Today is the day the world and luxury as I know it will all change!
Back on the road 10am and on the way to Woomelang, lascelles, Turriff - a one house town, speed with two service stations, Tempy another very small town but blessed with a primary school, blink and you'd miss these towns. Then we find ourselves confronted with blackened bush scarred from recent fires, it goes on as far as the eye can see on one side of the car. Then as suddenly as it started it stops to the sight of fresh green grass, the contrast is strange as is shocking. You see tree and shrub derbies but can only think about the animals left homeless and hurt. Oxygen was a lot larger but still barren and open to the harsh Australian sun. I have been reading Naveed and missed a few towns on,y to look up and see Carwarp a place with one silo beside the train line, a common sight on the journey so far! And again this happens when we see Yatpool - we are both thinking about the meanings behind these town names are the indigenous?amazingly we found ourselves going past Red Cliffs where the Big Lizzie is standing in full gigantic glory and we are surrounded by grape growing farms some covered some turning golden and some more covered in plastic, an amazing industry growing, thriving in the extreme heat of 23° today.
Eight hours later we have made it to Mildura. I was expecting a quaint town but was bombarded by outskirts full of big name stores - tim found a BCF and bought sunglasses and a Super Cheap Auto where he could buy an 8mm bit that he forgot to grab this morning at 4am - can't blame him really as there has been so much to think about. Needless to say that the maps were something that he also forgot to get off the printer, my wife rador saw this and grabbed them, however, only to find that my research and his took us in two different directions. Tim said "most of the time I seem stubborn is because most of the time I'm right" needless to say we are going his way through mildura and not Adelaide! My way could have been 14minutes less and better roads - but that will have to be explored on another adventure. Mission is to survive the first one!
Thais to my navigation skills we made it from mildura, though muriman, and are on our way to Renmark the long way round but I am telling tim that! He is a great driver with all of this extra weight on the back - our life for the next few weeks! The red earth is so deep and so very dry as we have sadly passed a few grape growing farms that have had to let their crops wither and die. A day full of contrasts, as we drove past lake where the lush green grass grew you can only think of living near that idiilloc location surrounded by the vast open nothingness that I can see surrounding me.
Just had my second scientific discussion about dust devils and how they work with the warm air rises and lifts the red dust. The first was the canvour of the road and how that makes the car want to turn. Tim is so practical and is living the dream. We certainly know we are officially in the outback now as we have just noticed that there are no fences on the sides of the road!
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