Port Augusta

Decided to just take a drive around the city this morning to have a look, didn't take long! Very pretty city, but nothing at all is open on a Sunday!

It's a lot like Burke or Stockton. Very quiet and older style cottage houses, very similar feel to driving around either of those suburbs. The thing we did notice was that alot of the newer built houses are still build in the cottage style to fit in, they looked great. A mix of old and new all melded together.

The foreshore

The foreshore looks over the harbour, very pretty with walking/bike tracks, grassed lawns and picnic areas. There is also an excellent BMX/skate park, didn't have anything like that when we were kids!

We then drove out to the Australian Arid Lands Botanic Gardens. This place is located on the shores of the Upper Spencer Gulf and overlooks the Flinders Ranges. Entry is free and they showcase some amazing flowers and plants.

The Sturt's Desert Pea is currently out in flower and looks great. We have seen a few along our travels, but it's not as common out here as I initially thought it would be. During our two last outback desert trips, we haven't seen any significant displays of it.

We took a drive out to Blanche Harbour - had a little trouble finding it to start with and our GPS decided to take us on a 40 minute drive along the highway and round in a circle to take us back to where we initially were before it told us the correct turn!!

Worth the drive though, wow, what a beautiful place. The colour of the water ranged from green to aqua and all shades of blue. There were houses right on the waters edge, great place to live. A quick google of house prices in the area and we now want to move here!

Blanche Harbour

Blanche Harbour is one of the rare places where the desert meets the sea. This environment occurs because the coastal waters of The Spencer Gulf run more than 350km into Australia's arid inland country.

Blanche Harbour

After lunch we headed off to check out one of the beaches. We were able to drive along the beach aswell so got some good photos of the ranges in the distance. The water was a bit cold though, may explain why there was noone swimming at the beach, dispute it being 35 degrees today!

Whilst on the beach we also witnessed a Commodore sedan drive onto the beach and proceed to drive along it, stopping to do burnouts along the way. We were waiting for him to get bogged, but he did manage to get back off safely! Guess most people can't say they took their commodore for a drive on the beach!

Last stop for the day was the Water Tower Lookout. This water tower was built in 1882 to provide a reserve water supply for residents. Wish we had of read that it was built in 1882 before we climbed to the top!! Great views from up there though, but very windy today and was kind of glad to get back down!

The water tower

George relaxing at camp before we head out for dinner, mmmm Chinese tonight I think!