Days 81-86, 1,410 - 1,534km Renmark to Morgan

Ok SA, it's too much. YOU'RE too much. Just stop it, ok? Why is everyone here so bloody NICE?! It's freaking insane! I've never felt so welcomed and supported, anywhere. I've been overwhelmed by the messages of support, the offers of help, and the incredible community response that has occurred over and over since crossing the border. No offence Victoria, but South Australia ROCKS! (and obviously I don't actually want it to stop, ha ha 🤣)

We had a totally chilled out day at Renmark, the boys gorging themselves on hay gifted by local legend Nirvana, and then an exciting morning heading out in a thunderstorm and being rained on, Richard looking exceptionally ridiculous with a bale of hay on his back, like a donkey from the third world (shhh, don't tell him I said that! He's a very vain beast). As we were ambling through Monash, we were ambushed by a local farmer (whose name I missed, sorry!) with a bale of lucerne on his ute, who dropped it off at our campsite at the crossroads. Half an hour after setting the boys up, I found myself chatting with Ally and her dad Rob, two locals who dropped by just to say hi, beer in hand, brainstorming routes from Burra towards WA. See what I mean? Everybody's just freaking lovely here!

The next day we started the morning with a nice chat with truck driver Mark, before hitting up the road again, Richard looking just as ridiculous as the day before, his hay untouched. We had an ambly kind of day, following motorbike paths beside the highway. Never thought I'd be thanking motorbike riders, but huge thanks as their work kept us off the highway and out of trouble. After checking out the historic coaching inn at Overland Corner (I was tempted to sell the boys and buy the place - what a great spot!), we were back on the road for a long day to the Waikerie ferry, having a little chat to journalist Steph along the way. The day became a little longer than I'd anticipated.... the lovely section of river right next to the road where I'd intended to camp was, in fact, a 50m cliff face with river access impossible. Ah well, down to the ferry it was. ...

And then the next day Smicko had a nervous breakdown. There's actually no other way to descibe it. From the get go he was nervous when saddling up (not helped by the truck load of pigs we watched crossing the river... horses and pigs are a bad combo!), then just started running circles like a lunatic, his freaky eye rolling like a total psycho. We got about 3km up the road before he exploded and they both bolted.... Luckily only a couple of metres before I pulled Mr Richard around and caught Micky, but they were on edge and the wind was picking up, the road far too narrow with far too much traffic for me to feel comfortable having a battle with both boys for the next 10km. So I tried swapping the saddles to see if that helped, and when it didn't, I gave up and set up camp in a sheltered spot by a lagoon. By this time the wind had picked up even more, causing Micko to hunch up every time a gust came through, blowing in dust and making us all pretty on edge. So an unexpected rest day it was. Thanks heaps to Emily in Waikerie, whose calm assurances that I could get feed just across the river helped me not panic at the thought that we might never be able to leave and Tickles may have lost his mind forever.

The next morning we hit the road, and yes it was still windy, and yes Micky was still a bit psycho, but with a 43km day ahead, I'd worn him out by lunchtime and he was back to his doped up self again. A HUGE thanks to Leah, who sent me a message in the morning just to ask if we were ok, which is probably the nicest thing ever.

And so we arrived in Morgan. We were welcomed by the super kind and hospitable folks at the caravan park, who were more than happy to accommodate the equines. A bale of hay was waiting for the boys, dropped off by Emma, and then within an hour of setting up camp, I found that all my problems had been solved by this fantastic Riverland community. Leah, the lovely lady who checked in on us yesterday, knew the publican in Morgan, who knew McEvoy Mitchell racing stables across the river, and before I knew what was happening, a lovely fellow drove across to the caravan park today with a WHOLE UTE LOAD of feed for me to pick and choose from. You know what, words fail.

See what I mean? South Australia is great. Everyone here is amazing. I feel like I have a whole crowd of invisible (and sometimes visible!) supporters behind us, solving my problems and making life easy. A HUGE thank you to everyone - you're the best 💗💗💗🌾🌾🌾🏇🏇🤠 Today is a little break for the boys (they have some serious munching to do to get through all this feed!), and then a few days of station-hopping across to Burra. From Burra.... anyone have any route suggestions? Obviously we're heading towards Port Augusta and the Nullabor, but how we get there is a bit up in the air at the moment, so any suggestions would be much appreciated 👍