Sydney Travel Diary - Getting There

DAY 1 Adelaide to Mildura
Travelled from home to Kristin’s parents’ place in Mildura. It was about 35 degrees but the air conditioning worked a treat in the car. Very tight packing space with Aunty Roz along for the ride (as far as Young).

We stopped off at Nanna and Poppa Scholz’ in Barmera for a lunch stop. What a perfect way to take your first travel break – beats sandwiches in the car!

The drive through was fairly boring, as the Renmark-Mildura stretch is true-to-form. Joshua was preoccupied with his purpose-bought game (for this trip), “Railroad Rush-Hour”. Its like solitaire involving plastic pieces you move around a 8x8 game-board. He was pre-occupied for at least 3 hours playing that. It has a beginner level for 6-8 year olds (remember, Joshua is 4) and he not only finished them, but by the end of day 3 all the “beginner” (8+) games too. Very clever. Can I say, this is a fantastic travel game for children.

Rob and Lyn were great on a work night giving us a great meal. I watched Australia play Bahrain in their Asian Cup qualifier, which they won not-too-convincingly (given the quality of opposition) 2-0. We swam in the Albrecht pool which was very cold at first but after a 35 degree day, very nice once you “got used to it”.

DAY 2 Mildura to Young (via Narrandera & Junee)
We tried to forge our own way according to the maps from Mildura to Young. There’s not too much variation from Mildura to Hay, but then from there you have two options and onwards a number of options after that. I enjoyed going this way, following a railway line and therefore past some classic old townships – the pub, Anglican church, a closed general store and a few old dumps, the railway master’s shed and that’s it. Matong and Marrar were two classic examples. Signs of a bygone romantic era – though it might not have seemed that way at the time.

We lunched at Robertson’s (“Robbo’s”) Bakery in Hay, which was nicely air-conditioned and the food was great. It’s worth going into Hay township to access their toilet and rest facility there. I never cease to scratch my head at this reverse angle parking business they practice in “New South”.

I was shaking my head traveling between Narrandera and Darlington Point as I saw something I thought didn’t happen except up in the Queensland reaches of the Murray-Darling Basin. Rice paddies! The poor Murrumbidgee is being pillaged for water for rice paddies. For instance, a man-made drain runs south from the Murrumbidgee between Narrandera and Waddi that is as wide as the Murrumbidgee itself! It amazes me too that from pre-Hay onwards the crops are irrigated by raised-levee open-air drains. The evaporation losses must be massive and I can not understand how, around a Murray-Darling Basin meeting of State representatives, New South Wales can sit there and hold their head up.

We got away early from Rob and Lyn’s and knew we were running ahead of schedule, so took time to relax at the park in Junee and also visit their Licorice Factory. Yum!

Arrived at Sue and Peter’s about 5pm, taking 8 hours all up. The worst part of the drive but, as Kristin said today, it has been better to do the trip in 3 days with the longest day in the middle (5, 8 and 4 hours this way ‘round).

DAY 3 Young to Parramatta
This was our shortest day’s drive, and without Aunty Roz which – God bless her – was great for fuel economy and packing space. We got the fuel economy down to 10.3 Litres per 100 kilometres (average for the whole trip) in a V6 3.2L Mitsubishi Magna sedan. I’m happy about that. We did virtually 1500 km one-way.

Joshua finished beginner-level Railway Rush Hour and has hardly made a dent in his Bob The Builder activity book. We haven’t even needed to pull out The Secret Weapon (DVDs on the laptop). God Bless Railway Rush Hour!

We had an early “lunch” at Goulborn MacDonalds, which we targeted for their guaranteed baby change facilities (which we needed after Simeon’s nappy antics).

We stopped off at Cheyne and Mel’s new unit at Prestons near the Hume Highway and picked up service orders we were to hand out at the wedding. We dreaded for Cheyne and Mel the 37 degree forecast for the next day.

We got to the apartments in Parramatta first and they were very nice. Swanky. Views over the Parramatta River, across to the city and the Sydney Harbour Bridge visible from the living areas and 2 of the 3 main bedrooms. Foxtel for watching football late at night, air-conditioning, what more could you want for a Lambert family re-union!