We are now on the last leg of the way home to Brisbane, not San Jose. But we need to get the maps out to find the way. At least in order to do it in 250-350km leaps.

Doing this means Allthego has had to throw out his prearranged stops from nearly four months ago. We are doing it off the cuff and stopping when fatigue sets in and a rest is required, or where it is just a nice spot to stop.

Our first stop after Penong was at Wudinna, a farming community along the Eyre Hwy at the top of the Eyre Peninsula. We stayed in the local Recreation Grounds camping sites. No grass and plenty of loose gravel but it was just an overnighter. There were a lot of young lambs in the paddocks along the way. Allthego saw the opportunity for a lamb chop, but Homealone was reluctant to acquire fresh lamb from the local butcher. We are running down the freezer. Maybe another time!

On the way to Port Augusta we passed through Kimba. This town claims to be half way across Australia and has a big galah out the front of a roadhouse. The galah has had a recent refresh and looks superb! There is nearby Silo art as well.

After passing through Port Augusta we crossed over the southern Flinders Ranges and camped for the night at Wilmington at the Stoney Creek Bush Camp.

Great spot with big sites overlooking nearby farming land. They had some local olive oil and honey available too for the van’s cellar.

From Wilmington we made our way east through Orroroo to Peterborough.

Peterborough was a big rail town in the days of steam and varying gauge widths. It was where many trains terminated because of gauge differences. There is a big rail museum there full of history and story telling from those days.

From Peterborough the Barrier Hwy took us towards the NSW/SA border at Cockburn. Along this section of highway the road tracks very close to the trans continental railway line, the Indian Pacific passes along it between Sydney and Perth. Unfortunately, we were a couple of hours out and missed it en route.

Cockburn has been a location setting for a number of movies (or parts of movies) over the years. ‘Wake in Fright’ (1971) perhaps the best known. There is a bit of memorabilia from the various film sets in the bar area.

Cockburn is a town of six, two run the hotel and another two the Border Diner (this used to be a hotel). What the other two do we wouldn’t have a clue! But we stayed the night in the modest caravan park with three other vans. The publican runs the park, power but no water. Us nomads eight all up outnumbered the residents! Four of us had dinner in the hotel and were the only customers. Choice of fish n chips, chicken schnitzel and steak schnitzel. Chips and salad, tartare sauce for all three. Not too bad indeed.

In the morning we tried the Border Diner for a bacon and egg brekkie, also ok. Thoroughly recommend this stop for something different.

Moving along through Broken Hill we are now at ‘Warrawong on the Darling’. A van park beside a Darling River billabong, just outside Wilcannia.