Location: ///chauffeur.involves.courier

Not far up the road, we pulled into the tiny townlet of Robinvale. A very tidy but not-a-whole-lot-to-see, sort of town that nevertheless offered a shady station where we could dump Ripley’s waste, refill her drinking water and grab a fresh coffee. Perfect.

We struck up a conversation with the town mayor. She was filming for a local tourism promotion and I ended up making a tiny cameo: walking up the main street, the cool, slightly mysterious, out of town dude and his dog check out the sights.

Most of the day was spent scoping out Mildura, a major regional city sitting on the banks of the Murray river about 542 kms northwest of Melbourne. It was remarkable to see such a large and vibrant town spring sudden out of the semi-desert emptiness of the last few days. The reason for it’s success soon became evident as we read off the street names…Orange, Lemon, Lime, Valencia, Avocado, Cherry, Muscat, Vineyard, Olive… Walnut.

We walked around town for a bit before settling down for a rest on the banks of the Murray.

Tonight we are camped In a small van park next to lake Cullulleraine. Yes that’s a Cull with two ‘ull’s’.

The park is cheap ($23 AUD for tonight) providing basic amenities. However, our site is under a small stand of shade trees, with a lake view, and the ground is carpeted with soft lush grass. We are on the cusp of a long hot weekend, the park has quickly filled with groups of families and friends all settling in for a good weekend.