What is a road trip or, for this matter a boat trip, without hick-ups and diversions!? Although in this case it started earlier than anticipated.
The road out of Renmark, our first stop in South Australia, leads over three bridges crossing the Murray River and its sidearms. On this morning the crossing for trucks and caravans was rather slow and precarious as high building fences narrowed the lanes and made crossing a squeeze. “I could do with some fenders on the van” was Austin’s comment.
We turned off the highway into the long backroad to the top of the Eyre Peninsula which was going to be our destination for the day. I wasn’t happy about going all the way to a place called Iron Knob about 460km away and whinged in Austin’s ear to stop at Burra for the night.
Well our good Ford Ranger must have heard me because the car seemed to loose power and started chewing through the diesel at a much faster rate.
As the next 2000km would lead across the Nullarbor Plain where you don’t want to get stuck with car trouble, we decided to stay in Burra and organised to have the car checked in nearby Clare. Burras beautiful stone buildings are from the time in the early 19th century when a shepherd discovered copper and Burra became a magnet for multinational miners and tradesmen. Two groups of merchants, traders and bankers vied for the mining rights. Eventually the two companies put their funds together and with typical Aussie irony, the locals called them the "Nobs and Snobs”. When the gold rush in Victoria put an end to the copper mines, Burra reverted back to a quiet rural community.
Having had the car checked and the ant problem in the caravan under control we resumed our trip and headed to the Eyre Highway. Our next stop was at the Pandurra Sheep Station. Next to the large shearing shed the owners have created all the necessary facilities for campers. This also includes a dining room offering happy hour and meals at night. Lamb shanks were the special that night, yet
having watched the little lambs around the farm, I chose not to eat their brother. There were 4 sets of campers from 3 different states around the dinner table, and we all had a great natter over a good meal and glass of red.
The next morning the highway lead us to Kimba. “Kimba" is the aboriginal name for ‘waterhole’. The town is known for the painting on the enormous silos. South Australian artist Cam Scale used 200 litres of paint for his country scene.
Well, everything is “big" in Australia, and so it is no wonder that Kimba, abound with the colourful birds, is the town of the Big Galah. Although which galah on the picture on the right is the biggest - you’ll be the judge!
There are still some trees and hills in this area, so we are not quite on the Nullarbor Plain, but we surely are on the longest straightest highway ever! It is named after the explorer Edward John Eyre, who with help of his trusted indigenous friends crossed the continent from Sydney to the Swan River in WA. In Kimba he is looking over some of the territory, compass in hand and aboriginal tracker Wylie by his side. A good spot to survey what is ahead as here they were halfway across Australia! 
We were on the search for another waterhole and so shortly after Kimba we turned off the highway and down into the Eyre Peninsula. 
Here we stumbled upon the so-called “Murphy’s Haystacks”, strange looking rock formations shaped by the sea and named “Inselbergs” (Island mountains) by a German settler. And that was just what they were before the waters receded and they became stranded within farmer Murphy’s paddocks.
At Streaky Bay we stayed at the Streaky Bay Island caravan Park, a beautifully kept park 4 km out of town, but so much nicer than the downtown one and with a view right over the Bay. To celebrate the view in style, we had our first aperol spritz watching the sunset! In the morning we toured along dirt roads to 2 of the nearby capes with wonderful views over turquoise/blue waters, white sand dunes and ochre cliffs.
Further south at Point Labatt we had great fun watching the sea lions lazying in the sun and the younger ones frolicking in the Southern Ocean.