We were up just after 6:00am eager to depart around 8:00am for our trip to Swan Hill.
We refuelled just outside of Mildura and set cruise control at 85kph for our trip to Swan Hill. It looks like we have finally found a speed that is both quick enough to travel at and is good as far as fuel consumption goes. Travelling from Hay to Mildura at around the 100kph mark saw consumption around the 16 litres per 100k’s whilst 85kph reduced the consumption to better than 13.5 litres per 100k’s. We have to find the right combination between speed and consumptions and will feed some of this data into a spreadsheet we have that provides guidance for driving patterns.
We arrived at Swan Hill just before lunch and we decided to drive past our intended overnight stop and visit the tourist information centre first. We also wanted to have a look at the Pioneer Village and determine how much time we would spend there. As we drove to the Village, we past a caravan park and both commented at the same time that we would stay there. The caravan park was within walking distance of the Pioneer Village.
We stopped at the Village and purchased a two day pass including their Sound & Light show. We then returned and booked into the Top Tourist Park and obtained a site that was right on the banks of the Murray River. The cost seemed to be high but apparently is the going rate for this part of Australia.
After setting up camp and starting the air conditioning, we walked to the Pioneer Village, had lunch there and spent some time looking at the exhibits. The Village was opened in the 60’s by the Queen and everything inside the village (buildings included) is authentic. The heat drove us back to the motor home and we had a “granny nap” for an hour or so before tea.
After tea we returned to the Pioneer Village for their Sound & Light Show which we really enjoyed. The show 45 minutes as we travelled around the village in an open trailer behind a battery operated cart.
We returned back to the caravan park very tied after what had been a very hot day. For the first time ever, we spent part of the night with the air conditioning running in cooling mode.