Unwinding at Mildura

We finally said goodbye to Doc and Cathie and left Broken Creek for Western Victoria. We were heading for Mildura. We’d read about a placed called Merbien Common, a free camping area just outside town and right on the Murray. The scenery on the way was nothing flash, but the more kilometres we put between us and those pear trees back at Shepparton, the more relaxed and excited we were to be finally, as Tamika puts it “livin’ the dream”. The only lesson learnt along the way was to not drive off and leave your plastic step neatly on the side of the road after a van cuppa.

The beauty of inexperience is that you don’t know where NOT to take or park your van. Over the next three weeks we had several “near death” experiences that we will share with you shortly, so read on for some laughs at our expense.

Our first site on the common was a little precipitous. This picture looks deceptively tranquil but we were parked one metre away from a eight metre drop to the river and the bull ants nests made relaxing outdoors a really bad idea. So next morning I set out to find something a little less daunting and at the very end of the track emerged a large clear site, sans bull ants and a lot more room to manouvre. Tamika gave it her tick and we quickly relocated. After we set up (again), we spent the next seven days doing as little as possible.

Free camping is not just deck chairs and beer. It does involve the more mundane necessities like ensuring water, firewood and functioning solar. Parking under a tree might keep your van cool, but solar panels will starve, inverters will start wailing, then follows a shutdown . We were on TV rations for a few days while we anxiously watched a battery level with a bad case of the staggers. We had a few visitors frequenting a popular fishing spot nearby and this “little” guy called in a couple of times, looking for leftovers. Tamika tried her hand at fishing, but sacrificed many hooks and lead to the fishing gods (catching yabbies for bait was far easier). It was a great unwind and had us ready for our road trip south.