From Adelaide to Mildura: Driving through Riverland

Ages ago, we planned a massive trip interstate, and decided that we would go on this trip with our Moscow friend that was visiting us, Natalia who was planning on coming in April. Alex planned the trip before hand, we packed the groceries, brought some extra equipment needed, and got serviced our car.

Even thought we started packing way before hand, the morning began of with the traditional running around the car, the kids and the stuff got lost left behind, repeatedly, and then were found in the most unexpected places. As result we ended up leaving an hour after we planned to.

Murray River shore in Mildura

So we could catch up to all the time we lost, we had to move on fast and quickly, almost without any stops to absorb the beauty and the landmarks, and to take any photos of the areas we drove past. It was pretty tough to drive like this, especially because we have little kids in the car. So we ended up having to entertain them with sweets and sandwiches the whole drive there.

We obviously didn't go over the speed limit, but we did have to overtake the slow traffic. That was not difficult in the territory of our state, as we have nice and comfortable lanes for overtaking the other vehicles that appear quite often. In the state Victoria they do not have those, and we had to overtake the slowly moving cars with caravans by going into the other side of the road which was not as fun and as safe.

Bredl's Wonder World of Wildlife... Closed, Renmark, South Australia

On our way to the Riverland (a farming region that is on the edge of SA and VIC and NSW) we saw signs saying we should throw out any fruits or veggies due to quarantine. At the time we couldn't understand why such small things could affect the ecological balance of the region, but to our relief our kids ate all the fruits we had with no issues.

One of the not many stops we had to do was in Renmark, and one thing that really got our attention, was not the long awaited toilet, but a huge statue of a dinosaur. When we walked around it we read on a sign that this area used to be and old zoo of wild animals, which contained Australian and overseas animals. We later on found out that this zoo belonged to a famous naturalist Rob Bredly. Sadly this zoo closed a couple of years ago, like many other attractions due to lack of visitors.

Bird watching and feeding at Murray River quay in Mildura

What do you think was the place that we were in such a rush to get to? The reason is, that from the river pier of a lovely town Mildura in the State Victoria, twice a day a small paddle steamer goes on a small ride on the waters of the Murray River. We really hoped we were able to reach Mildura in time to go on it's last voyage of the day at 2 pm.