aldgate, where his mother and father reside in a care facility. Brett was pretty excited because this couple played a fairly prominent role in his formative years. We were very happy to see both in good health. Brett calculated that the last time he saw Mr & Mrs Kennedy was over 45 yrs ago. The visit was very lovely, but too short, they were off to lunch.

We decided to do the same, so we adjourned to the Stirling Hotel for our farewell luncheon. From here, we parted ways with Darryl, who headed home, whilst we headed kind of north east towards and then through Murray Bridge.

From here, we took the road towards Loxton, the Riverland district of SA. Unfortunately, we were unaware that this is one long boring road with just as many travellers' facilities as the Birdsville Track. There were a number of 'towns' listed on our map, but they turned out to be mere former rail siding ghost towns. Luckily, we still had our emergency spare fuel, so after a roadside pit stop/tea break, we were able to get to Loxton to fill the tank.

Things got more interesting after that as we headed to Berri, then a quick diversion to Glossop where, many years ago, Jen visited her good friend, Jenny, who used to reside there.

Back through Berri, we passed the very sad Big Orange. A derelict tourist attraction. Then it was through Renmark, our target Mildura still well over 100km away. We snuggled behind a very mobile semi-trailer, using it as a potential wildlife buffer in the twilight to dark hours before making it to Mildura, on the Murray.

We're staying at the Riverside Motel, which is nowhere near the river, ironically, but quite nice nonetheless.Read more