A few days of slow wandering - Pooncarrie NSW to the Adelaide Hills SA via Wentworth NSW and Renmark SA

Days 6-10

The past few days have been about slowing the pace - a mix of life admin, cycling, river time, parkrun, and a long‑overdue catch‑up with an old friend. All very much in keeping with our ever‑evolving travel guidelines.

We left Pooncarie and headed towards Wentworth, via an essential stop at Bunnings Mildura. Given Stephen had been working on Izzy until 10pm the night before we left Sydney, the first week on the road has been a good shakedown. Nothing major has come up — just the usual tweaks and adjustments that needed sorting. All good… until the next thing pops up.

We spent two nights in Wentworth, NSW, and this stop was anything but random. For those who know the story, my driver’s licence expires in August, which is inconvenient when you’re planning to be on the road for a year. My attempt to be organised and renew it early in Sydney failed spectacularly - you can renew up to six months in advance, and this means exactly six months, not a day earlier. Add in the requirement for an eye test and a photo, and online renewal was off the table.

As luck would have it, 26 February marked exactly six months, and there just happens to be a Service NSW office in Wentworth. Problem (mostly) solved.

Wentworth turned out to be a great place to land. Once again, we found ourselves camped by a river — this time the mighty Murray, river number three in our growing Australian river‑camping collection. The sandy banks were perfect for swimming, pelican watching, and generally doing not much at all.

The licence saga isn’t quite over — instead of handing you the physical card on the spot, they post it to a NSW address. Not ideal when you don’t really have one for twelve month. So the licence is currently heading towards Stephen’s parents’ place in the Gables, after which we’ll work out how to forward it. I do at least have an updated digital version, though whether that’s accepted everywhere depends on the state or territory. A bridge to cross later.

With the admin out of the way, we spent the rest of the day exploring Wentworth on wheels. This is where the Darling and Murray Rivers meet, and there are several great vantage points to see the confluence. We climbed the viewing tower and cycled out to the end of Junction Island Nature Reserve, where Australia’s two largest rivers come together.

Other Wentworth highlights included:

• an excellent curio‑cum‑hardware store

• the canoe tree, a reminder of how the Barkindji people used the river red gums, carefully cutting and peeling the bark to form canoes

• Lock 10, built in 1929 to regulate water flow and support irrigation

• and the nearby Perry Sandhills, 400 acres of ever‑shifting dunes where megafauna remains have been found.

The sandhills also have a cinematic history — serving as filming locations for Burke & Wills, The Flying Doctors, Boney, The Man from Snowy River II, and even Slim Dusty’s Looking Forward, Looking Back.

We were particularly taken with the ‘God Tree’, estimated to be over 500 years old. Over time, sand has buried its trunk entirely, allowing us to stand right within the canopy. It’s a magnificent piece of nature — and one that feels like it has many stories to tell.

From Wentworth we crossed the border into South Australia, negotiating the strict quarantine checks (no fruit or vegies), and made our way to Renmark — partly because the next day was Saturday and Renmark had a parkrun. Renmark parkrun was really picturesque, following a riverside boardwalk the entire way.

Once again, we camped by the Murray, with swims, golden sunsets and glowing sunrises becoming part of the daily rhythm. 

From there, we headed south into the Adelaide Hills, passing through a string of quaint towns, including the very kitsch Hahndorf  - Australia’s oldest surviving German settlement. We skipped the steins and apple strudel but were very excited to discover peanut butter Violet Crumble bites. Naturally, they came home with us. Highly recommended for fellow peanut butter fans.

Our overnight stop was just out of Stirling at Shiloh Hills — a campground and garlic farm, an interesting but effective combination. Yes, we bought some pickled garlic. No, we haven’t tried it yet.

The wet weather that’s been plaguing much of Australia finally caught up with us here, prompting the addition of Guideline #6: Rainy days are lay days. And honestly, that feels like an important one. There’s been a noticeable shift in mindset — letting go of guilt and embracing a day of reading, resting and watching TV while rain drums on the roof.

We did venture out briefly to catch up with my university friend Scotty D over brunch. He proved to be an excellent local tour guide, even if the fog at Mount Lofty completely robbed us of the city view.

Slow days, good company and riverside living certainly agree with us.