Sunday 1 July – we’ve been in Australia for 19 months, our first stop was Tarlee, a lovely quaint place, moved onto Port Wakefield and Port Broughton, the main produce in the area is wheat. Our rest area for the night was along the A1 highway at Merriman, noisy with road trains and trains going past. The following morning we went into Port Pirie, situated on the Spencer Gulf, this is one of the world’s largest lead smelting facilities and the third largest silver producer. At Port Germein we walked the 1.5km long wooden jetty, at one point it was 1.7km in length, shortened by storms and age. Our rest area was in the Germein Gorge, nice and peaceful, no road trains and trains!

In the small town of Melrose (pop. 431) we walked around looking at the historical buildings. It is the oldest town in the Flinders Ranges nestled at the foot of Mount Remarkable (955m) on the edge of the Willochra Plain, copper was discovered in the 1840’s. Drove to the War Memorial for a panoramic view over Willochra Plain and the town. We stopped 3km’s out of town at a rest area, Pete collected firewood for a barbie, it has been a while since we have cooked food on a wood fire!

The following morning we drove through Wilmington then Quorn, an old railway town surveyed in 1878. On the way to Hawker we stopped at the Kanyaka Homestead ruins and walked to the Yourambulla Caves to look at the aboriginal paintings and etchings, there are 3 caves but the first cave had the better paintings. Hawker’s population is 298 and is the centre for a number of surrounding stations. We had a look at the Wilpena Panorama, the artist, Jeff Morgan, had not received any formal art training, he studied by reading and observing the painting techniques used by other artists. The canvas painting of Wilpena Pound as seen from St. Mary’s peak (the highest peak in the Flinders Ranges), is really well done, beautiful work!

We then drove onto Wilpena stopping at various lookouts, lovely ranges. At Blinman (pop. 151) we had a stroll around the old copper mine, copper was discovered in 1859. We took the unsealed road through Parachilna Gorge which was very scenic going through the dry creeks. In Parachilna we stopped to look at the quaint Prairie Hotel which has been used in a few movies including “The Rabbit Proof Fence”. The front of the hotel looks all “outback and rustic” but the inside was disappointing, although they had aboriginal art on display in a couple of the rooms, the pub area itself had no character or charm.

We took the Moralana scenic drive back to Hawker, this unsealed road takes you along the edge of the Wilpena Pound and Elder Range. At Port Augusta (pop. 13 257) we climbed the 1882 Iron Water Tower. Great views of the Gulf, the Flinders Ranges and the Baxter Range. Port Augusta is commonly known as “the cross roads” as all traffic travelling north, south , east and west must pass through this last regional city. After filling up with fuel, water and supplies we headed out on the Stuart Highway to Coober Pedy. There are several salt lakes along the way to Pimba, we drove past the Island Lagoon. NASA operated a Deep Space Tracking Station at Island Lagoon between 1960 and 1972. Pimba is a roadhouse between Port Augusta and Coober Pedy, it lies next to the Trans Australian Railway line where both the Indian Pacific and Ghan Trains pass through. 8km’s on is Woomera (pop. 295) which was established in 1947 as a site for the launching of British experimental rockets, had a look at the missile display and then drove back to Pimba to park up for the night as they offer free camping at the Roadhouse.