Day 76. 19th July 2024. Mildura. What tech meltdown?

With a strong tailwind we took off for our 4 hour drive early, and the start of it was typical of the idyllic wine country with small country towns, with character and interest to boot. That did lead into more wheat country and some rolling plains, which were lovely but nothing to write home about, so I won’t.

What is worth writing home about is that our first stop of the morning was about 3km out of Barra to what is called the Midnight Oil house. The cover of the album of Deisel and Dust features a ruin of an old farmhouse in the middle of a field, which we were excited to find out it was on our way home. We took photos and selfies of what was our last tourist attraction of the trip. Fitting for us as it was not recommended by anyone that it was a “must do”, we just stumbled across that it was there and got to enjoy it on our own. Not everyone got the reference on facebook, but those who know, know.

We crossed the border with some fanfare, all generated by just the two of us as the welcome to Victoria sign was something that seemed to be designed by Dan Andrews during Covid. It was small and not very inviting. We were happy to be back into our home state and very much looking forward to home.

We end this trip as we ended the last one, staying with some friends in Midura enjoying their open fire, indoor toilets and good food. Carolyn makes a mean lamb pasta and Rowan is very encouraging of Carolyn. We had a lovely night in comfort chatting away, so much so that the whole CrowdStrike tech meltdown almost missed us completely other than their son coming home after tea and letting us know. It was a bit of a reminder that we have been travelling without much care in the outside world, but now the real world is now around the corner.

Falling asleep in a comfy bed after enjoying generous hospitality, the gale force winds outside allowed us to settle for the night knowing that while sometimes we will miss having the compactness of a caravan to envelope us……other times we won’t.

Facilities: Excellent shower room with proper shower screen, tiles, and room to move without bumping into things as you bend over to dry yourself or dress. Thoroughly enjoyable, have removed .5 for not having a bench, but have added an extra point for having those heat lamps you can stand under after you get out of the shower which is something that has not been seen on the trip. 10.5 / 10