Deniliquin

Well we headed off from Corowa through Tocumwal and Finley and arrived in Deniliquin early afternoon. It was a sweltering 36c. After a swim, we went to the visitors information centre and then I went off to the optometrist to fix my glasses while Georgia went to the medical centre with allergy issues. We then spent a quiet evening after dinner at the caravan park. 

The next morning we had our first taste of rain. We spent Saturday morning at the library schooling the kids. Then it was time to look around Deniliquin town centre. It was blowing a gale all day. Deniliquin is a typical pretty and functional country town with good facilities but without the “wow factor”( I don’t  call being the ute capital of Australia a wow factor and although there was a sheep racing carnival on that night, we declined to go).

Late afternoon we headed for the Island sanctuary in the middle of town. This is a walking circuit of a few acres in bushland setting off the main street.  We saw plenty of kangaroos.  Andrew and Georgia then had a quick play in the skate park .

That evening it was off to the Deniliquin RSL. There was a Riverina Vietnam veterans reunion happening so it was a busy night. For some strange reason I put $5 down on keno. At platform 26, I saw my Sydney Trains colleague Paul Murphy playing a 4 number game. His numbers were 1,2,3 &11. So I thought I would try them. Useless. I should have donated the money to charity.

Sunday morning we visited the Deniliquin Baptist church. Absolutely lovely people and extremely hospitable. After the service we were invited to lunch and spent all afternoon with one of the graziers and the local ambulance officer and his family at their place on a couple acres. They fed us, entertained us with their cattledog rounding up sheep, looked over the caravan as we had a couple of niggly issues (the men not the cattledog) and sent us off with dinner as well. It was a fantastic day and we headed 40km south to the small town of Mathoura for the night.

We have been gone for a week now. It is amazing how many little things you need to do in sequence to set down and set up a camper trailer. We are still finding that we forget little things and have moments of panic and mayhem while others around us are relaxing enjoying themselves. Hopefully we will get better.  The kids are great, they are eager to get in and help.

Next stop Mathoura