Adelaide to Mildura

Yesterday I drove from Adelaide, on the Spencer Gulf, to Mildura, not quite in the Outback but close.  First stop was...well, it looks like Napa or Sonoma, but this is another legendary wine area, the Barossa Valley, about 100 km NE of Adelaide.  The theme is the same...drink wine, enjoy life!

The Lizards have visited many large rivers...the Columbia, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio...and now the Murray, Australia's longest stream, for long an artery of commerce between the country's southern interior and the sea.  Those days are gone, but you can still take a steamboat cruise, rent a houseboat, fish, swim, waterski, paddleboard.

'Twas a lazy, hot Saturday in Waikerie, on the river in South Australia.  A cable ferry transports cars across the river on a side road.  A couple blokes were sloated out on the shady grass here, which seemed like a good idea on a 30C day, so I followed suit for awhile.

Wheat fields predominate west of Mildura.  Here a couple emus are grazing on the stubble from a recent harvest...it's the end of summer here.  There were dozens of emus in the space of a few km here.  

The view from my room at the Grand Hotel in Mildura.  Very comfy.  Blow up the pic and you can see a peek of the Murray in the distance.

A shot of the Grand.  It opened in 1891 and was remodeled in Art Deco style in the 1920s.

There are really fine river red gum trees all along the Murray.  These are superb trees...tall, broad, and delightfully convoluted.

Spectacular!  These trees have souls, I swear.

A fine batch of red gum biomass.

There have been floods here, as the mural on the left shows.

Right across the street from my hotel was fine parkland.  It's nice to just hang out and watch the scene.  These three very large pelicans were present for a long time, bludging on these three fishermen.  The fishermen didn't bite...they left the pels to forage for themselves.

These two cockatoos had an argument for about ten minutes. Then they flew off, one chasing the other.

Now this is a fine pool!  Deco style at the Grand.  Blow up the pic and check out the grillwork on the surrounding structures.  Reminds me very much of the pool at the Arizona Inn in Tucson, which is of similar vintage.