Friday 24th May, 2019

That was it, after a brief sojourn in Victoria we have entered South Australia. They take their bio security very seriously here. We reluctantly threw the last of our fresh salad into the bin. We didn’t have any other fresh fruit or vegetables. Soon, we arrived at the inspection point. We were searched, but not very thoroughly. We had a good conscience as we weren’t hiding anything, but we have lots of places we could have hidden food.

It was lovely at the lake this morning. There were clouds which meant rather subdued lighting, but it was a peaceful night and we slept well. Whilst we were finishing breakfast there was a 15 minute shower of rain, quite heavy.

The road was fairly difficult this morning, quite a lot of bends, with lots of traffic leading in and out of Renmark. Renmark was where we stayed on the way out on the banks of the river. We had to drive through the town and it made we wish we could have stayed longer. We stopped briefly to replenish our supplies of fresh fruit and salads. Due to a time change of half an hour it felt like we had done very well on time, despite the quarantine inspection and shopping.

The rest of the morning and early afternoon the driving was still quite challenging with lots of vehicles on the main highway, not so much when we diverged onto the Goyder Highway. Our impression of SA as a very dry state was reinforced. We stopped for lunch at a spot from Wikicamps, rather dull, but we were hungry and needed a rest.

From there, the road straightened out and we gradually came into more attractive landscape of farmlands and, by Burra, quite tall trees. From Burra we drove another 50 kms to this place. We are free camping behind a pub, not so free because we had a drink and a meal at the pub, but appreciated nonetheless.

Our new, faster mode of travel is surprising me. Looking ahead, we should reach Kimba by tomorrow night and Penong the following night.