Today, we were heading home. This leg would take us from Menindee to Mildura.

After the wind and overcast day yesterday at the Menindee Lakes. We awoke to a gentle breeze and brilliant sunshine. As it was our second to last day, and the following day would be in the ‘civilisation’ of Mildura, we decided to cook up the last of our supplies for breakfast. Fried eggs, Tomatoes and toast. I cooked, and the short person was a ‘toast girl’. Sister had a rare lie-in. After we had eaten and cleaned up, we headed off around 8.30. into the ‘town’ of Menindee, turn right at the General store with no bread and past the supermarket with no meat. Turn right again and head towards Wentworth.

Dirt Roads

About 10 km out, we hit the dirt road, and except for the excellent bitumen cattle grids, it stayed like that until we were about 6 km out of Pooncarie – 106 km of dirt road!

We saw almost no roadkill for the first 50 km. The speed you needed to drive ensured you had time to avoid anything! Saw lots of emu’s in scrub beside the road – had to stop a couple of times from allowing them to pass. We sat in the car (in the middle of the road), snapping away for so long that they got curious and started walking toward us.

Middle of Nowhere

These were the only two live roos we saw on our entire trip. And that’s not a driveway—that’s the road we were travelling on! They were sitting in the middle of the road, and we stopped until they took off. We made it into Pooncarie and sealed roads at about 10:30—it took nearly two hours to do 120 km. After that, we headed off again to Mildura, this time on sealed roads all the way.

Perry Sandhills

We arrived in Wentworth around 1 p.m. and decided to detour to the Perry Sandhills for a picnic lunch. We sat under this large river of red gum in the canopy’s shade. Its trunk is buried in the dunes. It was just beautiful there. Silent, quite spiritual, with nature vibes, it was easy to visualise what it would have been like a couple hundred years ago as Burke and Wills came past.  

Geologists say the Perry Sandhills originated after an ice age (40,000 years ago) and are formed by wind erosion over thousands of years. The dunes are located six kilometres outside of Wentworth and are a unique land formation of 400 acres of continuously shifting dunes.

Mildura

After lunch, we headed to Mildura. Booked back into the Mildura Motor Inn. The pool was clean and open, so the short person was straight off for a swim. We all showered a ton of the Perry Sandhills off us, put on our glad rags and headed into town for the last night’s dinner. We spotted a restaurant called Rendezvous earlier in the day and decided to go there. They had a lovely outdoor dining area, and the menu looked good. It was better than good; the food was exceptional.  

We started with Warm Turkish bread accompanied by house-made dukkah, Robinvale Estate olive oil & lemon (knocked Stefano’s bread and dipping sauce out of the park). Followed by Veal chops (the short person had the child’s eye fillet again but requested ‘medium rare’ when she ordered), our meals were to die for, and we would return to Mildura again to eat there. We then ordered two desserts and three spoons to finish the night off. First, warm Chocolate berry pudding served with raspberry ice cream & topped with a hot chocolate fudge sauce and Chocolate Indulgence. Chocolate cake, choc mousse, choc ice cream, chock fairy floss cream. Yummo!!   After that meal, we rolled back to our room: lights out and goodnight.

 Our last day was a straight run home.

With alarming regularity, we were awake early. Sister and I read in bed while the short person snored away till we woke her at 7.30 – packed the car and out the door by 8 am Breakfast at McDonald’s (hotcakes), then in the car and home. We stopped in Sea Lake for average coffee and cake. Then continued to Inglewood. We picked up excellent fish and chips, which we ate in the car while we drove, arriving home safe and sound at 3 pm. In total (city to city, not counting smaller trips to dinner and sightseeing), we did 1820 kms. Fabulous holiday. Great company. Already planning the next one 🙂