Hi from Mildura

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We are back at the riverside caravan park at Mildura and it's raining! We've had such warm weather, especially here where it was quite lovely last night as we sat watching the paddlewheeler coming and going on it's dinner cruise, the lights reflected across the river. Victoria has been in drought forever so needs the rain. After watching the floods in northern NSW on TV, I'm ready for a quick getaway in case the river floods - slight paranoia!

The trip yesterday alternated between scrubby country to lush farmland when the road was near the river - grapevines in gold and red autumn colours, almonds, citrus, even a grove of willows for cricket bats. We stopped again at Robinvale for lunch, near the 'historic homestead' - something of a surprise as it was only built in 1926! The man who built the homestead was the founder of the town and called it after his son, Robin, who was killed in WW1 at Villers Brettonneux - Robinvale is twinned with the French town. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villers-Bretonneux

I saw TV chef Stefano di Pieri sitting outside his cafe yesterday as we looked around the town. He seems to own a lot of places here - restaurant, cafe, gallery. We'll have to investigate further before we leave.

There's lots of bird life here, besides the beautiful birds flying amongst the redgums, we have ducks, geese and black swans drifting by and yesterday, being Sunday, we also had all manner of craft to view as well - lots of houseboats on the Murray.

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