After hitching up the vans and farewelling Dave and Barb we left Wentworth and headed west toward the border along the Sturt Highway.

The area though well supplied with water from the Murray still looked arid in parts although there was extensive farming as well with fruit orchards, vineyards and potato farms just to name a few.

We stopped before the South Australian border to unload any fresh fruit and veg at the quarantine bins with Kerry hastily eating the last of her tomatoes and then headed to the Quarantine Station for inspection. The officers were fairly casual although Rose must have looked suspicious as they went through the Pearl and the Snowy with a fine-toothed comb even looking under the bed!

As we drove into South Australia the farmland continued along the banks of the Murray. We headed south to Loxton where we stopped for morning tea at a bakery and scored some freshly baked hot cross buns. Masks are still mandatory indoors in South Australia which took us a bit by surprise but fortunately we all still had some.

We continued the journey south and Trev realised that we were potentially cutting it fine on fuel to get to Bordertown – a quick inspection of the map revealed NO service stations until Bordertown. Trev hugged the rear end of a Jayco driven by a grey nomad at 90KM per hr – which improved our fuel economy…and just before we arrived we were delayed by a long goods train…..we got to the servo with 20km left in the tank….a close call! That was not the only close call on the journey – the Pearl was very eager not to get left behind and so jumped the gun at a few intersections (or was that a red light later in Mt Gambier??) just to make sure she remained close to the convoy!

Bordertown had a lovely park near the main entrance to the town so we stopped there to eat lunch before heading south towards Naracoorte.

The changing landscape kept the drive interesting -from sandy hills with vegetation growing out of them, to beef and sheep farms, vege, almond and fruit farms.

Further south the vegetation increased to larger gums and then pine forests. We drove though the Coonawarra wine region with multiple different vineyards beautifully arranged with plants such as roses lining the edges.

We arrived at Pine Country Caravan Park in Mt Gambier and caught up with Klaus and Beryl who had arrived earlier that day. After setting up and a BBQ dinner together everyone relaxed in the very fresh evening air (actually very cold and crisp)….and then hopped into bed.