Day 32 Mildura

Kids slept in till 8.45 this morning......it is going to be hard work getting them back into the normal swing of things when we get home. Ate breakfast about 45 minutes later - what a lazy morning. This morning it was off to Orange World.. We rang them to find out when their tour group times were and the first one for the day and the most practical one for us was beginning in about 40 minutes so we really had to get moving. It was only 8 minutes down the road but we still only made the 10.30am tour with a few minutes to spare.



Our tour with "Uncle Brian" commenced with him singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to the kids and then singing a song he had written all about Mildura to the adults. Uncle Brian is a bit of a bush poet / musician as he accompanied himself with the guitar. Orange World still has that quirky/fun/family feel to it that it did five years ago.

We all hopped into his orange tractor with orange trailers for a trip around the orchard. There are ten thousand fruit trees on the property and only 4 people pick the fruit. Impressive! They have a range of oranges, mandarins, avocados and a few demonstration trees such as Shaddocks (the world's largest orange from China - good for marmalade but not much else), a few limes, a bizarre looking fruit called Budda's hand and a few more lemon varieties.

It was interesting to note that the reason apparently that many people buy the Californian Navel Oranges is that they maintain their nice orange colour and do not go greenish like some Australian Navel Oranges do. The reason the Aussie ones go a bit greenish is to protect themselves from the sun but they are still sweeter and juicer than the American ones. As the majority of the market buyers want nice nice looking oranges they settle for the imports, which is pretty lame, and it is forcing many farmers off the land.

At the end of the tour they showed us the grading machine they use and gave a demonstration of an easy orange peeler. We have one of these from a previous visit and it works quite well.

Back inside we found orange gelati to try - Ethan and Gemma were fond of the taste of Jeanette's!!! (As usual! - they are really seagulls in disguise crying "some", "some" whenever food appears)

Home for lunch and naps - only Gemma managed to have a nap - the boys were just wriggling in their beds. Headed up to the pool for a swim where the wheels fell off Ethan's little red wagon and he came back to the van and had a little nap with Darrin. Jeanette stayed with Zac and Gemma at the pool where they had a lovely time floating about.

Dinner and back to the pool again. Back to the van again where they polished off 1/4 watermelon between them in no time at all. Showers, clean up the van and bed.

In an effort to try and get out of the van park before 10am we have already packed up some of the inside stuff and Darrin had already hooked up the car. Will see how it all goes and what time the kids wake up!!!!