Yes we have come a long way!  In more ways than distance!  We are back to the point in S.A., where we headed east to Broken Hill in NSW and then onto Tamworth, 6 months ago.  Since we left home we have travelled 15,819 kms, purchased 3,052 litres of fuel at a cost of just over $5,000 and Nomads Notes has calculated that it has cost us 32 cents a kilometre for our travel.  We have learnt to successfully use the built in navigator in the car and now "Just love that lady so much".  We are convinced we would not have been able to do it without her!  This is my 63rd blog, even though family and friends can only see 62!  I still have that damn Canberra one in draft.  I have a few more days still to complete, but I have put lots of info to my photos, so it will happen!  When Jenny and Delma suggested that we should be doing a blog, I never imagined I could be as committed as I have been, and enjoy recording the memories as much!  Even Peter has prepared two blogs and we noticed his 'Farmer Poem' was even published in the Valley Vibes.   As the grandies told me "The blogs have certainly increased in size and content Nanni"!  Probably increased in waffle too!  It is definitely the way to record ones travels though.  The comments have kept us very much in touch and we have enjoyed them immensely.  Some family and friends have commented through emails.  They are a bit frightened of posting!I've taken photos of 15 of the 50 BIG Aussie Icons, but I'm not disclosing how many photos I have taken.  Lots is enough info!  Good thing they are digital and can be deleted or stored on an EHD.  We feel very fortunate to have seen what we have of our wonderful country.  For four months that was with our very close Yuna friends, Kevin & Val.  We had lots of dinner parties and lots of fun and laughs together.  Tamworth, the reason we set off east, was definitely one of the highlights, and during the first month of our trip, we had lots of laughs and fun with Gary, Julie and Coral.Today, the 12th June we have travelled about 200 kms from Clare to Port Augusta.   We decided we would travel the B80, which on one tourist map is called the RM Williams Highway.  This route took us through farming land to Spalding.  From there we went to Jamestown, then the location of Black Rock and on to Orroroo.  From there to Wilmington and on through the Horrocks Pass of the Flinders Ranges and down to Port Augusta.At Spalding we stopped to look at the main tourist attraction 'The Pub'!  It has a 'Barbed Wire Museum', but unfortunately we had to be content with just a photo of the barbed wire fence onlong the roof of the verandah.  The Hotel is only open from 4pm till late on Mondays and on the other days of the week from Noon until late!  The next stop was Jamestown.  Along the way we took in the farming countryside and decided the early crops were doing quite well.  The crops that had not long been out of the ground were looking a bit dry, and there were some that had still not come up.  We don't think they are going to get much rain from this front either!  At Jamestown we came across an Information Bay about RM Williams.  Jamestown is the birthplace Reginald Murray Williams and a number of boards told his life story.  He was born on the 24th May 1908 and lived in the family home, a few kilometres from town.  Drought was one of the reasons the family moved to Adelaide, when Reg was 12.  As a young man he worked for an Aboriginal Mission and learnt many skills from the indigenous people.  After Reg's marriage he accepted a position at a Mission in northern S. A. and it was there, that he began to experiment with leather.  The rest of the story is definitely history!  There is more info in the Museum in Longreach, so we will check that out in a couple of months.  I now have the HEMA map on Peter's iPad working a treat, thanks to some instruction from Jenny.  I could see Magnetic Hill marked not far from where we were travelling.  So I found Jenny's blog on their visit to there and read it out to Peter to wet his appetite.  When we got to Black Rock, there was a sign that said 8 kms to Magnetic Hill.  We stopped!  Decisions, decisions!  After a few minutes he weakened and came with the suggestion that while I got lunch, he would unhook and after lunch we would go for a look.  'HE', being my dear hubby, was not keen to tow the van out there.  Not knowing where he would be able to turn around etc.  So after lunch out we went.  I could tell 'HE' would have loved to have told me "All this was going to be for nothing much"!  Surprise, surprise!  It worked for Jenny and Bob "Why wouldn't it be the same for us"?  It was a hoot, as Jenny says!  We did as the sign says and we were pulled back up the hill.  We moved quite fast too!  So I did as Jenny had done and took some video!  It must have been something to see the car and van being moved back up the rise!  Once we were hooked up again, we drove onto Orroroo.  We went through this town on our way to Broken Hill in January and had stopped in the main street to take some photos of metal kangaroos and an old water wheel.   At the time Peter questioned "Why they had a water wheel in such a town and in this location"?  Today we found out.  Being parked on the other side of the road this time, we could see an information plaque.  The water wheel is a replica of a 'Dethridge Wheel' and as the sign says, you are more likely to find it on irrigation blocks along the River Murray, than in Orroroo.  The Pekina Irrigation Scheme was set up north of Orroroo in 1910.  It watered 40 irrigated blocks from the Pekina Creek Reservoir.  'Dethridge Wheels' were installed along the open channels and were used to meter water usage.  At its peak the scheme supported up to 1,000 milking cows.  Cream from the dairy farms was sent to the internationally acclaimed 'S.A. Farmers Union Butter Factory' in Orroroo.  Dairy farming declined in the area in the late 1960's.  The butter factory closed in 1971 and the irrigation scheme abandoned in the late 1980's.  From there to the little town of Wilmington, which I thought when we first went through it, looked a nice little spot to stay for a night.  I must have been a bit more excited then!  Today the drive through was adequate.  Horrocks Pass and the drive through the Flinders Ranges was lovely.  Even though I had taken lots of snaps in January, I couldn't resist again today.  The range was so lovely and green!

We are on the same site at the Big4 Caravan Park here in Port Augusta, as we were last time.  So the trucks are as noisy too!  Tomorrow will be wash day and making time for a little cooking.  When I started this blog, that was all it was going to be.  Just a start!  Now just a few photos and it will be done!  Who would have thought travelling 200 kms along RM Williams Highway, through a few rural towns, would have provided so much to blog about?  Maybe it is waffle!  Whatever!  It is my story!  Cheers once again!  12 photos