[lettie]

The next day we set off to start our long driving tour. We were heading for Albury on the NSW/Victoria border. We got up early and set off at about 7.30am. The wonderfully colourful Lorikeets were in fine voice and flying from tree to tree in a marvellous early morning show.

We drove all day through rural towns like Bathurst, Cowra and Young and the larger town of Wagga Wagga. We periodically stopped for refreshments and by tea time we had reached Albury. The roads were long and straight and we drove for miles without seeing another car. The landscape changed drastically from the lushly forested Blue Mountains to flat farmland. As we got closer to the Victoria border the land became drier and drier. What was once grassland had turned to dry, yellow, patchy scrub with red sandy looking soil visible in patches.

We got out of the car at Albury/Wodonga visitor centre and it was so hot that we could barely breathe. We stayed overnight in Albury before crossing the border into Victoria. We were on our way to Ballarat, a once prosperous gold mining town where we would stay for a couple of days. There were places to stop en route though and we had a nice breakfast and coffee in Rutherglen. Rutherglen is slap in the middle of a very lovely wine making region and wouldn't you know........We managed to find a brilliant bottle of wine there. It's a small town but immensley proud of its' wines.

We drove on through the dry Victorian countryside. Victoria is in the grip of a drought at the moment. It has lasted for roughly 2 years and some crops have started to fail. Bushfires are ravaging Eastern Vic and have decimated massive areas of land. The rain has failed and to make matters worse, the snow failed in Eastern Vic last winter..... This place is bone dry but despite this, any visitor can see that Victoria is a beautiful place.

We passed through another gold mining town Bendigo. You could tell that there was a lot of money here in the 1800s. Fine buildings and lovely parks with statues of Queen Victoria. It's these familiar things which make Brits feel right at home in Australia and I did feel at home. We stretched our legs round Bendigo before completing our long drive to Ballarat.

Here are a couple of pics. Rutherglen's boast, and Bendigo.