This was our first trip for 2019 after staying home for the whole of Summer, too busy & too hot for our liking. We left home early & caught the first ferry from Sorrento to Queenscliff, always a pleasant way to start a trip. It was Sunday so the traffic along the Princes Highway via Warrnambool was fairly light. We have relations along this part of the Victorian Coast, we've pretty much camped along all of it over many years. We arrived early afternoon at Fort Ohare free camp at Dartmoor. We've stayed there three times in the past seven years, its a convenient place to stay overnight when heading to SA. After a long drive & a smooth setup we sat down to enjoy a pre-dinner glass of wine. For some unknown reason Keith leaned on our spare wheel on the rear bumper of our caravan & discovered that there was a lot of movement. The weld had broken for the second time that we've had our caravan since new. We'd almost lost the lot! Nothing else mounted on the bumper, its stock standard. Next morning on our daily fitness walk we saw an engineering workshop & planned to head there after packing up. The Navara fired up as normal & we went to move off, but it couldn't pull our caravan. We called the RACV & after checking it all over he said it was fine. Keith invited him to jump in as a passenger & see what happened. Embarrassingly it towed away absolutely like normal. Lesson number one, if your tug goes into limp mode turn the ignition off, wait a few minutes & turn it back on. Off to the engineering works we went & after a good piece of bush ingenuity, welding/strengthening our bumper was as solid as a rock, better than before. After all the mucking around we decided to stay another night.

Bush engineering at its best.

Our next stop was the fantastic RV camp at Kingston SE in SA, our third visit. It used to be a free camp with a 24hr limit, its now $10 for up to 48hrs with a ticket machine & a ranger that does a check every morning. Its still a great stopover & good value, near the beach, pier, hotel & seafood outlets. We planned to stay for only one night but the next day was extremely windy so we stayed our full 48hrs, delicious scallops & chips.

Moving right along we headed along the Coorong towards the mouth of the Murray River. We planned to stay at the small campground beside the Salt Creek roadhouse which we had done previously but luckily while browsing the internet we discovered that it had been closed down by the owners. There's now no fuel available between Kingston SE & Meningie, a distance of around 150kms. Before reaching Meningie we turned off the highway & headed down the dusty corrugated road to Parnka Point in Coorong National Park. There was no-one around & we found a nice site overlooking the lake & rang Parks SA to pay $15 for one night. Parnka Point is a great place for doing our main interest of wildlife photography. We rang Meningie Caravan Park to book a site for the next night & were told due to Adelaide Cup long weekend they were booked out. A hurried phone call to Parks SA & we booked our Parnka Point site for three more nights. At this point we were thinking what else could go wrong! As it was we really enjoyed our stay & most sites around us were booked out over the weekend.

With fingers/ toes crossed we headed to Kapunda Caravan Park for a two night stay via Murray Bridge, Mannum, Sedan & Truro. Next day we headed for the Barossa Valley with just the car. Maggie Beere's Farm Shop near Nuriootpa was our first stop. They have samples of every product they make, they all tasted great & we spent too much money but hey, who cares! Next stop was our favourite winery, Yalumba Estate at Angaston where were had a local produce platter for two for lunch with a glass of red each on lovely vine clad patio in warm sunshine. On the way back to camp we called in at the Barossa Valley Cheese Co. for some more gourmet delights.

 Lunch at Yalumba Winery.

We had no intention of going anywhere near Adelaide so we headed up through Auburn & the Clare Valley to Murray Town Community RV Campground for two nights ($7 per night). The last time we'd seen the Clare Valley was back in the mid-seventies, its incredibly busy & trendy these days! We were the only ones staying at the RV Park, its a great setup & all the locals gave us a friendly wave as they passed by. Next we planned to stay at Melrose for a few nights & explore Mt Remarkable National Park but the park was closed for a week due to feral animals being culled/shot. Instead we drove a little further to Wilmington. Turning off the highway we headed down a dusty road to Stoney Creek Bush Camp Caravan Park ($20 per night), another lovely spot, we stayed three nights. This CP has a great cook that makes fantastic pizzas & take-away food that's popular with campers & the locals in town. Nearby is Han****s Lookout, reached via a steep rough track, it has fantastic views over Spencer Gulf to the Eyre Peninsula. We were by ourselves at Stoney Creek except for one night when a busload of Groovy Graper's arrived & a Harley Davidson motorcycle club had a gathering for its AGM. Its a big area & we slept through it all with a tummy full of pizza & red wine. We also had a day driving to Port Augusta via Horrocks Pass, more good scenery. Before leaving Wilmington we had a 4kg gas bottle filled at the general store/hardware, $29 OUCH!

 View from Han****'s Lookout with Spencer Gulf & Eyre Peninsula in the distance.

Moving further north we arrived at Quorn Caravan Park with lovely shade & beautifully native plant landscaped gardens. The Pichi Richi railway wasn't in service, a bit disappointing. We did a few trips to Warren Gorge & Dutchman's Stern National Park, enjoying some great bush walks. The weather so far on the trip had been quite hot. The prices quoted for CPs are for an unpowered sites as a powered site would have been a waste of money, our fridge wasn't working on 240V for the second time. Our fridge is fixed now, since we bought our caravan new its failed to work on gas twice as well. Not happy Jan!

 Quorn station & visitors centre.

Dutchman's Stern NP.

Last year we successfully bid on a ten night stay at Rawnsley Park Station in the Flinders Ranges, cost around $200 instead of $350. What a great place it is, not far away from Wilpena Pound. During our stay we did a lot of bush walking, photography & driving through the many gorges & Blinman/Parachilna (about 400kms). The Flinders Ranges are all they are cracked up to be. The area was incredibly dry but one day we had 37mm, the best rain that they'd had in many years according to the rangers that we spoke to. The onsite Woolshed Restaurant serves beautiful meals, we had the lamb platter, Telstra mobile, internet & TV reception is poor but who cares, you're in the iconic Australian Outback.

Typical Flinders Ranges scenery.

Arkaroo Rock gallery.

Emu, just had a bath in a rainwater puddle.

More scenery.

Bearded Dragon at Oraparinna.

Here comes the old Ghan into Parachilna Station.

Iron horseman sculpture Parachilna Station.

Thanks for reading/viewing. Part two to follow.

Cheers Judy & Keith