Everyone was up and keen to get on the road – in particular Matt and Sharon who were packed and ready to go before anyone else…apart from a last-minute teeth clean!

We drove out of Mildura and into the countryside which was still very much farmland interspersed with scrub.

Arriving at the fruit disposal station, we all ditched any fresh fruit prior to the quarantine inspection at the border into South Australia…

…everyone passed through with no issues except for Matt and Sharon who had a fridge explosion issue – the door had come open during transit… or was it due to the presence of a blue troll??

We drove on through Renmark taking some quick pics of the silo art then crossed the Murray again ….

and drove past more orchards and a Big Orange…

We continued on to our morning tea stop at Morgan. The Crossroads Pantry in Morgan looked inviting, so we went in and Trev was instantly captivated by the caramel slices. Gordie scored himself a great bulk pie deal and we all enjoyed coffee before hitting the road again.

There was a slight Branch moment in the Loveday Ranger as the Blue Screen of Death appeared on the rear camera…. however it was easily rectified by MacGyver and we were on our way.

Time was of the essence as we had to get to Port Pirie (or as Trev put it “Port Puree”) by 230 to get the leaking pressure gauge on the Loveday van attended to.

The countryside was ever changing – from rolling hills to farmland, then red dirt and saltbush….

We went through Burra where there were some lovely old homesteads… and just out of Burra the famous ruin that appeared on the cover of Midnight Oil’s Diesel and Dust album – Matt and Sharon were keen to have their pic taken at the location…

Arriving in Port Pirie, the rest of the group headed to Solomontown Beach for lunch while we went to the Northern Caravan and Outdoor Centre that we had called earlier to book in for the gas repair…which went very smoothly with Branch supervising initially and then taking a step back to let the professional get on with it!

Soon we were all headed towards Port Augusta with views towards the southern end of the Flinders ranges coming into view… not to mention the windfarms, massive goods trains and salt pans….

Passing quickly through Port Augusts with just a brief fuel stop we drove back into barren but starkly beautiful countryside glowing in the late afternoon sun.

We were aiming to get to a free camp near Lincoln Gap (The Tanks) and finally arrived just on sunset setting up camp in a truck stop…. Wait … no … Trev located (on foot) a better option so we quickly moved to the caravan section which was much more salubrious…..

Unfortunately, Branch heard a shout from the Bowyer camp prior to the move… they needed assistance as the trailer had rolled back into the bumper (Ouch!) and damaged it slightly… seemed they had forgotten to chock the wheels…

Anyway, we all set up while the sun set over the sparse landscape creating beautiful colours.

As the wind was howling, we ate dinner in the vans – spag bol for the majority apart from Matt and Sharon who get the Dreampot Corned Beef protein fix!!

We then planned the next day’s journey while the 4 (who will remain nameless) Farmer wants a Wife addicts watched the latest episode. Matt and Sharon did their Monday prayer meeting group while Klaus received a lesson from Trev in Monopoly Millionaire….