We left our funky little pad and headed eagerly back to the oyster shed up the road… thankfully the 36 hours had ended and Julz purchased 20 oysters (freshly shucked of course) for only 8 bucks. The day had started well! Today’s mission was to head as far west as we could, our eventual destination the Sand Bar, Mildura by 3pm Sunday. So we drove and drove, and drove through nothing, then some more nothing, and a whole lot more nothing… and then… Grapes! More grape vines than I had ever seen before and massive factories to process these millions of grapes. Unfortunately by the time we found the grapes the cellar doors had already closed and there would be no wine tasting for us today. Although I’m reasonably confident that should I want to get amongst this particular brand of vino I could find it in any given BWS. Call me a romantic but when I sip my vino of an evening I like to picture an old Italian man out the back of his house stomping grapes into a wooden barrel, but to be fair I don’t mind a cheap drop (or 10) and the thousands of acres of grape vines sure seemed a better use than the barren cattle land. Oh, and amongst the oasis that was Griffith we picked up a big ole bag of local oranges from one of the many farms growing things other than grapes… we were also hoping to stop in at one of the olive groves, but alas once more we were too late. All these grapes were obviously making us thirsty so as we pulled into Hay amongst a beautiful desert sunset we rewarded our driving efforts with a picnic of blue cheese and the fine bottle of rose (given up looking for the fancy little dash on the top of the e) we bought from Ealing Forest winery (see day 1) before setting up camp in a nice little rest/camping area and calling it a day.
The next morning was more driving, more nothing as far as you could see, a few emus to liven up the scenery and then, wait for it – more grape vines. We rolled across the Murray river into Mildura at lunch time, found out the Sand bar had given us a swanky motel room, raced there for a quick shower then returned to the bar in time to catch a quick feed before the gig. Didn’t catch her name but the lady who cooked up our amazing BBQ lunch was an absolute sweetheart and looked after us really well so a big thanks to her, we’d definitely recommend the Sand bar as a venue for great music, great food and great vibes if you’re ever in Mildura. The gig was great fun, played a bunch of tunes and sold some CD’s then raced back to the motel to cook up some dinner and watch our friend Anthony on ‘So you think you can dance’ – making the most of our television privileges! Right now we’re back on the road for more driving, more vineyards and more nothing. Next stop Barossa Valley… what possibly could we find? Hopefully our grape stomping old Italian man or perhaps a passionate Australian wine making family.
