Hi from Mildura. The drive from Swan Hill was fairly easy. If Emily isn't sleeping she needs to be kept entertained. Most of the time William is quite happy to do this. On this trip it was a water bottle and lid! Who needs expensive toys?

Up until now the scenery has been made of lots of cultivated farm land. We are now driving on some long straits and the land has become more rugged and is mostly dirt, the trees are short and there is lots of gorse.

As we neared Mildura there were more and more citrus farms and grape vines. We stopped to pick up some Mandarins and Pomegranate from a roadside stall. The mandarins were delicious, so sweet and the pomegranate was the best I've had since leaving Turkey.

We are staying in a campground on the Murray river (in a cabin this time). A wise decision as the temperature has gotten down to 0 and -1 so far.

On our first day we head into the town for a bit of an explore. We have some great coffee at 27 Deakin which is a funky little cafe with an art gallery. The lemon meringue pie looks fabulous so we may have to go back there!

The weather was lovely today. 16 degrees and sunny. We took a trip on the Paddle steamer Rothbury. William had been wanting to go on one but 20 minutes into the 2 hour trip he was asking to go back to the campsite. A bit of distraction with some mandarins and yummy home made lamingtons did the trick! I found it quite fascinating seeing all the dead trees alongside the Murray. The area was flooded when they lifted the level of the Murray and it takes 50 - 100 years for them to fall down. We were treated to lots of bird life including cormorants diving for fish and drying their wings on the banks. The Mildura wharf is currently home to what we estimate is well over 150 Pelicans at the moment. Apparently they do this sometimes and nobody really knows the reason. They might not come for a year and then suddenly a whole lot of them just appear. Quite a sight!

We had been wanting to check out the shop Clove Organics so headed off there after the paddle steamer. It is run by volunteers and supports local producers. The volunteers make and sell lunch using the local produce. Our lunch was fabulous, pumpkin and corn soup, roast vegetable and frittata toastie and a broccoli and cauliflower salad. This place is very cool.

Wanting to make the most of the lovely weather we do a 3 1/2 km return walk from our campsite to the Mildura Homestead along the river with Emily on Marks back. She falls asleep 1 minute before we arrive home! Not great timing as bedtime is in a couple of hours! The walk though was a great way to end the day.

I think we're starting to get our groove on this trip and even managing some home cooked meals. Makes things way easier when dealing with kids and food.

The picture was taken in Euston where we stopped to eat lunch on the way to Mildura. A lovely spot on the Murray but a little chilly!