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Sea Lake Milk Bar
Wohooo. We found coffee
Hi all, this was day 1 of our trip to the Red Centre. A big day by any measure. We finished our packing last night and we started our journey at 5.30am from Sunbury. It was not a very cold morning but on our way we encountered rain, rain and more rain. It was even still spitting in Mildura and that was 500km from Melbourne. The total trip was 800km and with two stops, one for morning tea and the second for lunch we took exactly 10hours to get to Broken Hill. Morning tea was at a town called Sea Lake. Now we could not be further from the sea if you tried. Sea lake is in the heart of the Mallee wheat belt and about 300 km inland from our start. It was called this because the local lake looked like a sea. It has a population of 616 people. We had a great coffee from the only milk bar that was open but we brought our own biscuits, courtesy of Lisa's cooking. We found one of the Milk Bar tables outside the shop and pulled out our biscuits. You could only get away with this in small towns such
Coffee and biscuits
How funny. We buy only coffee and then congregate outside the shop with Lisa's biscuits. Her fault as Sea Lake. Another couple of hours in overcast and drizzling rain we ended up in a very wet town of Mildura. The day was still early but our cars automatically turned into the McDonalds car park. Hence lunch at 11.30am. It is a good thing that we had lunch in Mildura as the next town was Broken Hill and that took 3 hours. We arrived in Broken Hill at 3pm yet out clocks were showing 3.30pm. Obviously moved to Australian Central Standard time. Just to confuse me. Anyhow I am telling everyone that I have gained 30 mins in my life. Took an hour or two to set up the three cars in the local caravan park. We have ensuites on our tent sites. This means we have our own showers and toilet facilities. A little luxury in the middle of barren country side. Interesting that most if not all of the vans here are occupied by grey nomads. I was not sure if I should feel young or old.
The road into Mildura was surrounded by citrus and grape vines. Some of the vines where still covered in white hessian which means they have not been harvested
Paul's new Toyota
Could not drive past the arches as yet. The road to Broken Hill was another matter. The environment became harsh with no trees and a very flat landscape. There was no road kill but we saw plenty of wild goats. These goats are found on the side of the road and they are extremely road smart although I nearly hit one. Anyhow we did 300km of desert, flat land and no kangaroos or emus. Dinner was at The Barrier social democratic club. Was acceptable for a bistro With pokies as a side dish. The last thing to say on this first day is the fuel consumption. Xavier's Ranger did13.1ltr/100km, mine was at14.0/100km and coming in last was Pauls new car at 15.1/100km.. I am happy that my old Troopy is better on fuel than Paul's..
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