The caravan park was very sheltered from the Northwest wind so only a gentle rattling of the tent last night (Janet’s snoring). Leaving at 8.00 am it was off to the airport to collect the hire car, even though we didn’t have to collect it until 12.00 the later we left it the stronger the winds were going to be, in fact they would hit gale force shortly after lunch and continue overnight.

We road past blue lake (where the caravan park gets its name from) a now extinct volcano on our way back into Mount Gambier more information here.

Blue lake crater

On the way we bumped into a man who regailed us with his family history, he even had the genealogy trees of his ancestors in his bag to show us. On our travels we have met so many people here in Australia whom have / are researching their family trees there is unreal thirst for knowing where they were from (in case you didn’t know not all Australians are descended from convicts!).

Stopping at couple of shops in town we attempted to find the map of Victoria the next state along on our journey. Needless to say we failed.

Then it was a 10 km cycle North to the airport which was not as bad as we expected, in fact it was quite easy.

The airport is a very small and very quiet, surrounded by commercial pine forests which at the moment were all releasing their pollen in massive clouds, at times it was like a dust storm, this would not be a good place to be if you are a hay fever sufferer.

Proof of an airport

Once my life had been signed away we were now the owner (for 9 days) of a Hyundai Elantra, which after a little bit of disassembly our bicycles and all our bags manged to fit in.

We were off on our holiday within our holiday, first stop Mildura 520 km away to stay with Pat and George.

The drive was very easy, much of the journey just set cruise control and just steer we encountered very little traffic at all, any we did see just wanted to overtake us, this included the road trains as we were driving at 100 km/h and the limit was 110 km/h. Not once on the entire journey did we catch another vehicle up which gives you an idea of the speeds which people generally drive at (not really a speed limit, more of a recommended speed).

Along the way we passed examples of Silo art, this started in 1938 and many of the the roadside grain storage silos have huge murals painted on them, they are very impressive. There is an official trail to follow, the link is here.

Silo art

More silo art

Around 7.00 pm (Victoria time which is 30 minutes ahead of South Australia) we found Pat and George’s house. After a warm welcome and a nice drink, we were fed a lovely soup and stir fry (no not together! One was a starter) followed by cheesecake just what we needed thank you both. Not too long after this we went to sleep, sitting in a car is not only very boring but very tiring as well.