Continuing from Dimboola I passed by Nhill, odd name, unless you're a local Aboriginal who knows ones history, and came across the South Australian border!

Leaving Victoria I thought again that Victoria is a really nice state to travel in. It has such diverse scenery. You can see several different bits of country in a short time. Reminds me of California where you can drive from cluttered city to snow fields on mountain tops and on into desert within a space of 3 hours, Victoria is like that.... only without the desert! Once again I was bemused by the lack of interstate signage in Victoria, there are plenty of signs telling of upcoming Victorian towns but no mention of anything across the border!

I passed through.....

and then......

At Coonalpyn I diverted off the highway and went across to Meningie on the edge of lake Albert. I wanted to have a look at the Murray outlet and see if any of the salinity issues reported in the media were visible.

Very pretty lakescape.......

From there I ran along the shorelines to Tailem Bend and saw lots of wetlands with no shortage of various water birds etc..... From the road I couldn't see any signs of salinity. Doesn't mean there isn't any!

Since crossing the border into SA I kept seeing these signs that say "STOP CREEPING"...I couldn't work out what they were about, any Ideas????

Tailem Bend, I guess because there's a bend in the Murray river near its tail???? Makes sense to me!! Not sure what the train has to do with it.

I was going to hop off the free way at Murray Bridge, but somehow missed the turn off! Like Tailem Bend, Murray Bridge is called so because there is a bridge....over the Murray river!

So I leapt off the free way at Callington and got on the old highway, much more scenic and windy. I stopped at Mt Barker......

FOR LUNCH..................!!!

While here I asked the waiter about the STOP CREEPING signs, he said it was a campaign being run to stop people creeping a few kmh's over the speed limit. Now you know!

Stuffed chicken breast on a lentil bed, I ate it's bed as well....very yummy.

There were a lot of really cool roadways with nice tree covers...................

And some really nice old houses built 2 centuries ago

And some old houses which have been converted into duplex units..... nice!

Then I came across ADELAIDE............

I found Adelaide to have changed a fair bit. It's really become a city. I found none of the appeal in the place that I remember from my last visit, which was 34 years ago! Even for a Sunday afternoon the traffic was terrible. And without a map or GPS you'd get quite lost as all the big green road signs didn't have street or road names and suburbs or towns on them but just arrows with national highway numbers!! Imagine coming to a multi-intersection and the big road sign on the overhead has 5 arrows all labeled A45, B26, D5, A86,N3..... Doesn't help much really!

Next stop Gawler, north of Adelaide on Main North Road.... seems a logical name for the main road north!

Gawler is the biggest town near where I spent the first 5 years of my life. My father got a job teaching near there when I was about a year old.

And Roseworthy Agricultural College is where he worked.

And this is the house we lived in... Still looks the same except there was a big pine type tree beside it which isn't there anymore. I have fond memories of climbing that tree trying to reach the clouds, not succeeding, and falling out of it ending in cuts, bruises and pain......

This is where the first school I attended was! When I started grade 1 it was a typical school house from the 50's. I spent the first half of grade 1 there and then we moved to America. It was at this school where I had my first realisation that I was different than the average bear. The teacher didn't like a kid always asking questions about everything... insatiable curiosity!

So in this weekend past I have visited all the places I knew and remember from the first 5 years of my life, in Australia that is.

I kept going north and finished up, once again in a motel, in Port Augusta. The motellier that served me is an Indian man with a strong accent and a real mumble... I couldn't hear half of what he said. He met me at the room with the key and remote for the TV and as he walked off he addressed every motel door back to his office with "here is your key and remote"... I suspect some neural misfiring in his head! 

From here I will head west tomorrow!

806km