With only a short drive in front of us today, we were really in no hurry to depart. We did however manage to leave just before 9:00am for the 2 hour drive to Renmark.
Whist the weather was still (or so it seemed to be), it was overcast and we had a few drop of rain during the trip. For reasons that cannot be explained, fuel consumption was around the 17 litre mark whilst speed was maintained around the 90kph mark.
The highlight of the trip was the quarantine stop just before Renmark. We produced evidence to support the oranges we were taking into South Australia, no problem, but we had a lettuce taken. The lettuce came from NSW (which is allowed), but because we were entering South Australia from Victoria, the lettuce was illegal. Figure that because we cannot. The inspector had a quick look in the caravan and we were on our way very quickly.
We arrived early at the caravan park and were allowed to setup. We are a couple of rows back from the river which is actually a couple of dollars cheaper. We are closer to the main highway so our saved couple of dollars might not be worth it if the trucks are noisy.
We spoke to friends who we were meeting in Renmark and they arrived about 1 hour later. We spent several hours talking before making arrangements for tomorrow. Whilst we were talking, we received a phone call from the visitors centre at Roxby Downs informing us that BHP had decided to change days for the Olympic Dam mine surface tour and unfortunately the new time starts from next week and the day we had booked to go on the tour. Our time had been cancelled. We now need to decide if we actually go to Roxby Downs as the attraction was the mine tour. We were going to Andamooka which is an opal mining town but only because we had to go through Roxby Downs first. We might stay at Port Augusta a little longer or look at going to Whyalla. Port Lincoln came to mind but the return distance is about 700k’s.
After a quick visit to the local Visitors Centre, we returned to the caravan park and spent sunset on the banks of the Murray River photographing the sunset and the pelicans that were entertaining us. We cooked our evening meal in the excellent camp kitchen and we are watching “Red Dog” on television as we write this blog entry. Tomorrow we will look at the local attractions including photo opportunities to the north of the city plus several wineries.