1. – 8. May

Finally it was time to leave Dubbo behind. We drove via Griffith to Mildura. We camped two nights in Griffith. This camp area is the main reserve from Griffith as well and I guess they like to teach their children how deer and donkeys look like – there are little fenced areas with the animals in. Keep that in mind and you know how we woke up  in the morning. - The donkey took over the rooster part and was responsible for waking everybody up in the morning.   

We spent some nights in Mildura enjoying the gym, the Murray River and bought new bigger tyres. When we bought our first set of all terrain tyres in the size 225/65R17, the selection was pretty limited. Only 3 different tyres were available. We bought Pirelli ATR, which are reinforced road tyres. Excellent on the road but wear  down ‘pretty fast’ offroad (we used them for 30000km). At Midur a (1.5 years later)  it was much better and we decided to go for wider tyres 235/65R17. The bigger size allowed us to choose from a bigger pole of brands. We narrowed it down to Pirelli AT, Bridgestone Dueller 694 XL and Cooper AT tyres. All of them are well known tyres and we ended up with the Bridgestone ones. There was a special on, $235 for each tyre instead $295. - All tyres cost $295 when not on special. – We choose wider tyres to get better performance on sand, which would become very important in a few weeks!

Unfortunately we didn’t see the paddle steamer “Ruby” in Wentworth as it was in the shed to be restored. But we saw several house boats on the Murray and Darling River. Again we were out of luck and no boat went on the Murray River into South Australia so the weir did not open while we were visiting. Anyway we enjoyed the view where the rivers joined and stood right in the middle of the two rivers. This was possible because there is a nice walk going up to the point where the two river become one.

Just 5km west of Wentworth are the Perry Hills Sand dunes an area in complete contrast to the rest. Suddenly the big sand dunes appear and you could think you’re in the desert. You can only drive around and walk up the dunes which we did. We played a little bit and let some Paddy Melons roll down the dunes. But we had to be careful not to open one of them as they are poisonous. The Paddy Melon is also known as Camel Melon. We saw so many of them and not only in this area, a lot of roads are lined with them. – As soon as you get some rain out here, these melons grow out of the ground like a ‘pest’.

Cheers, Tom and Anja