Day 2: A day in Sunraysia

Today is intended to be a break in the drive, looking around two interesting Murray River towns.  Also buying some of the excellent beer from the Mildura Brewery.

We were a tad late getting up after an ordinary nights sleep.  After breakfast we headed off to see a couple of things in Wentworth.

The first of these was the confluence of the Darling and the Murray.  This was pretty impressive as a history/geography tick but not really that exciting as a visual spectacle.  The marker of the point where some early explorers forded (I suspect that means swam) across the Darling caused us to think a bit but we didn't find the dig tree.

What was impressive was the nearby Lock 10.  It was a rather nifty bit of engineering – especially the special routes built in to allow fish to swim up past the weirs - but the number of birds around was really good.  Pelicans, Silver Gulls, White-necked herons and Whistling Kites stood out.  All are fish eaters and I presume as the fish ladders attract fish they also attract their predators

We then drove past the old Gaol.  It is now a tourist attraction, but between that role and the centre of incarceration it had provided overflow classrooms for the nearby school.  

We carried on out to some sandhills.  They were OK, but not up to the standard of White Sands (New Mexico); Death Valley (CA) nor Coffin Bay National Park (see later).

Time was pressing so we wandered in towards  Mildura.  While still in NSW we went to look up the War Memorial in Dareton so we could tick that off.  Initially the ladies at the Coomealla Club denied there was a memorial there, but a third person said there was a plaque beside the flagpole at the school.  She didn't think it was a real memorial “as they don't have a march there on ANZAC Day”.  In fact it was a nice little memorial with 4 plaques to various conflicts. 

Some of the kids had - as is often the case in country towns - done a mural nearby on a school building.

We then took the Calder Highway, going into Victoria.  The area we went through had a lot of vineyards which looked very run down.  Many of them were weedy, some hadn't been pruned and a few just had the trellising.  Perhaps the dried fruit trade is in the dunny?  This got us to Merbein where a market was happening.  We checked that out and then attempted to find our way to the Mildura Brewery using a really bad tourist map.  We got there 20 minutes later than we had told our friends.

I like the Salvo's op shop being next door to the Brewery!  Inside all was gleaming steel.

Despite our lateness, and very slow service we enjoyed our beers and lunches.  As we had Tammy with us we ate outside  and she was very well behaved, only making one bolt to follow a punter into the brewery.  (This caused the punter to make a friendly reference to 'doorbitch' which proved he was quick in assessing the sex of dogs and suggested he had some experience of the seamier of life in Mildura.)  Frances had a Honey Wheat while I tried Storm Cloudy ale and Stefano's Pilsner.  Carol got a tasting tray so we sipped the entire range.  All good.

We walked the Art-deco tour of the city centre

and then strolled along the riverbank to Lock 11 which was not pet friendly so we headed back to a small sculpture park, passing through some  sort of kiddies athletic event.

We went to the Australian Inland Botanic Garden as we headed home.  Dogs were allowed on leads so they earn a huge tick.  A rather low  key place but quite well set out and it did a fair bit for the bird trip list.

We tried to find our  way to the indigenous walking trails around a lagoon at Wentworth but failed miserably.  As we were tired  after our day we headed back to our unit.

Bird of the Day:                             Australian Pelican

Plant of the day:                            Unknown flowering Acacia at the confluence!

Most interesting thing of the day:  The system of locks and weirs on the Murray

What we learned today:                  Fishways in the weirs.

The brewery's doors are opened wide,

And I am next in line;

The friends are met, the feast is set:

None hears small Tammy whine.

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