WEDNESDAY 31 MARCH   MILDURA TO PORT AUGUSTA   580kms

The day provided pleasant travelling weather. It was about 22 degrees, and cloudy. There were a few spits of rain.

It was a fair distance, but we reached Port Augusta comfortably. This was a route we’d travelled before, so there was no motivation to dawdle and sight see.

At the quarantine point east of Renmark, we had no fruit to surrender – I’d made sure we had no surplus vegetable matter. But I’d forgotten about a few onions, and they were surrendered.

As planned, we stopped in Renmark, and I did a big re-stock of fruit and vegetables at the supermarket.

Refuelled at Terowie – 96cpl. And again at Port Augusta, on the way into town, at the place where the trucks stop – also 96cpl.

Near Orroroo, we’d had a chat on the CB radio with a Trakmaster van that was behind us. It was a similar size to ours. They now hailed from Quorn in SA, but on the VKS Radio Network had a Romeo call sign, as they used to live in NSW. They had noticed our large aerial on Truck, and asked us if we belonged to the network. That was a pleasant interlude, while we drove.

We went into the usual Big 4 Holiday Park in Port Augusta – on the western side of town. After discount, this was $19.80 for the night. We were able to keep Truck and van hitched up, as the park was not too busy. It was a gravelled site now – we were in arid country.

Travelling west, we’d “gained” half an hour of time as we crossed into SA.