21 March 20
A beautiful day today in Port Augusta. Bright and sunny with a gentle cool breeze. Have come to the conclusion that Port Augusta is perfectly situated sitting, as it is, with the blue waters of Spencer's Gulf in front of it, the South Flinders Ranges behind it and the arid desert regions beside it. The best of all worlds.
Spent the day seeing the sights. Began by going to the Old Water Tower Lookout. The tower was built in 1882 to provide a pressure water system to the town. It is quite high and is set in a lovely little park. As we started to climb it, a cascade of water unexpectedly came tumbling down from the top of it. It didn't wet us but it was close, and it did give us a shock. We were standing there looking at each other and wondering what had happened when a cleaning lady came jauntily down the steps carrying her mop and bucket. It seems that rather than carrying her bucket full of dirty water down the steps and emptying it, she empties it from the top of the tower straight down the stairwell! Great! From the tower you get a wonderful 360 degree view of the town and surrounding areas.
After seeing the water tower, went out to the Redbanks Lookout. This is situated on a high bank at the top of the Spencer Gulf and was visited by Matthew Flinders when he explored here on his circumnavigation of Australia in 1802 (it was not called the Redbanks Lookout then). From here you get a nice view of the town and the headwaters of the Gulf. Flinders and his party were only able to travel a further two miles past this point before their cutter (boat) grounded on mud.
Then spent a very interesting couple of hours at the nearby Australian Arid Lands Botanic Gardens. Really enjoyed this beautiful area, which has been planted with flora that is native to this and to other arid Australian areas. All looks completely natural, and specimens labelled too. Unfortunately some species of native fauna, notably ants and bush flies, are also here in abundance. You are continually brushing flies away and removing them from your ears, eyes, nose and mouth and if you stand in the one spot for more than a second or two ants are running all over your feet and up your legs.
From there went to look at the McLellan Lookout and the Pink Lake (yes, another one). Nothing much at either of these. Then on to the Homestead Park Pioneer Museum. I do not normally like these places - It seems every town (no matter how small) has one. But Lorraine wanted to go to this one, so we went to have a look and it was quite good. They had a very large range of exhibits from all walks of life. Also a large range of agricultural machinery, blacksmith forges and tools, old wood working and carpenters tools and the complete original 130 year old homestead from Yudnapinna Station, fully furnished in period style and with period implements.
As we had by then seen all the "surrounding area" sights we returned to the motel around 3:30 p.m. All this sightseeing must have exhausted us as lay down on bed and slept for two and a half hours.
Car in for service tomorrow, so will be restricted in movements to town area. Still, plenty to see in town too - and do some shopping.