Thanks guys , managed to get it working now. 
use XML::LibXML;

my $file = $ARGV[0];
print $file."\n";
&parse($file);

sub parse {
my $filename = shift;
my $parser = XML::LibXML->new();
my $doc    = $parser->parse_file("$filename");

  foreach my $node ($doc->findnodes('/root/node')) {
    print "textval :".$node->findnodes('./text()')->to_literal."\n";
  }
}

[download]
This does the trick. The particular data set I'm using should never have more than one text value mixed in with the child nodes.

In reply to Re^3: Mixed XML content with XML::LibXML by lobeydosser
in thread Mixed XML content with XML::LibXML by lobeydosser

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