Port Augusta SA. May 21 2018

Leaving Nuriootpa, we turned off the main highway almost immediately and headed north toward Clare, and it may have been a master-stroke: as soon as we had made the turn the 2-way radio came alive with news of an overturned truck and the highway blocked in both directions further toward Adelaide.

These backroads aren't a bad way to cut a few kilometres off the trip, they are a bit narrow and rough in places, but that only forces you to go a bit slower, which of course gives you a chance to have a look around as well. We ended up in Crystal Brook in time for a break, then headed out onto the main highway to finish the last leg up into Port Augusta itself.

We filled in the afternoon with a look around the Arid Lands Botanic Garden, which it is not at its best at this time of the year, at least these Sun-panel flowers were out in full bloom!

Arid Lands Botanic Garden

It's almost obligatory to have a walk around the old wharf precinct where they used to bring the great big clipper ships like The City of Adelaide and the Cutty Sark. They brought the railway right up to boat-side to load an unload, and the tracks remain, providing some tempting photo opportunities.

Railway& sleeper mosaic. Port Augusta SA

Just chillin'. Port Augusta SA

Wharf. Port Augusta SA

One thing we hadn't seen in our previous visits, was the Flinders Lookout, which is an old town-supply water tank that they converted into a lookout. The stairs are a bit daunting, being mostly open metal grates and rusty weld joints. I admit to holding onto both hand rails on the way up and down.

Flinders Lookout / water tank. Port Augusta SA

First you cut a hole in the bottom and build some stairs...
Flinders Lookout / water tank. Port Augusta SA

The view south toward the ocean
Flinders Lookout / water tank. Port Augusta SA

Downtown Port Augusta
Flinders Lookout / water tank. Port Augusta SA

Inside the water tank, at least they cut one square out for us happy snappers
Flinders Lookout / water tank. Port Augusta SA 

Port Augusta, Snowtown, Lochiel, salt lake, homestead ruins

Port Augusta SA April 2, 2015

Ignoring the bleats from the GPS, we struck out from Nuriootpa across the open plains, heading more or less directly for Snowtown on the main highway. As you would expect, the roads were ‘C’ grade roads, a bit narrow and a bit bumpy, but blissfully empty of other traffic. We cruised along at about 80, no rush, just enjoying seeing something of the countryside. Judy kept us on the route we had chosen, the GPS kept whinging and recalculating the whole time. After about an hour and a half the GPS fell silent and it looked like we were now all on the same map and we kept tootling along as happy as a pig in mud. But to quote a much watched children show, ‘Then there was trouble!’ Completely unexpectedly, the bitumen road turned into a gravel / dirt road and didn't look like ending any time soon. No panic, we backed off a bit and got the feel of it, it wasn’t corrugated or too rocky so we simply kept going, hoping that the van didn't fall apart in the process. 

Along the way I stopped to snap a picture of the quintessential old homestead in SA :

Country side near Lochiel SA

Our rig on the dirt road near Lochiel SA

The new homestead, near Lochiel SA

Country side near Lochiel SA

As we neared the highway, we came across the first of the salt lakes:

Salt lake near Lochiel SA

Salt lake near Lochiel SA

And finally we made it onto the major highway, as could be easily determined from the vast amount of traffic in both directions. As I had done my 2 hour stint I thought we mighty go into Snowtown and have a cold drink and a rest. To say that there isn't much there is a bit of an understatement, although we did find the toilets, a broken wind-turbine vane and a fellow with a few loose roos in the top paddock, sitting next to the railway line eating a hamburger and waiting for the trains to go by. As gracefully as we could we extracted ourselves from our lop-sided conversation about main-lines, grain-trains and the ghan, which wasn't due until 9:27 the next day. We won't mention the 8 bodies found in the bank vault in 1999, nor will we go looking for it either, instead, we will kick-the-pig back out onto the road and make a hasty exit

Snowtown SA

Snowtown SA

Wind-turbine blade.Snowtown SA

Snowtown SA

Snowtown SA

The highway is only single lane most of the time with the odd overtaking lane, but it was busy: trucks galore heading toward Adelaide and 4x4 trucks with camper trailers heading out our way to the Flinders Ranges, or the coast or Perth, who knows where. All we knew is that my 95 wasn't cutting it and they and every other man and his VW overtook us anytime it suited them: corners, double lines, whatever. It’s the reason we haven't travelled anywhere at Easter for 20 years, its just lunacy with all these people trying to do 700km in 5 hours to make the most of the 4 days holiday.

We reached Port Augusta about 130 and decided that we had had enough and pulled in for the night. We did venture down the road for fuel and some food before taking some time out to read a book and do a crossword. As the sun set, we though we’d mosey over to the local pub and have a nice cold 5-seeds. Good on us!

