Day Twenty-one - Friday 10th April - Clare to The Coorong/ Swan Hill Racing through the wine regions…..

We said our fond goodbyes, and Jude and Graeme headed for home. They may not have been so sad for us to go as Ewan is an early-riser (usually well before 7am) and once Liz gets up in need of immediate coffee, they make a lot of noise and wake up their fellow travellers. Jude was not impressed! (Apparently, they very much enjoyed a sleep-in without Ewan’s dulcet tones the next morning!). Meanwhile we headed south to The Coorong. The landscape was so different to the dry plains and towering mountains we had become accustomed to. And so green….the livestock we saw looked plump and well-fed compared to the emaciated animals we saw trying to survive further north.This time we passed through the Barossa without buying a single bottle of wine! We all had to drive at some point as we covered many kilometres. Liz and I are fine on the straight highways, but we are slower than Ewan when we reach the curves. As we reached to Coorong there were more salt pans and some were quite pink. It was lovely to see the water and the sand bars and the coastline.

We passed through Meningie checking out the Caravan Park as we went, but opted to free camp at the Pelican Campground on a tiny thin peninsula with water on both sides. A beautiful spot under the trees only metres from a long sandy beach. The views from our site were lovely.The only problem was that the toilets were a kilometre away, so we had to drive if there was an urgent call of nature! Although I say it was free camping, we still had to pay SAParks a few dollars to camp there. Initially we were the only occupants, but another two campsites were taken by nightfall: not that they were anywhere near us.

We wandered along the beach and watched the sunset before heading back to camp. No campfires allowed and the temperature dropped dramatically as night fell. After we all had as many layers as possible on, including beanies and gloves, we decided to decamp to the caravan. It was the first time that we had done that, although we did resist turning the heater on, so we weren’t complete sulks. Liz was intent on reading her Book Club book and Ewan and I streamed an SBS TV series so everyone was catered for. The sea mist started to roll in …… Your chilly but well-protected correspondent Dianne