DAY 161 – OFF TO PORT AUGUSTA – OUR LAST STOP TOGETHER……
Only 75kms to go again today, so we
didn’t have to rush this morning….
We are getting a little used to short
trips after the many long trips we did when we first started this
adventure…. Since the Nullabor, we have
barely done more than 100km between stops.
That is about to change once we leave Port Augusta.
We had a pretty uneventful trip to Port
Augusta, in fact it went really quickly and before we knew it we were driving
into the caravan park on the river in Port Augusta.
Another nice caravan park right on the water. Well not quite, we can see the beach and
water, but we have a 8ft wire fence with rows of bared wire across the
top. We are almost in a compound as the
front gates are closed and locked after 9.30pm at night. Just wondering what this says about Port
Augusta, as the groundsman at the park here hinted at the locals walking off
with anything left unlocked or unattached….
It didn’t take us long to set up the
vans. We all had a quick cuppa together
and then decided to go and do a little exploring up in the Flinders’
Ranges.
Scenery driving up into the Flinders Ranges |
We were given a tourist brochure on Port
Augusta when we booked into the caravan park so upon looking through it we
decided to do a scenic drive following the Pichi Richi Rail line up through Stirling
North to the historical town of Quorn where we stopped and took some photos of
some of the lovely old buildings in town…. It is quite a pretty place and as we
have to pass back through here on our way home thought we would leave afternoon
tea till then….
The drive up was interesting with the
hills covering in a small silver shrub like bush. It almost looked like it was planted as it seemed so uniform in places. We followed the rail line and felt a little
disappointed that the Pichi Richi train trip to Quorn is not operating
presently as I am sure it would be a great tourist attraction and we would have
loved to have done it.
Camping grounds at Warren Gorge |
From here we drove to Warren Gorge. This is a lovely area in the Flinder’s Ranges
and there is a huge camping ground in here. It is a popular haunt for
self-sufficient travellers touring the Flinders Ranges, and the area has some eye-catching rock formations and
classic groves of native pines to wander through It also abounds with
wildlife. For those camping the only facilities are drop
toilets. You really do need to be self
sufficient to camp here though for any length of time.
There were lots of tracks all over the
camping ground, some rougher than others, but Steve enjoyed driving down quite
a few and exploring….
Proby
was buried the next day and some six years later his family had a gravestone
shipped out from London on the Ballarat to Port Adelaide. From there the
granite slab was hauled by bullock wagon to the site and placed on his grave
where it remains today; it was said to weigh one and a half tons and posed a significant
challenge to transport it to the grave site.
We left Proby’s Grave to drive the
Buckaringa Scenic Drive and Lookout. All
these roads are gravel but in good condition.
We actually thought the Buckaringa Scenic Drive was a loop drive, and
had we have known that it wasn’t we probably wouldn’t have driven the 10kms or
so along it, as the view wasn’t that special in comparison to the drive we had
already done through the ranges, still we did make it to the lookout and we did
take some photos…
The creek is teaming with lots of little fish |
The real surprise to us though was Willochra Creek.
We didn’t realize there was a creek up here and to find it with flowing
in this arid part of the country was unexpected, even more so because it was
teaming with small fish and dragonflies.
As a base to the creek it had a solid conglomerate of rock which would
have helped in storing the water in the worn gouged out gullies. More photos…
Our last stop before we got back to the
highway was a place the Simmonston Ruins.
There really is not much left of
the Simmonston ruins however the history is interesting. Simmonston was
surveyed in 1872 on one of the six major routes proposed for the railway line
north of Quorn .
Two buildings were commenced in 1880, one a two story hotel
and the other a general store. Unfortunately, before construction was competed
it was announced that the railway line would go to the East of the ranges so
Simmonston became ‘the town that never was.’
In all this scenic drive was over
100kms, and very different to most of the drives we have done on the Eyre
Peninsula, but we still enjoyed it.
We
came back to Quorn where we stopped for a cuppa before heading back into Port
Augusta…
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