I think I must attract airport issues?! I got my first overhead speaker call on Monday when I came back from Sydney in Melbourne airport!! Oops... I was in Melb airport and on my computer and totally forgot to pay attention to the time that I was meant to go to board my plane. So I got the whole, everyone is boarded except you... guilt trip. Luckily I was only about a 30 second walk away so by the time I arrived they were halfway through their second call out. Then, when I arrived in Mildura at 5:40pm, the girl who had offered to pick me up wasn’t there. I tried calling her but the number just dialled out. So, I started walking home. Probably not the smartest thing in the world, but I never said I was the smartest person in the world! It took me 2 hours to walk home from the airport (mostly in the dark). I think its about 15km!! I had fun though. Took some photos of the sunset and kept myself amused by chatting with friends as I walked.
As my days are coming to a close in Mildura, I thought I should do some touristy things on my last weekend!! I’ve had a pushbike to ride around on, which has been extremely handy as everything is quite a distance away. On Saturday I took a ride on a paddlesteamer down the Murray River and through Lock 11. I don’t think I’ve ever been on a loch so it was very interesting to watch. Aimee the UK physio I’ve been friends with down here had gone to see it the other day and found it amusing that there was a “little man who controls the lock” instead of doing it yourself. I did have some pictures of the paddlesteamer but I accidentally deleted them. Oh well.
I then took my bike for a ride out towards Kings Billabong. I didn’t really make it the whole way there though. The weather which had initially been lovely and clear and sunny went all cloudy and became a bit miserable. It was about a 10km bike ride I think, maybe more I’m not sure. I was riding for about an hour when I decided not to bother with the lake because it wouldn’t look all that nice with the weather anyway and took a detour via a winery!! There are vineyards and grapevines everywhere all around and through Mildura. Some are for wine, others for eating. I stopped by Chateau Mildura which was built a long time ago by the Chaffey Brothers. They have a historical museum you can walk through on site as well, so I did that and learnt a bit more about the production of wine and sherry. It was cool walking into the cellar because there was this faint sweet smell of sherry. Smelt like christmas cake!! Yum I was feeling pretty tired by this stage so decided to head back to town. Riding, riding, riding. It never seemed to end! As I was about 1km from where I’m staying the sun was setting so I rode to the lake near my house for that. Would have done about 20-30km of bike riding all up. a bit tired....
Today Aimee and I joined up with a tour group to go out to Mungo National Park. I watched the Australian football match last night, so was a bit tired when I had to wake up. We went with Harry Nanya tours which is actually now owned by a very nice Aboriginal guy called graham. He is very passionate about his land and his people and very quick to give you his opinions on life and "the system"! Had a great day at the national park. It rained a bit while we were out there but we didnt get wet ourselves which was nice. Its actually quite green out there in the semi-arid desert because of some rain thats occurred in the last few months. On the way home we saw 2 wild emu's who decided they wanted to try and headbutt the car. We got out of the way, but it was cool to see them. I haven't seen any emu's in the wild before!
I've just gotten an offer today to go and visit a friend in barcelona spain, the first week that I arrive in Europe!! I am very very tempted!! Will have to see how things go though with work and money and all that. It would be nice to catch up with her though. She is a polish student I met last year when she ended up moving in the house I lived at. I have been learning spanish on and off for a few years and want to become fluent (though I realise this is not an easy task), so this would be an awesome opportunity in itself.
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