We were up before light (it's not light until 7am) - having breakfast and trying to pack up quietly so as not to disturb the other free campers.
Just as light was breaking through - we started the engine and set off for our final of day driving to get to Melrose, at the foothills of Mt Remarkable National Park.
We stopped in Broken Hill and had a nice coffee - had a bit of a wander around and fuelled up again.
We will come back through here and have a better look on our way home.
It was not to be as long a drive today - but it turned out to be the hardest day of driving - as once you get out of Broken Hill it is just a relentless straight road with little variety in this dry flat landscape.
We crossed the border into SA at Coburn - well that was the way it was spelt coming in to the town from NSW - if you are coming in from the SA side the town name is Cockburn.
How do we know this??
Well Ruth wanted to turn around and go back to get the photo of the "Welcome to SA" sign so that is how we saw the name of the town coming in from the SA side as well.
On we went along this straight flat road until we started to signs about the quarantine restrictions coming into SA. This is something we did not know - and we realised we would be having to give up a lot of our fruit and veg.
So at our lunch stop at Yunta - a bit before the Quarantine Station checkpoint at Oodla Wirra ( they do have some funny named places here) we ate a very very large healthy lunch of salad and fruit. The only thing I had to give up was a lemon and an apple ( we just could not fit that apple in at lunch).
Yunta has the smallest swimming pool I think I have ever see - no wonder it was the "Children's Swimming Pool". Guess for such a small town basically in the middle of nowhere - where it gets pretty damm hot- they are lucky to have a pool at all.
On our way through Petersborough we decided to stop and have a wander around town to stretch our legs.
They have a very large steam train museum here on the edge of town but we decided to give it a miss as we needed to keep moving.
Along the last stretch of road from Orrooroo to Melrose the fields were very very dry and dusty and we saw little 'Willy Willy" whirlwind effects happening all around the countryside as we travelled through - we just could not find a spot to stop and try for a photo.
Just on the outskirts of Melrose is a plaque for Goyder's Line. I believe that his estimation of the limits for farming in SA - which became known as Goyder's Line - are still relevant today.
On arriving in Melrose at about 3.30pm we drove into town completely missing the sign to the Showground - this we found out when we asked at a local shop in the township.
So back out we went - it was only a couple of km - and after checking with the caretaker set up our camp at the Melrose Showground - right at the base of Mt Remarkable.
There is heaps of room here and not many campers - after the last couple of nights it is luxury as we have flushing toilets and hot showers.
We did enjoy watching these little birds getting a drink from a small leak in the tap near us.
With plenty of water here and a clothes line we took advantage of these facilities and caught up on the small amount of washing we had.
We enjoyed a lovely quiet evening under a mass of stars and after dinner and a couple of wines we were in bed again early.
It had been quite a hot day in Melrose today and tonight was going to be a warm night for sleeping.
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