Easter Road Trip Mildura

25 April 2019

It is ANZAC Day today, giving thanks to Australian and New Zealand men and women who fought to keep our country safe and free.

Today is also my late father’s birthday and he would have been 85 today. Happy birthday Dad.

Leaving Broken Hill, I heard about the Bra Tree and was not really sure what I would find.  It is a colourful memorial in honour of Maree Kester, a teacher and motorcycle enthusiast from Broken Hill who died from breast cancer in 2010. It was her wish for people to leave colourful bras on the tree. Typical of an Aussie to use humour in memory of all women lost to cancer.

The 3 hour drive south east of Broken Hill, through the red earth, the landscape changed colour.

What a refreshing surprise when I arrived at Wentworth and the Murrumbidgee River.

And then I arrived at Mildura.  I knew the name and that it was near the border of NSW and Victoria but had no idea of the beauty of this place.

I booked a room through Airbnb on the Coonawarra Paddleboat. The rooms are small but the location is breathtaking.

This place feels so good I am getting emotional. Watching pelicans take off and land on the water. Birds skimming the top of the water. I am trying to see fish jump out of the water but  always looking in the wrong spot, and only see the ripple left behind, the ducks paddling and swans gliding up and down the river, listening to the kookaburras, waving to the people going by on their tinnie or houseboat. I’ve enjoyed many moments on my road trip but sitting on a paddleboat on the Murray River I feel I could stay here forever.

Why didn’t I know about Mildura!! I almost didn’t drive down this way! What a pretty oasis. It is known as the Mediterranean in the Outback. One minute I am in red earth remote, historical Broken Hill on the border of NSW and South Australia, then 3 hours down the road on the border of NSW and Victoria is this gem. This place is my Wow spot for this road trip. I had to drag myself away from the paddleboat on the Murray River to go and get some dinner. It is a short walk to the lively restaurants and bars but then the river is so peaceful you feel you cross into another world. It is a 10 hour drive to Sydney and I would stay here for a week but have a job commitment. I highly recommend this place. Put it on your must visit list.