Port Augusta SA Vintage cars dolphins salt lake hart

Woken early this morning by the sounds of vintage engines being coaxed into life in preparation for their 250km trek up to Coober Pedy. I found it rather relaxing, Judy found it infuriating! (but then again, she doesn't like the sound of the surf either...) We got up after 7, to find that the power (we had paid for) had gone off some time in the morning, and headed for the showers, only to find that the water was also off because it had to be pumped from the tanks by an electric motor. No hot water, no water in the basins, no water to flush the loos. Honestly, we may just as well have camped out in one of the many rest areas.

Anyhow, we watched as the last of the cars chuffed off into the distance and found that the power was back, so we had a cuppa and our breakfast before hitting the road, unwashed, unshaved and not all that happy. 

We stopped to take snaps at Lake Hart, a large salt lake that this year had a heap of water in it. We were about to leave when Judy convinced me that I should stagger over and ask another 'vanner' with his head under the bonnet of his Hilux if I could help.

It turned out that 'it was all a disaster, nothing but trouble, blah blah' sounded a bit panicky to me. I asked what the problem was and he told me all about the blown fuse in the truck and how the 'Redarc' relay kept clicking in and out and how the lights on the van didn't work and the ammeter didn't show any current and we've been stuck here two days already...

Whoa. Tell me about the caravan lights. Look, i turn the cars lights on and they work but the ones on the van don't.

Tell me about the fuse. I found a blown fuse and replaced it and it doesn't make any difference.

Which fuse? This one i think. I think its the cigarette lighter fuse.

Tell me about Redarc. Its clicking in and out and it should only do that if the battery is charged.

OK. lets look at the lights. No they don't have any fuses in the caravan. No they aren't connected to the solar panels, no they don't have anything to do with the blown fuse. Give me a right hand blinker.

Look it's fine. Give me a left. That's fine too. Hit the brake. Yes, that's ok. Try the lights again. No it's not working, it must be the plug on the back of the car. He looked at me as if i was from Mars. He unplugged it and stuck it back in. The light came on. He looked at me incredulous.

Let's check your cigarette lighter. It heated up and was working fine. Have you got your fridge plugged into it? Oh... yeah, probably overloaded. Now listen carefully... There is absolutely no connection or relationship between the blown cigarette lighter fuse and the lights on the van. They are both working just fine.

Lets look at that Redarc relay.  Oh, its staying in, which means that all the batteries are fully charged. You mean it's doing what it's supposed to do, both the batteries are fully charged, so it's turned itself off? Er, yes.

What about this ammeter? He produced a box with an ammeter on it  and an in and out plug to go into the back of the truck where his anderson plug connects the batteries in the van to the car. He raved on about how it didn't show any current and how the circuit was always active and how the solar panels were working properly. He decided that the meter was defunct, which i didn't bother to question. He threw it into the dark recesses of the back of the truck. 

Judy was by now chatting to the lady and befriending the dog.

I came back at them all smiles and in a big voice claimed that all was now fixed, there was no problem and that they should get on with their holiday asap. We said some goodbyes and left them with it. I'd love to have been a flea on the dog's back as the wife questioned her husband more closely as to exactly what was wrong for 2 days...

It occurred to me after we were on our way that the ammeter wasn't showing any current because all the batteries were full up to the brim and thus there was no current flowing.... what a fabulous troubleshooting tool, it registers nothing if all is well, and it registers nothing if the charging systems aren't working... in fact, completely useless. There was some other chat apparently about the gas not flowing through to the stove, but hey, that's someone else's problem, they probably have it turned off at the big red handle under the sink! 

We drove 'quickly' the next 200 km toward Port Augusta, only to be hung up 40km out, behind a biggish van (that had been next to us in Glendambo) that wouldn't overtake the biggish motorhome in front of it. Knowing that a road train travelling at exactly 100kph was only about a kilometre up the road in front of them, all i could do was hang back at 90-95 and follow them into Port like a little lost puppy. For no rational reason, this really annoyed me, and when Judy suggested we stay 2 nights at Port Augusta rather than push on, I grabbed at it as being the best thing I'd ever heard of all day.

Had a bit of a fiddle about in the town, and when we saw dolphins playing about down near the bridge and the wharf, we scampered on down to check them out. When we had had enough fun, we grabbed a few things from Woolies and retired back to the van for a soothing wine and retired for 

the evening.

Dolphin!!!!! Port Augusta SA

Dolphin indeed there were.  Port Augusta SA

 Port Augusta SA

Old and new road bridges.  Port Augusta SA

Spencer Gulf  Port Augusta SA 

Big yellow finned fish.  Port Augusta SA

 Port Augusta SA

Ah, that's better!  Port Augusta SA

Wharf.  Port Augusta SA

Lake Hart, SA