We'd set ourselves a target of departing by 8am as today was going to be a long drive through Melbourne peak morning traffic, headed for our first overnight stop at Mildura. So we were out of bed not long after 5:30am! Final packing of the car and caravan went well and we got off early, around 7:30am.

We'd planned no sightseeing stops as we wanted to make Mildura well before dark . First stop was for a toilet break at Marong. Just after Marong is Bridgewater on Loddon and an interesting sight adjacent to the road was what we later found to be a 640kW solar power station. Or at least a development and test facility for a company called Solar Systems in readiness for utility-scale project deployment. It didn't seem to be in operation as the many concentrator reflectors were pointing towards the ground.

We'd planned to have a lunch break around Sea Lake and we found a nice roadside stop just after the town where we had a view over Lake Tyrell. It was very pleasant and there was a colourful bird in the tree near the van singing.

We made a stop at Ouyen for fuel and that would be our last stop before Mildura. We arrived at the Big4 Mildura Deakin Holiday Park just before 4pm, which gave us time to park the van and stretch our legs with a walk over to Mildura Central where we bought some cape seed bread rolls to have with our pea and ham soup for dinner.

It may have been Victoria's coldest Winter for 28 years, but it's certainly warmer up here than at home. After leaving home with the temperature gauge showing 9 degrees we saw it fall to 5 as we drove passed Mt Macedon, but it then gradually started to climb. By the time we arrived at Mildura there wasn't a cloud in the sky and it was now 20 degrees.

Tomorrow will be a shorter run up to Broken Hill and we are expecting temperatures in the low 20s. We've never been to Broken Hill and we are really looking forward to exploring the town and surrounding points of interest.