We arrive in Mildura

We arrived in Mildura yesterday after an interesting drive from Swan Hill.  We had been told that it was pretty barren on the way and you wonder where on earth you are heading – then all of a sudden there is Mildura.  That was sort of our experience – we had felt it was a bit like driving along the Desert Road in New Zealand, pretty barren but sprinkled with lots of orchards and vineyards in what seems like very dry, red and useless land….here are some photos along the way

Lots of oranges for sale here at the moment - $3 for a huge bag….missed out on Gisborne oranges in NZ so am wrapt to see all these…

Our first impressions of Mildura are really positive – even if the GPS took us on a wild goose chase trying to find the campground we are booked at (they do it to everyone we got told when we finally got there!).  Its a well laid out city, seems very modern and very clean – and so far seems pretty affluent. Its a bit strange as there is a bridge in to Mildura city which is basically the state line between NSW and Victoria – so there would be plenty of people that live across there (NSW) but work etc here in Victoria!

Here are some piccies of the bridge across the Murray River in to Mildura

 

Another good point so far is the weather – it wasn’t sunny yesterday or today, but the temperature is much better than what we have had on our way from Sydney – no frost this morning and got to a pleasant 16 degrees today. 

The camp ground we are staying at is on the edge of the Murray River and has the state forest on the other side.  Its just on the edge of town, very spacious but only has a few other campers here – mostly because of school holidays which thankfully finish this week (those screaming kids can head home thanks – it will be lovely then).  There is a sandy beach by this part of the river and you can hire boats etc, so we will definitely sort that out while here and head up stream to have a look. Poor Chip has managed to find every prickle so far….took me a good hour to ‘de prickle’ him after a quick walk in the forest yesterday!

I dropped in to the hospital this morning to meet the unit manager and have a quick look around before I start work tomorrow.  Was pleasantly surprised as I had googled the hospital and obviously found a photo of the old hospital – it was rebuilt 11 years ago and is a lovely new facility – have to say even nicer than the new Mater was when it opened!  The staff I met today (including the MUM) seem very nice so am really looking forward to getting stuck in tomorrow – I don’t even have a night shift for the first 3 weeks – hooray!

We had a bit of a quick look around the city and again were both impressed with the shopping and the city – all very clean and ‘new’ – a great Centro shopping centre with all the usual shops, a large Bunnings store etc…..