This was planned as an easy driving day, allowing time in particular to visit the Australian Arid Lands Botanic Garden. I had wonderful memories of such a
garden in Central Australia, the Alice Springs Desert Park, where I
thought I'd pop in for half an hour which turned into half a day.
Sadly, the Port Augusta version wasn't a patch on the one in Alice, to the point where it didn't keep me waiting until the 10am cafe opening time for breakfast.
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| Red flowers? |
However, I did enjoy a short section of a cliff walk with stunning
views of the head of Spencer Gulf where Matthew Flinders had landed.
This was the red earth I was hoping to see on this trip.
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| Red cliffs and mangroves |
So on to my next stop, the water tower
lookout. A lot of stairs, two days in a row! Good but unexciting
views of the city.
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| From water tower to lookout tower |
Breakfast was a takeaway affair from a
bakery in the main shopping centre. Fine, for what it was but I'd
planned on cafe-style for the day. I was sitting on a street bench looking at the Court House, one of the cities many fine old buildings ... granted, looking across a car park!
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| Court House |
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| Northern Gateway - former brewery now incorporated into a shopping centre |
Onwards to Quorn. It wasn't until after
I booked all my accommodation that I looked at the Pichi Richi
railway timetable. Perhaps a blessing in disguise that it wasn't
going to fit into my timetable. I passed it en route to Quorn – it
did look fabulous!
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| Pichi Richi steam train - a hit with tourists with more time (or different priorities!) than me |
But on reaching Quorn I discovered that the train
was expected to be 45+ minutes behind schedule. Not bad for a
supposedly 1¾ hour journey!
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| Street frontage of Quorn's rather grand railway station |
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| Quorn station, track-side |
I had thoughts of driving to Rawnsley
Park Station via Parachilna and Blinman. But a check on the roads at
the Port August tourist info centre revealed that wasn't going to
happen. Maps showed inconsistent road surfaces. Local knowledge
confirmed the Parachilna > Blinman road is unsealed. Not good in
my little car and doubly so after bucketing rain giving rise to mud
at best and floods at worst.
Nevertheless, I wanted to see the
Prairie Hotel at Parachilna so drove there for a late soup lunch and
a lemon squash. A long way to go for a drink! Especially as there was
no other way to get to Rawnsley except by retracing the whole of that
drive back to Hawker.
En route to the pub I got a huge thrill - I saw four emus grazing on the old Ghan railway tracks. A wonderful sight!
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| Prairie Hotel, Parachilna |
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| The Outback Highway back to Hawker - no emus this time |
Finally – Rawnsley Park and my
caravan park cabin! Lovely for one (i.e. me), would work for two. The
bunkroom sleeps four – child size … and would be a nightmare!
It was two rolls with spinach and cheese filling for tea. It's harder than I expected to keep up my Vitamin K quota.
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| View from the cabin |