The drive was through the vineyards! It was miles and miles of vineyards. This part of the country produces almost 100% of Australia's table grapes. It is incredible it is a sea of grapes! Also produced here is almonds, olives and citrus. The river is wide and flowing. While this part of the country is 40 degrees plus most days through the summer you can feel the presence of water. There is a lot of low lying land and the whole area is heavily irrigated as this is Australia's food bowl.
We arrived at RiverGarden Tourist Park where we have two nights. This is a recharge stop to power up and fill the water tank and of course have shower and toilet access. Where we camped on the Murray was all free camping meaning we had no connections to water or power. We will stop in parks like this every week or so to catch up. Here I did two loads of laundry and we are all packed up to continue on.
Tim and Bella found themselves a tandem bike to occupy some time today. It is so nice to see them enjoying each others company and doing things together.
We took the opportunity to stock up our kitchen and get a few extra water tanks. On our travels through Mildura we spotted this...
Today, we walked through King Billabong one of the oldest and largest billabongs in the area. Here there is a huge old pump station that in its prime would have been a hive of activity. The billabong is now devastatingly dried up. We had a great discussion in the car about how this all works the effects of farming and trying to find a way to work with the land while still supplying the populations and maintaining the wildlife. This place has reminded me of one of the kids favourite story The Waterhole by Graeme Base.
As we make our way back to the campsite I am reminded on how very special this trip is. A dried up billabong in the middle of the food bowl...we really need to think about this!
Tomorrow we move on to Port Augusta in South Australia north of Adelaide.
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