Beauty of Port Augusta

With trailer and vehicle back in working order by Friday afternoon, we spent our extra day exploring more of the beautiful Arid Botanic Gardens and catching up with Mr B, who arrived at the Motel late Saturday afternoon. We celebrated the OWO's birthday on Saturday evening with oysters, lovely fish and chips, and a bottle of good wine. Our time in Port Augusta was well spent and we were once again all set to continue our adventure.

*********
Before we do continue our travels, I would like to share some of the beauty we saw in Port Augusta, recorded through our camera lenses. For those of you who have been faithfully following the ups and downs of our Big Adventure you might enjoy the visuals that will be uploaded to the Photographic Journal listed in the menu to the right of the blog posts. These pages will be updated over the next couple of weeks, and I may even be able to motivate the OWO to update his photo blog.

We hope you enjoy the beauty of these photos. Please keep in mind copyright lies with The Rambling Retirees and should you wish to print any of these please seek permission via email.

Chirruping Wedgebill taken by OWO

Regal foxtails taken by OWO

Red wattle bird feeding

Flowering chenopod

Spotted turtle dove taken by OWO

Parrot family feeding taken by OWO

Beautiful parrot taken by Mrs OWO

Red grevillea

Flowering WA gum

Lizard in Bush taken by OWO

Metal daisies

Honeyeater taken by OWO

Desert Grass Bush

Arid Lands Entrance Wall

Sturts Pea and Lizard Wall Sculpures

Flowering Gum Wall Sculpture

White crowned babbler taken by OWO

White fronted honeyeater taken by OWO

Port Augusta for Repairs and Rest

 

Spencer Gulf, Port Augusta

Thursday, 17th September.  Another day, another place.
Having arrived late into Port Augusta yesterday and booked into a van park for two nights (something these travellers are reluctant to do unless absolutely necessary), the OWO spent the morning searching for a repairer for the trailer and the vehicle. Looks like Mr Murphy has decided to stay for awhile! Trailer could be fixed but not until late tomorrow and the part for the vehicle had to be sent from Melbourne and would arrive tomorrow. However, the OWO assured me both would be fixed and we could be on the road again on Saturday so book another night in the cabin.  Good wifey approached booking office but no joy there -- fully booked -- next move OWO?

First, deliver the trailer. Next call into the Information Centre for alternative accommodation suggestions. Finally, check out the alternative suggestions and make a choice. So, okay, there may have been a bit of interactive discussion first but finally we agreed on a motel and booked for two nights -- Friday and Saturday (just to be on the safe side and be sure all okay with repairs!). Now we can relax a little and enjoy a little R and R around this area for the rest of the day and tomorrow morning before the car had to be left with the dealer.

Beach across from Van Park

After delivering the trailer, booking the vehicle into dealer, booking the motel, purchasing two dozen local oysters ($10/doz closed), a short tour around town and lunch at the pub, we headed back to the van park to complete some mundane duties such as ten days worth of dusty washing, and finally we had time to take a wonderful walk along the beach near the van park.

Avan for the RRs maybe?

Whilst pegging out the washing Mrs OWO espied an Avan parked near the laundry area and was cheeky enough to approach the owners for a closer look. This was the type of campervan that would suit the Rambling Retirees perfectly. Very impressed. And thanks to Joan and Arthur the OWO was also impressed.

 The OWO also spent time chatting with some fellow travellers taking part in a vintage car rally.

Vintage rally interest

So the day was not a complete wash out, and tomorrow night we would have the luxury of a motel and on Saturday we would be catching up with our long time friend, Mr Bonney.

Always find a positive from within a negative!

Coastal flowers at P A

Wattle at the park

Beach flowers

Rail bridge across channel

Murphy Joins the Team!!

Flinders Ranges from Brachina Gorge road - so close, yet so far!

 Now this Irish man seems to have been tagging along with us for a number of days -- you may know him as MURPHY -- been keeping the OWO company for awhile, and here he is again!

Only one km along the Brachina Gorge track and the trailer locked up. OWO gets out expecting to find a flat tire - easy fix, just a little inconvenient in the middle of a narrow section of a very rocky 4WD track? No one around so should be a doddle to fix.  Not so. No flat tire, so why have the trailer brakes locked up?  Seems the bolt holding the spring had sheared off and had broken the shockie mounting - no way to fix THAT in the middle of the bush!!!

OWO huffed, puffed, used some calming language - not - and just had a complete melt down. After his rant was over good wifey gingerly suggested calling on the UHF to see if anyone might be on the track or in the area that could give a helping hand. One response, and around the bend, across the dry creek bed, arrives a very helpful " Westralian" named Trevor. After on the ground surveys and intimate discussions, the OWO and Trev devised a way to lift the trailer, remove the hanging shockie, and release the brake.

No flat tire?!! So what do we have here?

Did I mention that this was a narrow rocky section of a 4WD track?, and that there was no one else around? Yes, of course I did. I also mentioned our uninvited travelling companion Murphy, and here he was again. Whilst OWO and Trev were working on the situation, we found ourselves in the middle of "peak hour" traffic! Murphy's Law - damn that man! Within twenty minutes we had four oncoming vehicles lined up unable to pass our vehicle in the middle of the track - and I have never seen so much "man power"  gather in such a short time (outside of pub hours!) and all offering advice, naturally!!!!!

The OWO and the wonderful 'Westralian' finally got the trailer moving again, at least enough to allow the gathering crowd room to manoeuvre around us and continue on their way. Trev and his companion, who were from Albany in WA, our ultimate destination, bid us farewell and we were once again mobile. But Mrs OWO didn't feel the situation was stable enough to continue on to the camp grounds at Aroona and almost (not quite) pleaded with the OWO to have some common sense and reconsider our options. It took awhile but finally common sense prevailed and the OWO agreed that our best option was to head off to Port Augusta for "R&R" - Rest and Repairs for both vehicle, trailer, and the occupants.

Decision made, we drove slowly out of the Park, off the 4WD track, and back to the bitumen highway. By now we were both totally stressed, hungry and very disappointed over the change of plans, but secretly inside Mrs OWO was relieved that common sense had prevailed and repairs could be made before venturing into more isolated regions.

We arrived in Port Augusta around 5pm and booked into a cabin at the Shoreline van park. Very basic and could only stay 2 nights but tomorrow the OWO would find somewhere to get the trailer fixed and the fuel hose fixed on the vehicle. Hopefully we can be on our way again in two days time.

Flinders Ranges viewed from Port Augusta - maybe next time.

Oh my gosh. This was only day 12 of our Big Adventure and we had a long way to go yet. Let's hope we can leave bleeding Murphy behind when we leave Port Augusta in two days time.

Gorges, Ranges and Disappointments

Sunrise over Weetootla Gorge Range from Campsite

Weetootla Gorge --- up with the sun. Woken by the Corellas and other birds at 5am. Clear skies and already quite warm. Slept very warm overnight for the first time since leaving home. Looking forward to the day ahead with a feeling of 'Joie-de-Vivre ' after feeling so tired yesterday. However, that feeling soon changed when the winds started around 9.30am. It started with an occasional short gust but by midday it was strong enough to blow away anything loose around the tent, lifting the kitchen awning pegs out of the ground, and, of course, covering everything with dust -- fine, gritty, shitty, dust. With only the fly screen closed at the tent door it blew mountains of dust into the tent, covering everything inside. To exacerbate the situation we were now inundated with those nasty sticky bush flies and by now Mrs OWO was NOT a happy camper.