Day 9 Monday 13/6/2022 Leeton to Mirrool, cold 3 – 14

It’s a glorious morning. The drive to Griffith is flanked by orange groves, grape vines and cotton. This is an area of abundance and a very nice part of the country. It’s only 3 hours from Canberra and 5 1/2 hours from both Melbourne and Sydney.

Once more we have no idea where we are headed today. We’ll meet The Prado’s in Griffith and take it from there. We need to decide which route is the most practical for the weather as the east coast has been hammered by incessant heavy rain and flooding.

It’s only 55 kms from Leeton to Griffith yet we feel like we’ve arrived in a different climate zone. Being the Queen’s birthday holiday weekend, few shops are open but we certainly need to strip off another layer of clothing.

The Prado’s arrive after spending the night at Finley. Our first stop is De Bortoli Wines and at $6 and $8 per bottle we wheel out a dozen boxes of the stuff. We like to think of it as ballast. We have lunch in the De Bortoli car park while we decide where we’ll spend the night.

Choosing Mirrool we hit the road to Ardlethan and onto the Newell Highway for a short distance to Mirrool. Sadly, the pub, which is under new ownership, is closed on Mondays. God, we hate Mondays. We can see that the publican is not on duty as he greets the boys in his pyjamas when they drop in to get a key for the power box. The camping area has tripled in size since we last stayed here. It is impressive and a peaceful spot away from highway traffic noise. There’s power and water, toilets and showers, a camp kitchen and a dump point. It would have been near perfect if the pub was pouring cold beer and serving crumbed lamb cutlets by the open fire, but they’re the breaks.

Legend has it that AFL football star Billy Brownless once kicked a football over these silos when he stopped for a cleansing ale on his way to a wedding. This feat spawned the annual Mirrool Silo Kick.

Rugged up again, we chat in the open-air camp kitchen until the cold drives us inside to plan tomorrow’s destination.

Pumpkin soup is on our menu with the last of the hot dog rolls dripping in melted cheese. Just what one needs on a cold night.

Accom: $10.00 (power, water, toilets, showers, dump point, camp kitchen)

Towing Kms: 170kms