Gol Gol, Mildura

November 27th, Travelled to Gol Gol and booked into Rivergardens Tourist Park. It rained all the way up, so we opted to take an ensuite site instead of a riverfront site, which meant a long walk to the amenities block. At only $25 a night we thought it was a bargain. This looks like a good place to stay once the rain stops. The boat ramp access is on the side road and the riverfront is set up to tie up boats and leave them in the river. We are only 5klms out of Mildura, so we took a drive across the NSW/Victorian border into Mildura, to refresh our memory of the place. It must be at least 3 years since we were here last. On the way back from Mildura, we decided to drive down to the boat ramp then along the waterfront homes. The homes were huge and had well kept gardens. I saw what looked like a dirt side road and turned in, to make a U-turn on the narrow road, and head back to the Park. When the back wheels hit the 2” deep soft mud, the back of the car slid sideways and towards a downhill gully. Attempts to drive out were fruitless and made the situation worse. I was trying to use a couple of mats under the wheels to get a grip and hopefully drive out, didn’t work. Val thought she would get out of the car to size up our situation, immediately loosing her footing in the mud, and only just saved herself from sitting in the mud, by grabbing hold of the car door. I rushed around to help, heaving her bodily back into the car and retrieving her shoes from the mud. We were on a backroad which has very little traffic and as I was wondering what to do next, 4 trail bikes turned off the highway into this road. I flagged the bikes down and the guys were only too happy to help. They all pushed from behind while I drove and after a few attempts they succeeded in pushing us up onto the tarred road. They were covered in mud from the spinning back tyres. We thanked them and were about to leave when they decided to ride their bikes around the mud track heading towards the River. One of the boys said he would try it first, so off he went down the slope and around the track, then called back and said “Yes, it will be OK”. When he attempted to ride back up the slope his tyres couldn’t get any grip in the mud so the other 3 had to push him up to the roadway. What a fiasco!

November 30th, The rain finally eased off this morning, so, in-between showers I took the boat off the car, ready for launching and hosed yesterdays mud off the car. Mildura is a big Town and we have used the wet days to get started with our Christmas shopping.



December 1st, Rain has stopped, the skies are blue and now the boat is in the water. I went out fishing but came back empty handed. There is a lot of activity on the river here, lots of houseboats, water-skiers, Paddle Boats and tinnys.

December 3rd, Our days have been, fishing in the morning (nothing caught yet) and Shopping in the afternoon. One of our neighbours, up from Swan Hill for the weekend, was telling me that, on the first day, he caught a 70cm Murray Cod and returned it to the river as he thought he would catch a bigger one. We couldn’t believe it, Val would have loved to try some MC for her dinner. We decided to treat ourselves to-day, so went to “The Working Mans Club” for dinner and a flutter. Nice Club, nice dinner but Val didn’t have any luck on the pokies.

December 4th, I came back from my fishing trip to-day with my first catch here, a Yabbie. It didn’t want to let go of the line so ended up in the boat. This prompted me to put down a couple off yabbie pots and so Val had 2 yabbies for her dinner. She did say she wanted to lose weight. Her request now is to catch 12 Yabbies, so she gets a decent meal.

December 5th, No fish and no Yabbies this morning. Our neighbour from Swan Hill was leaving for home to-day and didn’t catch another Murray Cod, wouldn’t that make you spit chips. We took a drive out to the “Inland Botanical Gardens” only to find it closed, so just around the corner was “Orange World”. It’s an orange & avocado Farm that runs train Tours but we were too late for the last Tour, so just had a free orange juice and bought some souvenirs.

December 6th, Last fishing attempt this morning resulted in the same outcome. We leave to-morrow for Balranald, so the boat is out of the water and packed up for travelling. I drove into Mildura after lunch, had to go to the Telstra shop and get a new sims card for my phone. While I had a little “Poppy Nap” a couple of days ago, Val thought she would see what games I had on my phone, for her to play. God knows what she did, but when I awoke my phone was no longer working and she had been trying to punch in codes, when it asked for it, without having a clue what she was doing. It locked up completely when it couldn’t accept anymore wrong codes. With my phone problem solved I then went down to Auto Barn to pick up the “Reverse Camera” that I had ordered, only to find that it wasn’t in, so I’ll have to get one somewhere else. Probably when we get to Griffith, as it’s a big Town.