We have come a long way since we last updated our trip. We have toured down through Coffin Bay to Port Lincoln at the bottom of the Eyre Peninsula, and then up through Whyalla to Port Augusta and down to Meadows passing through Adelaide and up the Lofty Ranges which was a challenge successfully tackled by the ute. We have now arrived in Kerang, Victoria, where Ray's father and brother live.

Port Lincoln is a much bigger place than I thought, with a marina with lots of large fishing boats and apartments fronting the canals. The wharf also has huge facilities. We watched semis coming in to the marina with loads of pilchards bagged up in 1 ton lots to load on to the tuna boats. The supervisor told us each boat takes out 22 tons a day (worth about $25,000.00) to feed the tuna. I don't know how many boats there were, but there are huge amount of money tied up in the industry. Whyalla was also a big industrial port, a very dry place which reminded me of Alice Springs with red dirt and no lawns around. It also had a nice beach and a good sheltered boat ramp for small boats.

Meadows is south of Adelaide, to the west of Mt. Barker in the Adelaide hills. It was very green there and cold. We have friends there who we stayed with for a couple of nights. They have a business down in Adelaide and live up in the hills on a small farm. They also have cows about to calve. We went for a drive down to Victor Harbour/Goolwa and Strathalbyn with them. The scenery in the Adelaide Hills is beautiful with very windy roads and steep hills.

We are now in Kerang washing the locusts off the ute and caravan (we came through a locust plague at Pinnaroo near the SA/VIC border). I think we are going to get roped into helping 'Pop' get the sheep in for shearing before we head off for the Holbrook farm in NSW. EF