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Thursday, 27 April 2017

Day 120 - Thursday 27 April - From Victoria to South Australia


Day 120
Wednesday
27 April 2017
Echuca –Kerang – Lake Boga – Sea Lake – Patchewollock – Walpeup – Pinnaroo SA- Lameroo – Tailem Bend – Murray Bridge (Camps 8 SA #65)

Seems like I am saying that was a long and unexpected day a little lately. With the van packed yesterday Paul was eager to get on the road and after spending some time reading he was off to the showers. I attempted to access the net yet again, but was to no avail. Bugger Bugger Poo Bum! I continued to read but got the guilts, so jumped out and dressed just as Paul returned.
We had breakfast, I showered and by the time I returned we were ready to pull out. It was a gloriously blue day in Echuca today, though the air was still cool. I had picked out a camp spot from Camps 8 yesterday about 3and a half hours away and we began following the GPS directions.
The first major town we arrived at was Kerang, we stopped to fill up the Winnie but stayed no longer, eager to keep moving. Our journey took us on to lake country and the towns Lake Boga and Sea Lake. Through Lake Boga, the lakes were visible only meters from the road and sparkled like diamonds on an expensive dress ring. There were many caravan parks lining the shores, with water sports and fishing obviously popular in these parts. It did however, seem quiet and if we weren’t in a hurry to get on with our journey, a day or two by the shores would be quite serene.
We did stop briefly at Sea Lake for a stretch of the legs, before climbing back in the front and motoring ahead. Our camp destination was just out of the town Ouyen at Walpeup. The drive took us through plenty of dry farming land, there wasn’t much out except for the expanse of farm after farm, paddock after paddock. As the GPS is always set to fastest route, we often skip off main highways travelling down B and C roads, much of these roads today were single lane, bitumen but for the majority of time were in good condition and apart from the wind was fairly easy to drive.
We arrived at Walpeup at 1.30pm,after skirting the town Patchewollock, a place we visited in mid March to check out the painted silo and as we drove the outskirts we could see the silo looming proudly in the distance. There were a few other vans at this RV stop, one with power, shower and toilet. We had our lunch then took out the maps. Originally we were going to stop here, take the car to Mildura and hour north and have a look around, but Paul was happy and eager to push on further down the road. We revisited Camps 8, noted there were plenty of stops in our direction and made the decision to press on.
The landscape didn’t alter a great deal, though the skies were now ominously clouded over and we wondered if we might see a bit of rain. We passed the border into South Australia at 2.30, now 2pm. Border control confiscated our tomatoes and capsicum, something we had completely forgotten would occur. We then drove into the town of Pinnaroo, stopped for fuel and changed the GPS to Tailem Bend a spot we visited in February.
We drove past a number of RV stops, some busier than others, but still we persisted with the drive. We passed through Lameroo and saw the sign signalling Tailem Bend, not much further, it was then that Paul decided we may as well head on to Murray Bridge showgrounds, where we had parked up for a few days in February, it was after all only a further 20min.
By 4.45pm we had pulled into the showgrounds, found a place to pull into amongst the crowd and stopped! Paul organised the power, while I set up, glad to have made it and ready to unwind.  We went for a walk around the grounds, it had been a super low step count day today and we needed to burn off some energy.
Once back at the van, we sorted dinner, paid the caretaker his $10 and pulled up the shutters. I had been cold for most of the day, but cooking dinner soon warmed up the van and had me peeling off the layers. We sat and ate our meal before entering “quiet time”, though it wasn’t particularly quiet as the speedway was in full rev.

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