For a change we woke to clear skies and no fog, unlike the last couple of days. But that was short-lived and fog settled down on us around 9.

We thought that the country around Mildura would be all orchards and grapes and food-growing but to the west it was not so. Dry flat land with stands of Mallee reached all the way to the South Australian border.

Signs along the road demanded that we eat our fruit or throw it out and that failure to do so would incur dire consequences. A fine of $11 000 seems dire enough to me, so we ate some and handed over a small bag of grapes at the impressive quarantine station a couple of kilometres on. An inspection of our car and camper for illegal immigrant vegetables and fruit was, oh I can't resist it, fruitless…

Once over the border, we followed the Murray along some of its course. We turned to the north-west to avoid Adelaide. But the river was not finished with us yet. On our back road, the way was interrupted by the distinct lack of a bridge. A small car ferry took us on a leisurely crossing while we had great vista of high banks, cliffs really, dropping vertically into the water.

Once over the river, the country surrounding Adelaide started as saltbush-dry but soon morphed into beautiful lush grazing land. Many abandoned stone cottages dotted the paddocks and we speculated whether they were from the days of the first settlers to the region. The small towns were certainly from the late 1800s and boasted beautiful old stone houses and shops with wide verandas over the footpaths. The lovely little town of Peterborough also had a significant railway past and ancient engines were on display along the main street.

This time we found a gem of a campsite - Stony Creek Bush camp, just outside Wilmington to the north of Adelaide near Port Augusta. The owner had bought the place as a derelict campsite and was slowly fixing the place up. Fire pits were provided along the banks of a stony creek (!) and we joined some other wanderers and sat around a blazing campfire till late.