Day 113

Day 113 Renmark

Sunnup Port Pirie

Camp at Port Pirie

Well our expedition is under way. We decamped from Port Pirie in a southerly direction and found the turnoff for the hinterlands. We thought instead of going down the coast and then turn inland towards Berri, we would go down the inland route to Gawler then turn left and head for Berri. We had consulted the maps and decided we had down the coast route some years before and it offered nothing new, so we

Big Paddock crops

Small Vineyards

would take the scenic route, no more kms but new unexplored country. We blazed our trail into the Flinders Ranges up steep climbs and deep valleys. The country has really changed. From Coastal plain into grain farmland. The farmers are in the middle of harvest and there are great swathes of paddocks either just stubble or in waiting for the header. We saw a couple in use with great dusty clouds around them and I expected Maureen to have a few issues with hay fever, but no problems. The road was

Back to big paddock crops

Jacob's Creek winery

obviously a secondary system, but apart from being narrow and bumpy, it did surprisingly well. I am still trying the manual use of my automatic gearbox and not using overdrive. It is certainly proving a smoother drive. The car tends to shudder slightly when it is trying to make its mind up to drop a gear or not and it does not seem to struggle up rises either. All in all I think I will use it whilst towing. The fuel

Penfolds boutique Winery

Penfolds Office

economy seems fine, I have not been very scientific about it but I think it is going better.

Once into the Ranges we turned south and followed it down to Gawler. There are a lot of road works going on with this system so we had a few stops here and there. This resulted in us losing some time on the road but not to worry. We hit Gawler and headed out. The country has changed again and it

View from our van in Renmark

Me enjoying it

slowly changes to mulga country with little scrubby trees and red flats. As you come into the Riverlands, there is a big sign saying you cannot keep your fruit and vegies unless you have an itemised receipt – big on the spot fines for having it. Well as you can imagine, we were not happy, no one said anything about this so a whole heap of fruit and vegies was again binned!

Mum and Dad take kids for swim

Tea by the river

Sunset Renmark

Sunset Renmark

On we pressed and arrived at Renmark. We have just pulled into the caravan park on the river with beautiful views and Maureen rode into town on her deadly treadly and got some vegies for tea and we are going over to the BBQ to have an early tea.