15/09/21 The Real Sea: Andamooka to Port Augusta

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The morning view from our tent: suburban Andamooka. I'm not sure whether the mines are dug in people's back yards, or the houses are built on top of the mines. Whichever it is, it seems to work for the Andamookans.

Today we officially reached the sea!

Admittedly it's only the tippy tippy bit of the Spencer Gulf, but it's still the sea, and by extension the Southern Ocean.

What with checking out the pioneer cemetery, getting excited over a faraway glimpse of Lake Torrens (the 2nd largest salt lake in Australia), having a coffee at the Andamooka Community Hall (run by volunteers and very nice coffee it was too!), and spending some time noodling for our fortune in opal, we didn't leave town until mid morning.

Downtown Andamooka.

Lake Torrens from Andamooka.  Unfortunately that track is 4WD only, so we couldn't nip out for a closer look-see.

Every back yard in Andamooka has its own OAI.


Even after we left Andamooka we had trouble picking up the pace, spending a happy hour or two going through the Woomera museum and looking at all the rockets in the park. For all the information on Woomera, Maralinga and the nuclear tests were very discretely not mentioned at all. Should you be curious, you can read all about it here: 

Woomera 

Maralinga 

We learned a lot about the rockets which were in the park outside, however I must in honesty report that most of what I learned I'll probably forget very quickly, not having need of historical rocket information in my daily life.

Woomera's heyday is past but it remains a dormitory town for the adjacent RAAF base and secret rocket business in the Woomera Restricted Area. Movies at Woomera are free! Quick, let's get popcorn.




We played games all the way to Port Augusta.

Tag-team with a train;

It was a very long train.  We passed it, and then we stopped to take photos and it passed us, and so on and so forth, until the final drive-by as we were in the bush communing with nature.  It's Murphy's Law of communing with nature in the bush: you're never as alone as you think you are.

 

and "I Spy the Faraway Salt Lake".


Island Lagoon

Unnamed small salt lake beside the road.

Lake Pernatty

Now here we are in Port Augusta, conducting reconnaissance for a longer stay next week, when I have to get back to work after two weeks off for our multiple-state dash to South Australia.  We camped beside a very friendly couple who have filled us in on lots of the exciting things to do around Port Augusta, and topped the evening off with an equally exciting trip to Woolworths and a quick walk along the water front to watch the sun set behind mountains festooned with wind turbines.

Tomorrow we head off to the Flinders Ranges for a couple of days, so updates will happen as phone connection and power availability allow.

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