Thursday 26th May 2005
We attended the 'Happy Hour' in the caravan park last night and found
it to be a great event to meet and talk to other caravaners staying
in the park. There was a quantity of beer and about six casks of wine,
a mix of reds and whites, along with real glasses and lots of nibbles,all
provided by the caravan park free of charge. The hour came and went
and it was just over an hour and a half before we returned to the caravan,
still deep in conversation with Peter and Ruth from the caravan next
to ours. We finally had our BBQ chicken thighs and vegetables for dinner
around 8:pm.
This morning was fairly cool early (five degrees at 9.30) and we didn't
plan to do too much so it turned out to be a pretty lazy start to the
day. Finally, after one of us finished watching the cooking show at
about midday, we set out in the Patrol for a drive around Mildura.
Our first port of call was the Port of Mildura where there were a couple
of paddle steamers tied up on the banks of the Murray River and by the
signs nearbye it appears there were three or four paddle steamers plying
the waters with paying passengers at that time.
Next we drove out the Calder Highway until we reached a little place
called Red Cliffs. This is the site of Big Lizzie, a rather huge tractor
I suppose it would be called, although it doesn't really resemble a
tractor or a truck, which is more what it had been made for. It weighs
45 ton, had a pay load of 10 ton, is 10.36 metres long, 3.35 metres
wide, 5.49 high, had a turning circle of 61 metres and towed two trailers
at a speed of about 1 mph. One of the interesting parts about it is
the wheel setup which lays down its own pads to roll on then picks it
up as the wheel turns until it puts it down in front again. It took
two years to travel from Richmond (Melbourne) to Ouyen on the Murray.
There is a fairly long story attached to the construction and use of
Big Lizzie, however it is a little too long to include in today's journal
entry.
From here we drove down to the Murray River where we walked along a
boardwalk on the edge of the river to a point where we had views of
the red cliffs from which the town obviously derived its name. A short
distance further we visited another lookout over these same cliffs from
a different angle.
After this we followed a two wheel track along the Murray River for
quite a number of kilometres and enjoyed the views of the river through
the huge red gums and other flora. We eventually left the two wheel
track near Mildura, returned to the city where we filled the patrol
with diesel before calling it a day and headed for the caravan park
at about 4 p.m.
As the weather is starting to get colder, tomorrow we intend to leave
Mildura and head further west, stopping wherever it takes out fancy.
This could be anywhere from Berri to Port Augusta, only tomorrow will
tell.