We spent a whole week in Mildura! Highlights include:
- Friday: Michael’s Birthday. Maria cooked up a storm for both lunch and dinner. We rolled out of the house that night.
- Saturday: Trip to GolGol to check our alternate accommodations for a possible Christmas visit. A caravan park will be too crowded, so Maria suggested we stay out the back of the house they own in GolGol).
- Monday: Trip to Robinvale to stock up on some biodynamic wine we both like.
- The Mexican Standoff between Leo and M&M’s cat. Leo didn’t take too kindly to their cat – growling and barking whenever he saw her. The cat didn’t help matters by chasing after Leo whenever they were both in the back yard. Both a bit territorial I think but made for some good comedy for us.
- The rest of the time, we spent time with Michael and Maria, or relaxing in the caravan park.
During the week, I discovered there was a Telstra Air hotspot right outside the caravan park. Because we are with Telstra for our home Internet, we are able to get free access to data via the Air hotspot until early next year. So I hooked up our Caravan Internet to their wifi and voila! Netflix!
We were also treated to a parade of fellow dog owners staying beside us. There is a real ebb and flow in a caravan park. It fills up over the weekend, almost empties on Mon/Tue and starts to fill again Wed/Thu. Over our stay, we had 4 different caravans next to us, all with dogs. All lovely people from all around the country.
Other than breakfast, we only had two other meals in the caravan. The big test of the kitchen will come next week in SA.
Teresa coped really well, which is why we stayed the extra time. After the first day, she thought she might be able to continue to South Australia. After the second day, she was even more sure. So the third day we extended our booking in Mildura and made preparations for the next leg.
Our next stop is the Barossa Valley, so we spent some time researching possible caravan parks. We started looking around Nurioopta or Tanunda but David found a lovely park in Williamstown with a 5 star rating on Wikicamps (with glowing reviews) and a Telstra Air hotspot right out front. The description mentions pine trees, which we know Teresa can have issues with, so we booked for one night and decided to play it by ear.
After one last night of delicious home cooked food, we thanked M&M profusely and went to sleep Wed night prepared to wake up early and pack the caravan for the next leg of our adventure.