21-22/09/21 Where Desert Meets Sea: Port Augusta

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I only realised how cosy our cabin was when I went for a walk after work and realised that Roger had been justified in grizzling about the cold and wind all day long.  Thankfully we had decided to stay in Port August for one more day, and Wednesday was perfect weather for exploring.

Cold and windy it may have been, but beautiful all the same.
 
Now if you'll allow me, I'll digress into a little history lesson.  Back in 1802 Matthew Flinders entered the inlet which he then named Spencer Gulf, and which he optimistically thought could lead him to a strait that reached all the way through to the Gulf of Carpentaria.  He sailed his big boat as far up the gulf as he could, and then he sailed a little boat even further.

He climbed to the top of the cliffs and this is what he saw.  Minus the bridge, of course.

All excited about what he could see from the top of the red sand cliffs, he sent a party off to climb the biggest mountain they could find, and while they were gone he took another party and legged it up the 'river' to see what would come next.

And he saw this... which from a distance could look like a lake.  Part of a strait, even.

It was a lake too, just one with lots of salt and no water at all. It wasn't the only salt lake out there either, and Matthew Flinders very sensibly decided to stop plodding around in salt lakes, returned to his little boat, sailed it back to his big boat, and kept on exploring around the coast.  Along the way he penned a letter back to Mr Banks which basically said "Meh, don't bother sending anyone else out there.  Not worth it."

I don't know what happened to the party that went and climbed the mountain.  I imagine them running back into camp:  "Boss!  Boss!  There's all these lakes out there!  Grab the boat! Let's go!"  And Matthew Flinders had to shake his head and burst their bubbles too. 

The red cliffs atop which the hopeful Matthew Flinders stood.

The modern Port Augusta, through which you must pass if you are traveling Australia from side to side or top to bottom. Or bottom to top, for that matter.


Finding drinkable water was always a struggle for the young Port Augusta. This water tank dates back to the days when water had to be brought over the river via an unreliable lead pipe.  The water situation is much improved in modern days, and Port Augusta has turned their old water tower into a lookout.

The water tower was renovated and converted to a lookout in the 60s.  I really hope it's been re-renovated since then, but I wasn't game to jump up and down  to test it out.

After our water tower explorations we spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the Arid Lands Botanical Garden, which was very large and quite impressive.  I was finally able to put a name to some of the plants and flowers I've been photographing for the last week.  And Roger found a sun dial...

It's not working!  Why doesn't it work?

Aah... that's better.


Just one flower photo...

This little fellow stayed so still that I thought he was a fake.  Then I got too close and he ran away.

This guy, on the other hand, wasn't going to stick around once we came along.

We had pretty much exhausted everything that Port Augusta had to offer by then, so home we went. By the way, do you remember the fence-bangers and phone-stealers from our last stay in Port Augusta? Well, the fence bangers are notably absent from this park, probably because we're further out of town and it's a long way to walk merely for a spot of fence banging.  As to the safety of precious things, the park is all locked up at night. In fact we're so securely locked in that this morning I couldn't get out to go for my walk and had to lurk at the exit until someone drove out in their car, thereby triggering the gates to open and allowing me to zip out after them.  Which is how nefarious persons could get in I suppose but then, it's a long way to walk for a spot of skulking with minimal chance of reward and high risk of not getting out again.

I think I'll stop now.  Good night.


Home for a couple of nights: Shoreline Caravan Park, Port Augusta.

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