All good things come to an end and so after breakfast we packed our gear into the car ready to begin our return trip home. We waited until Adelaide’s peak hour was over before heading through Adelaide’s eastern suburbs.

For non Australians here’s a sign you only see in Australia. Given the traffic we didn’t expect to see any koalas (who are generally nocturnal) during the day anyway.

Heading further east we came to the tunnels that lead below part of the Adelaide hills.

Within half an hour we had traversed the hills and came to the Murray Bridge turn off. The highway bypasses the town but we thought we’d take a short detour.

This was so we would actually cross the Murray River.

Here is the scene as we crossed.

After passing through the town we made our way back to the highway. This part of South Australia is a farming area and the massive silos such as these at the little town of Coomandook were evidence of this.

We stopped at Tintinara for a drink stop and driver swap. Loved this colourful mural.

An hour later we came to Bordertown. As we were hungry we stopped here for lunch which we purchased at the very busy bakery and ate in a nearby park. We swapped driver again and continued on. This sign told us there was a bit of a way to go. Just as well we weren’t doing the whole drive in one day.

We crossed back into Victoria just before 14:00.

The painted sheep sculptures of Kaniva stood out as we drove through. The locals take pride in their town for sure. As we’d had a good look on the way over we didn’t stop this time though.

Many of the little farming towns through this part of Victoria and South Australia have dwindling populations. In some cases only the pub survives. We weren’t even sure if that was the case with the Little Desert Hotel as we passed by.

On the approach to Dimboola we did stop to see the Pink Lake, along with quite a few other travellers. The water level was quite low and the renowned pink colour was a disappointing shade of grey.

Just on 16:00 we arrived in Horsham, a town which seems to be doing quite well in its position about halfway between Adelaide and Melbourne. We booked into a nice little cabin at the Horsham Riverside Caravan Park for the night. Our next door neighbours certainly had a more eye catching vehicle than us to travel in.

After going back into town and buying a few things for dinner we took a walk along the Wimmera River with its avenue of beautiful eucalypts as the daylight was coming to an end.

The sunset sky was spectacular.

The serenity broken by the chorus from hundreds of birds roosting in the eucalypts along the river bank.

Back at our cabin we prepared dinner and settled in for an early night, having driven 430 kms that day.

Next post we finish our return roadtrip back home to Dromana.