Day 6 Wednesday 8/5/2024 Red Cliffs to Renmark, sunny 23

Gee it’s a nice feeling to wake to blue skies and red dirt. We spend an hour in Mildura fueling up with diesel and coffee, and admiring the oasis that this city is. Hectares of table grapes in shades of autumn and tall date palms.

We’re heading to South Australia and it’s a pretty much a long straight road west for 150kms through table grapes, wine grapes, citrus, mallee scrub, and Murray pines. There’s only one town, Cullulleraine before the scenery becomes drier with saltbush, tumbleweed and paddocks of wheat stubble. There are paddy melons growing along the roadsides and emus in the paddocks.

“During dust storms turn on lights

Reduce Speed”

About 18kms shy of Renmark we queue up at the Quarantine Station to be checked for fruit and vegetables. It’s hard not to laugh when the poor inspector opens the caravan’s overhead pantry and gets whacked on the head with the coffee bean hopper that I’d hurriedly shoved in there this morning. There’s no mistaking that we’re in South Australia though, because of the iconic steel and concrete Stobie power poles.

The Big 4 Renmark Caravan Park is expansive with lawns down to the Murray River and sweeping views to the town. Once we’re setup, Woody is off like a shot to explore the path into town. I take the easy option and drive in. The Murray River Queen paddle steamer is tied up at the wharf.

There is a swathe of gardens along the riverbank and a rose garden honouring local rose grower the late David Ruston OAM, President Emeritus, World Federation of Rose Societies. Now that’s a man who knew his roses. By 2010 David had expanded his father’s collection of roses from 500 bushes to 50,000 bushes. The largest collection in the Southern Hemisphere.

The Irrigation Trust building overlooks the Murray River. It was here in Renmark and Mildura that the Canadian Chaffey Brothers built the country’s first irrigation settlements back in 1887.

Further along the riverfront is the gracious Renmark Hotel a 4-star, 3 storey, art deco hotel in prime position for river views.

While I’m ambling about Woody has gone in search of some screws for the slide out pantry and as the handle has fallen off the TV aerial again he needs one for that too. The sales lady at the caravan parts place reminds him that the handle only needs an Allen key to screw it back in…yep, we’d forgotten how we spent a whole day last winter trying to fix it and ended up buying a pineapple in thanks for the free Allen key we’d been given at the hardware store in Howard, Qld. Gosh we are slow learners.

There’s a vibrant orange sunset over the river followed by scrumptious roast pork in the air fryer.

Accom: $40.00, Fuel: $106.09, Towing Kms: 153Kms