Into South Australia at last!

For any dyed-in-the-wool Aussie no trip to Mildura would be complete without a visit to the Holden Car Museum. A private collection of this famous Australian car with models starting from 1948 through to around 1990. Although this collection does not cover every model Holden, it is still an impressive museum. Peter’s first car was an EJ Holden which was on display, and then he owned an LX Torana and the XU-1 version of this model was also on display. Carolina’s car is a VT Commodore, but unfortunately the models on display did not cover Commodores.
While Peter was browsing the Holden Museum , Carolina was taking in the sights of the Mildura city centre which has a great range of shops, cafes, and restaurants. It is a surprising city where we could have spent more time. But Adelaide and the Barossa Valley were beckoning!
As we crossed the border into South Australia the border is marked by the Quarantine requirements to dispose of all fruits and vegetables. The roadworks however stopped us dumping our food as they blocked off the only road to the quarantine bins! So we ended up at the Quarantine inspection border stop with all fruits and vegetables intact! Thankfully the inspector knew about the bins being blocked and agreed to waive any penalties providing we dumped all our goods with them. Whew!
It was painted silo time as Renmark and Waikerie on the way have some good ones. It must take a lot of time for the painters to finish such large paintings! The backdrop of the Murray River winding its way through these towns made the silo art all the more attractive.
Mid-afternoon we finally made it to the Barossa Valley and we were met with some wonderful autumn scenery with many of the grape vines and trees being brightly coloured with autumn leaves. Everywhere we went Carolina was agog with the scenery and exclaiming her delight in seeing such lovely countryside. We will enjoy exploring this region over the next 3-4 days.
Arriving at our free camp at Lambert’s Little Paradise the site was initially not as nice as we had hoped. The campsite receives great reviews and as we settled in amongst the surrounding gardens and the pool area we began to see it’s good features and it should be fine for the rest of our stay.Read more