23 August 2013 - Shoreline Caravan Park, Port Augusta, South Australia

As we settle into the latter part of this bonus day, I am surprised how busy we have managed to keep ourselves. The caravans and campervans packed tight around us last night all headed off bright and early this morning, and this afternoon since we have returned to camp, their spaces have all been filled with another instalment of travellers. Port Augusta is a particularly busy crossroads, and if this camp is anything to go by, a real boon to the town, especially as more and more of us retired or semi-retired hit the road in our preferred mode of transport.

From the Matthew Flinders Lookout

We spent the greater part of the morning wandering about the Australian Arid Lands Botanic Garden, located a few kilometres up the Stuart Highway. This park of more than 250 hectares, established in 1993, showcases a diverse collection of arid zone habitats and is at this time of the year, ablaze with colour. What a delight it was to wander along the well-formed pathways, admire the hundreds of plants, most well labelled, in the company of a dozen or more varieties of birdlife.

The Matthew Flinders Lookout is located on the north eastern edge of the park and is well worth the detour off the highway, even if one has not the time to stop a little longer and enjoy the Botanic Gardens. Pathways along the top of the red cliffs over the head of the Upper Spencer Gulf offer splendid views across to the Flinders Ranges, down the widening gulf to Port Augusta itself, and the rail bridge where freight trains of well over a kilometre pass, perhaps with their trucks full of coal for the power station on the southern edge of the town.

Back in the gardens, we called into the Visitor Centre, surrounded in more manicured gardens of arid desert plants. The Sturt Desert Pea is currently in full bloom, and while we had seen a small display of this gorgeous plant at Wudinna, at the foot of The Australian Farmer, this here in front of the Centre was far and away superior.

Colours of the upper Spencer Gulf

Inside, apart from a well-stocked shop full of tasteful tourist souvenirs, if those words can be put into the one phrase, and a well-appointed café restaurant which has its own up-market version of bush tucker meals, there are large interpretative panels about the botanist, Robert Brown, who accompanied Matthew Flinders on his exploration and survey journey; his ascent of Mt Brown and his wide collection of plants, 3,400 in all, of which 2,000 were previously unknown.

We left the park just before midday, having taken gentle exercise in preparation of a large dose of decadence. Today we were celebrating our travel milestone in style. Port Augusta does not have a lot offering in haut cuisine, however we were willing to check out Cena On Chapel, for the patrons of the Hotel Flinders who think themselves too posh to hold up the bistro counter. The hotel was first established in 1878 and probably hasn’t had too much work done on it in the interim, apart from structural safety issues. The dining room which serves as the Italian restaurant has more recently been done out rather attractively, as far as any ancient high ceiling hotel room can be without millionaire backing. By the time we arrived, the restaurant was already busy with locals, always a good sign. The menu was very comprehensive, the food was as delicious and expensive as any in a big city, the service good apart from the fact it is one of those restaurants where you order and pay at the bar first. I enjoyed my pasta marinara, full of squid, mussels, scallops and prawns, delicacies that are not normally part of our diet because they give Chris gout. Fortunately the screw cap was left with the wine bottle so we were not forced to drink it all then and there; it should go down well later with our baked beans on toast. We finished our fabulous lunch with a trip up the road to the Scottish restaurant where we found that they now sell regular and large sundaes, the large being the same size as the one size we used to buy, but at double the price. Very sneaky! But proof we have not been indulging in such forbidden food for some time, or we would have known about this.

After lunch we did two of the art galleries in the town, the Port Augusta Cultural Centre  - Yarta Purtli where we saw a couple of exhibitions, neither very appealing but did engage in a very long conversation with an Aussie Pom, an immigrant of nearly fifty years ago who still seems unsettled, and the Curdnatta Art Gallery housed in a long defunct railway station which serves as the outlet for the local artists, potters, writers, et cetera, and today was (wo)manned by an elderly lady who makes quilts for charity, having exhausted family members with her prodigious output.

 

Tomorrow we will start our slow journey north east, travelling as few familiar roads as possible. There are still many unvisited towns and treasures, and we have special friends to catch up with on this last run, although the term “last run” is no longer true. We have decided that this was only Part One of the rest of our touring lives.