Everyone was up early packing up for the long drive to Port Augusta today…. Dave and Rose had been having radio issues – crackly reception and the range was hopeless…so Dave got onto cleaning the aerial in the hope of improving the reception….. Branch was no where to be seen – he had slept in and was now madly trying to get himself sorted for the journey….

We left Penong and not 5 minutes into the journey we heard an urgent call from Klaus to Dave to pull over as his caravan wheels appeared to be smoking…..could he have left the handbrake on accidentally??? Branch was frothing to get out and see when we all pulled over but alas – everything appeared OK with the van so we continued on….

Almost immediately another worried cry over the CB to Dave to stop as this time there was loads of white smoke coming from what now seemed to be the Pearl…. We all pulled over again and a concerned Dave called his son Aaron to ask his advice…. Branch felt fully rejected so refused to come out of the Ranger…..

Aaron solved the mystery of the smokin’ white Pearl – seems it was just a burn off to do with the particulate filter in the Landcruiser – nothing sinister and according to Aaron should burn off within 10 mins or so…. So we continued on again with no further smoking episodes from the Pearl.

It was a long day of driving over vast plains and a variety of landscapes.

We pulled over at Wudinna for a “stretch the legs” stop (aka toilet break) – Gordie could not resist the green grass – first lush grass we had seen in ages!!

It was at this point that Dave realised his van fridge was not working…. although they had parked a distance away??? to avoid detection??? – after closer inspection it was discovered that his Anderson plug had disconnected and was dragging along the road – all that was left was some mangled wires….. Anderson plugs are Branch’s favourite so he was really excited…. “Not the Anderson plug????” was the famous cry…. Fortunately Klaus had spare bits that Dave could utilise when we were at an appropriate campsite so a repair was in order…

Meanwhile in the Loveday van not only was the left caravan blinker STILL not working, the van frig connection had seemingly given up the ghost as well…. Reason undiagnosable at this stage as all connections were in tact….

We had planned to stop for lunch at Kimba – home of the Big Galah who looked like he had been given a makeover… unfortunately he made a big galah out of us as nothing was open for lunch in Kimba (Sunday arvo) and Gordie had been hoping for a bakery…. So we made lunch in the vans..,

A quick photo of the painted silos at Kimba and we were on our way….

The afternoon wore on as we drove past Iron Knob, the large mining complex where iron ore is mined.

In the distance the Flinders Ranges came in to view.

We arrived in Port Augusta and headed for the Sports Club Motorhome Park where we free camped for the night…

Branch got stuck in to repairing Daves Anderson Plug……

After setting up we had happy hour – Klaus produced the biggest bag of Costco chips we had ever seen.

That night we listened to the next instalment on Titus and enjoyed some time in discussion before  hopping in to bed….