Port Augusta

Tonight we are parked on top of the world...well, that's what it feels like.  We have stopped at Hancock's Lookout, just south of Port Augusta and up the ? range.  We are looking down into the Spencer gulf and it's beautiful.   We arrived as the sun was sinking in the west and the colours changed on the hillsides and the water was shining... 

Up here also is another van with their generator running, and Mario from
Slovakia.  He is working and studying in Sydney and told his friends he was just going for a drive for a few days over Christmas...they are probably wondering where he got to.  He is enamored with the stars. He says you can't see the stars in Europe (I'll have to take his word for that) or in Sydney.  So when he first saw the milky way he was blown away.  I told him I thought God had put on a pretty good show for us.

This morning we said goodbye to Tony and Val when they headed into Port Lincoln, then we finished stowing everything into the van and headed north.  We passed Tumby Bay and Port Neill, and had lunch at Red Banks overlooking Arno Bay which was very windy.  Next we drove up through Cowell, a lovely old town, and Whyalla which is home of the Onesteel factory.  It was only a bit further up the road to Port Augusta and the narrow tip of the Spencer gulf that is the body of water between the Eyre peninsula that we have been on, and the York peninsula to the east.

In Port Augusta we rushed to the Mitre 10 to fill up our two gas bottles before the shop closed.  The second one had run out last night, leaving our fridge and stove very quiet for a night!   We actually used our spare cooker that we've carried the whole trip for the first time to heat up the water for the washing up.  Yet another thing we'd probably leave behind next time.

Once we had the two bottles filled,  we back tracked a little to climb up the Port Augusta water tower to have a good view over the city.  Water towers hold a special fascination for us since Dominic studied the book, 'the watertower' by Gary Crew this term in English.  We actually got to go inside this one, and as I emerged from the final staircase into the tank, I heard Nadine carefully reading out some of the graffiti scrawled across the inside – not very pleasant!

We stopped for dinner on our way out of Port Augusta, then drove a further 40km or so south, and up the most amazing hills, or mountains really, that looked like folded velvet on one side of the Spencer gulf.   I think they are the Southern Flinders Ranges and we have camped on the top of them, and it's lovely.

-----
Vicki