After a quick resupply in Port Augusta, we were looking for somewhere for morning coffee or even lunch so looked at the new town map we had picked up

It all seemed a little underwhelming, at first we thought the esplanade on the water was probably a good start, wrong, all fenced off little parking for us that wasn’t taken up with caravans, so drove past and thought OK the lookout….. went to find it drove past were it was marked and never really found it, so pulled over to think, “OK the other thing on our list was the Arid Lands Botanical park. Just out of town heading towards Darwin… So lets try there” , so in we went, parked up with a nice view over the river and railway lines, just next to a small area of rocks and a tree, so compared to the town itself very nice.

Enjoyed some fresh pumpkin and soybean bread and a cuppa. Watched a train or two roll by, then moved on to the main visitors area, the place was cranking, being Mothers Day and all…. But wandering around, the park itself was quiet, it seemed everyone was eating instead of walking. A big plus is that the plants bring in the birds and there was lots of little birds. A few that we hadn’t seen and even more that we had, our favourite I think was the white browed babbler, not only for its name but the way it chirruped, hopping about tossing mulch everywhere looking for little grubs and bugs. Couldn’t get a good close up so here is one of the little guy from the net, click below for the credit

(White Browed Babbler)

Wandering around we found the display gardens that give you ideas on how you can recreate this style of garden in your own home, great for waterwise gardening. Scattered amongst these were several sculptures to look at and try to figure out. (seems we don’t understand art sometimes!)

So we got some inspiration for a new garden at home from the highlights of this section… yet another project!. Then wandered up to the lookout and back to the visitors centre… people had generally taken their mums back again by then so we decided to treat ourselves, Jo milkshake, Me cider and the best vanilla slice ever, with lemon topping OMG it was good… who says beer and cake doesn’t work!

Sitting there we were teased by the little starlings that would come in to pinch whatever small delicacy was left on the plates whenever someone left (or were’t looking)…. But trying to get them on camera was nigh on impossible. Then the red wattle birds would come in and dip their entire heads inside the milk shake glasses to get at the sweet stuff down the bottom. Just simply entertaining to watch.

Anyway here is the small video we put together to show you some of what we saw at the park

All in all, the best thing about Port Augusta (in our minds anyway) is the Arid Lands Botanical Garden. We thoroughly recommend stopping in there for a wander around, I mean why not and for those budget travellers, its free entry, so an even better reason to call in.

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Turning for Home

So this was as far east as we were coming on this trip so after ther Arid Lands it was time to point little bus’s nose west and turn for home, a little sad as there is so much more to see, but all good things don’t really end they just have a sequel and we will be back!

We intended skipping across the head of the peninsula following Highway 1 expecting it to take less than a week to get home, but thats best left for the next and last episode in our search for wombats,,,,,, AND we still haven’t found any!

Till next time happy travels

Al & Jo