Monday, October 15, 2007

More vacation pics...


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First Leg of our trip (Move the left arrow to see where we end up)
Leaving Halls Gap Camping Grounds. More Wild flowers. Sarah at McKenzie Falls. Where we dropped our fruit in the bin outside Mildura.
View from our campm spot at Apex Park Mildura, right on the Murray River.
Sandy beach area on side of the River, to the right of our camping spot.

Last Wednesday we travelled from home out to the Western Highway. We travelled up to Ballarat , Goldfield Country. Here we got to stretch our legs and buy some rolls and some chooks to eat later on. The chooks were put on ice in the esky and we ate some fruit and rice crackers. Back onto the Freeway we travelled up to Arrarat. We stopped to top up the fuel and jot down the mileage per litre of petrol. The trip between Ballarat and Arrarat was great. We got to see some awesome farm houses, tiny towns that if you blink you would miss, usually marked with a sign out the front of a pub and no houses! We passed a place called Green lake...we think it was named so because well, there was no water in the thing..just green weeds...sad, a reflection of the drought I guess.
From Arrarat we drove to Pomonal, a really tiny town with a shop, a school, a gorgeous little church and a nice park to stretch our legs in. From here we got to Halls Gap in the Grampians National Park Region..all the while taking in the lovely scenery and the vast array of wonderful animals...some of them had met their fete with vehicles on the roads though :(



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After our wonderful time in Halls Gap, we went on our way to Mildura. We drove to Stawell and travelled up the Henty Highway, through Victoria's Wheat Belt. Then we hit the Murray Outback when we stopped at Ouyen for a break. A popular stop for those travelling by car or bus from Mildura or to Melbourne. From Ouyen it was a good run to Mildura..going through some oddly named towns yet again. Before we got to Mildura, we got rid of some fruit we had on board..we were not able to take this into Mildura as this is a place where fruit fly had been eradicated. You can take fruit from there, but not to there. More Mildura pics on my Friday's History Post....

16 comments:

Jules said...

How strange that fruit fly has been eradicated in some little part and that the flies don't just fly over from the other bit, it's not like you're not land locked??

I am looking forward to the Cazzie bus arriving in Queensland one day with all the little Cazzie meisters onboard. Will be great to be able to meet you.

Although I do fear we would talk the ears off of a bat!!

G-Man said...

It sure is strange to see an Aussi dressed up in a winter coat..
hahahaha
Anyway, a wonderful family journal Cazzie!!
xoxox

A Slice of My Life said...

You guys take the best vacations!

I'm confused about the fruit fly too...I mean they DO have wings! Hopefully those pesky things will be eradicated from everywhere and will stay off my bananas!!

captain corky said...

You guys always seem to have a really good time.

I'm hoping that me, Allyson and Max get to do a lot of camping starting next year.

Jay said...

I think traveling with you guys would be a lot of fun. I might just show up over there someday and go with you on one of your trips. ;-)

poody said...

Here in the states there are places you cannot cross state lines wiht fruit. It sounds like you are having a grea time.

The Stormin Mormon said...

I'm still for some reason totally blow away by how cool the interactive maps in the post were.


I need to find a reason to do that.

Cazzie!!! said...

Fruit flies are the world's worst pest. In Australia last year the cost to fruit growers was more than $100 million in lost income and eradication measures, disrupting valuable trade to interstate and overseas markets. Even if the fruit you have looks okay, it may harbour the eggs of the fruit fly. The exclusion zone is set up right around Mildura, signs as far back as 10km to say no fruit beyond that point, and, fines apply where possible if you are found to take the fruit in.
I think the fly wouldnt be able to fly that far into town ya know, but, carrying fruit into such a lovely area where our advocados, oranges and even nuts such as almonds grow would be sad if an outbreak occured.

Keshi said...

wow great shots!

I hv never travelled all that much ard VIC. I plan to..some day. Look fabulous!

Keshi.

Anonymous said...

We saw that park on the edge of the river in Mildura. Very nice.
sounds like it was a pretty good trip, certainly interesting.

Anonymous said...

Take me!!!! Please!!!

I need another holiday.... sigh....

Bugs... know all about them. Someone thought it would be a good thing to import the asian ladybug...

S.

Mom said...

Lovely pictures. Sounds like a wonderful trip.
We spent one day in Melbourne area on our tour of Australia. We drove out to Brisbane National Forest to see koalas. It was fun. You do make me want to come back and see more.

eric1313 said...

Your pictures and narrative give me a great insider view of your beautiful country. As always, an interesting read.

You have to be one of the world's best moms. Congratulations, to you and your kids. They couldn't have a better care taker.

Steph said...

Cool trip. I love the churches in tiny country towns.

Anonymous said...

I sent you an email.

Tell me if it makes it or not.

S

Pat said...

Love the interactive maps! Gotta do that soon! Thanks for sharing your fotos, as always. Y'all always have a great time together and that is so good to hear!