North West Victoria Magical Mystery Tour

Currently, the most exciting thing to happen in Echuca was my recent foray into the world of flip flops which they call "thongs" over here even though thongs are underwear you spend most of the day removing from your crack. I'm in pain but damnit I WILL get used to them because they leave better tan lines than sandals and I'm sure no one will notice the pussing wounds between my big and second toes.

On A Mission

Road Trip!

Anyway, I digress. The point I was trying to make was the only was to make Echuca interesting is to leave it so last Saturday me, Becky and Maaike (also staying at the hostel) decided there was only one thing for it; ROAD TRIP!

It is the law of road trips that you eat your body weight in junk food and listen to music that would ordinarily make your ears bleed so armed with $25 worth of crisps and chocolate and an MP3 player full of cheese we set off for Mildura to visit a couple of mates.

Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport

It's a mere four hour drive if you don't take long, winding detours through amusingly named places, climb all over an oversized cod or stop and photograph things like llamas in a field, lizards in the road which get bigger and scarier the closer you get to them (so we backed off before I got pooed on again or something) and kangeroos.

Yes I know its not a particularly lively 'roo but I come from a place where the most exotic thing you see on the side of the road is half a badger. The 'roo is cool, OK?

Fnar Fnar
Some of you might know that instead of growing up and getting a proper job it's my lifes ambition to travel to all the places in the world with rude names and last weekend I crossed Tittybong (heh heh) and Bumbang (tee hee) off my list.

Bumbang Island

The thing with Tittybong is, it doesn't seem to exist outside of the map book. We drove through it so I've officially been there but there's no signposts to it and nothing to tell you you've arrived, before you know it you've passed it and didn't even get to point and laugh at the sign. Gutted.
Bumbang isn't actually a place either, it's an amusingly named island in the Murray River just North East of a town called Robinvale which isn't half as funny. They have something that passes as a sign though so that appeased me, I got to snigger childishly and take photos.

Not Quite A 24 Hour Party Town
Anyway, a good time was had in Mildura, I had a good night anyway, I hadn't drunk in ages so it was fun to pump my body full of Vodka Cruisers (a bit like Bacardi Breezers, overpriced and full of E-Numbers) and jump around on the dance floor to mix it all up with the chocolate and crisps we munched on the way although I did spend part of Sunday morning wondering what number bus hit me and why I wasn't actually dead yet.
Mildura is quite a bit bigger than Echuca, I wasn't there long enough to get a proper feel for it but there are quite a few backpackers and it seems like a laugh. They also pipe music into the streets at night for reasons I have yet to ascertain and there's sort of a park down by the river which is wicked to go and chill by in the 31C heat (yeah baby!) with a few beers and a frisbee.

Nick, Pete, Becky And Maaike

The journey home was a bit quicker, we only stopped to see Bumbang Island, eat more junk food and to see if Becky really could keep up with the car doing 20kph whilst she was on foot.

And yes, I still have "Tie My Kangeroo Down, Sport" stuck firmly in my head. Meh.

written by

Koala Bear on September 19, 2006 from Mildura, Australia

from the travel blog: Sod Off Great Big Mission Round Oz

tagged RoadTrip and LovinIt

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