We left Mildura today, and I must say it was a great stop off. Scarlett managed to avoid her school work this morning and played with a little girl she met the afternoon before in the pool. They were catching grass hoppers (they are in plague numbers here at the moment) and frogs. I must admit it was nice not having to entertain her while trying to pack up.
I decided to help get rid of the last vegies I would do a big casserole in the thermal cooker. With a beef and red wine base, I browned off my meat, and threw it into the thermal cooker on the stove to simmer for 20min. I added potatoes, pumpkin, corn, cauli and everything else I could find that needed to be used before going across the border. After 20min simmering it was placed into its thermal housing to finish off the cooking process, not to be revealed until dinner time tonight. This cooker doesn’t require any electricity - the heat from the simmering continues the cooking process throughout the day in its thermal housing.
When Shane opened it up this evening at 6, yummy! The meat was so tender and the vegies cooked perfect.
We stopped at the quarantine control point at the South Australian border at lunchtime with no incidents, the man looked in my fridge and asked me a couple of questions then we were back on our way.
We could see a really large dust storm building on our left, and were glad when we got ahead of it. With the big winds Scarlett was very amused with the tumble weeds rolling down the road, she was continually telling Shane to run them over.
We are staying at the Big 4 in Renmark, and this park although a little more expensive at $42 a night you can see where the money is. We have a lovely grassy, shaded spot right on the river’s edge. The pool is a resort style with a spa and waterfall. They have a lovely kiosk, paddle boats, canoes, and pedal cars. We have booked in for two nights although this could easily be extended.
We did a quick trip into town after set up and a couple of hours of school work, to check out the tourist information centre. There is a really cool lookout, Reptile Park and play ground here, along with a great farmers market on Sat. Plenty to keep us busy for the next couple of days anyway.
We spent the afternoon in the pool playing games and reading on the deck chairs. Unfortunately the clouds rolled in at 5 so it was back to the van to put on a DVD. After dinner we pulled out the brollies and braved the rain to walk up to the kiosk for an ice cream. Scarlett got a slushy, and I had my favourite Monaco bar.
This evening while Shane and Scarlett were watching Avatar, Scarlett saw a black swan out the window and ran out to have a closer look. The thing was really brazen and ran up the embankment straight at her, it must have thought she had some food. Well Scarlett who is a little too brave when it comes to animals turned and ran back so fast she nearly fell over her feet. Shane managed to get her to come back to have another look and the swan took one small step towards her and again she totally crapped herself. I got a great pic, our big brave girl finally met her match.
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