ALBURY TO HAY TO MILDURA

As the Rig rolled out of Albury, Mrs P bade a fond farewell to her childhood home.

    Sackville Street,  Albury - many happy memories but now under new management.

Leaving NSW we briefly entered Victoria at Wodonga before realizing what we had done and hastily retuned to NSW via Howlong singing the old Mark Knopfler standard "How long baby, how long has it been?...." and headed west towards "Denny" (Deniliquin) then through Finley and the tiny settlement of Blighty where Mrs P's aged aunt (qv) and her family once lived.

The Prop fondly recalled a hot January afternoon in 1976 when he and Ms A ( as Mrs P then was) spent several slaking hours at the Blighty pub where a close relative of Ms A was working behind the bar and plied us (and herself) with an abundance of fizz at well below AHA recommended prices. This was just as well because the day in question was so hot that every time we left the pub to go home we had to go back inside to get a cool drink!  It hardly needs to be said that the day did not end in sobriety.

Forty years on, the Blighty Pub is showing its undoubted age but the Prop noticed that a very attractive "beer garden" has been added.  Not sure how much beer they manage to grow there, but it looks like it could do with a tonne or two of compost!

The Blighty Pub with "new" beer garden. Just the spot for those who may be new to the 'Yabba.

Beyond Blighty one enters the Hay Plains - seemingly endless saltbush plains that have a surreal and, eventually, a soporific quality.  The interesting thing about the Hay Plains is that they are so very uninteresting. Paradoxically, this makes them something of a novelty!

The Hay Plains - lots of saltbush but no hay to speak of. (This picture would have looked the same no matter which direction the photographer was facing)

Spent Tuesday night in Hay  - justly known locally as the Paris of the South, although the Murrumbidgee looks nothing like the Seine and the Telstra tower looks nothing like the Eiffel.

The Telstra Tower at Hay. Nothing like the Eiffel Tower!

Westward ho towards Mildura and more Hay Plains!!!

               The Hay Plains  - note the road sign in the near distance, a local point of interest.

Arrived at Mildura or, more accurately at the riverside caravan park at Buronga which lies on the NSW banks of the Murray River directly across the river from Mildura.  This is a very pleasant establishment but most importantly it is not in Victoria!  The park is populated by a variety of wildlife.  There is also quite a bit of native fauna!

A NSW native hen.  Rather more attractive than its Tasmanian cousins - perhaps tastier too.

A view of one of the southernmost parts of the State of New South Wales.  Some of Victoria can be seen in the distance, if you can be bothered looking.

To be continued......