CARAVAN ADVENTURES: Winter Journey

This will be a long post of our 4 day stay in Port Pirie and the surrounding area.

Friday/Port Pirie

We really liked our 4 nights at the Port Vincent Caravan Park. The people were friendly, the bathrooms modern and clean with plenty of hot water. The laundry had all the usual washers and dryers at $5 a time.

It was a good place to stay for us to explore the lower Yorke peninsula, There is a small supermarket there, a pharmacy and a butcher. A pub and a take away cafe, so has everything you would need. We met a lovely couple, Elaine and Graham, an 80+ couple who had been coming to Port Vincent for many years and still love it.

Rock wall at the caravan park

View from the wall back to the caravan park

As we were driving towards Port Pirie today I was thinking about how fortunate we are to be seeing this country in such a leisurely way. Doing this travel diary is forcing me to live in the moment and remember all the small and different things we are seeing. We love the different colours of the fields, mountains, trees and we love the different skies.

Today we drove through Maitland, Moonta, Kadina, Port Broughton. My great Grandmother Mary Hannah Rickard was born in Kadina. She married William John Caple and I think they went To Broken Hill.

A lonely abandoned homestead seen near Kadina

Cousins

Kissing Cousins

Through the park in Kadina

Caravan Park across the bay in Kadina

The scariest playground in the Australia

Kadina Hotel

As we got closer to Port Pirie we could see the Southern Flinders Ranges. We booked into the caravan park in Solomantown, its a little out of the city but has spectaculat views of the Smelter and the port with a back drop of the Flinders Ranges. We've only just arrived, have a good drive through site, a bit of a walk to the old style bathrooms, but doable. Unfortunately they do NOT have WiFi and they do charge considerably more for a drive through site. They lady on reception is Meg, she was very nice, however a man there appeared to be aggressive and unfriendly so we'll stay away from him!

Seeing distant views from highway number 1

Saturday/Port Pirie

We toured the town and tried to familiarise ourselves with the surrounding area. To try and describe the town is difficult, there is not really a main street, the shops are spread out over large areas with not real designated shopping precinct but have at least 3. Must be difficult for the residents who don't drive, we didn't see any buses.

It's an interesting town with the silos and the smelter dominating the skyline at the water of the Port Pirie River. We would consider moving here, a house for $89,000 would be very tempting, unfortunately we just couldn't find the right one!

Port Pirie Railway Station

A lovely old church?

Wrong...it's a seafood restaurant!

Theatre and cinema centre

The smelter and the silos dominate the Port Pirie skyline

Could this be our new house?

Pip enjoyed her long walk in the beautiful Memorial Park and we watched the boys playing football on the oval opposite side of the street. It looked like the blues against the reds and I'm not sure who won but they certainly took it very seriously. We also saw kids playing soccer and netball so sport for young people is alive and well in Port Pirie.

There seems to be a distinct border between small unloved cottages and the more affluent looking large homes on new estates. We have found this in most places we have visited.

When we came back to the caravan park we did some washing and met and chatted to some really nice people. We were once again amazed at the personal things people tell you about themselves after just meeting, listening to their stories is a real privilege.

Sunday/Port Pirie

We toured from Port Pirie up the coast to Port Germein. It turned out to be a surprising tiny port village with a general store, cafe, pub and a caravan park. In the 1840's it was the largest grain exporting port in Australia and it has the longest wooden jetty in the Southern Hemisphere at 1580 metres (we walked about half way) Today there were a few people around, taking advantage of the sunshine, picnic and playgrounds on the foreshore. There are clean loos with showers and the nearby caravan park looked shady and well kept.

Port Germein

Sadly not a clear photo but does show the long long long jetty

There was a food van near the jetty and the smell of the hot donuts got the better of us so it was fortunate it was morning tea time.

From the port town we took the Germein Gorge Road through the Southern Flinders Ranges seeing some more spectacular scenery. The Road was originally opened in 1879 so bullock teams could haul the grain from the eastern side of the ranges to the port. Murraytown was our next stop.

The remains of the Bangor Hotel

Poor Murraytown is deserted and basically closed, although there was a gymkhana event taking place on the oval. They do have powered sites, showers and toilets around the oval too @ $15 per night.

We pressed onto Wirrabara and unfortunately missed their fresh produce market by 30 mins, we did look at the bric a brac market in the local hall though, not tempted by anything today. On the way out of town Trev spotted the small sign to the painted silos...Wow, we were so fortunate that we didn't miss the wonderful tribute to the loggers of the area.

Our lunch stop was in Laura, a highway stopover with links to CJ Dennis who spent his informative years there.

The circuit back to Port Pirie took us through Gladstone and Crystal Brook.

A great day.

Monday/Port Pirie

Because we missed the turn off to Weeroona Island yesterday we anticipated a treat today so were really looking forward to it.

It's only about 15 minutes north of the caravan park towards Port Augusta so it didn't take us long to discover that it wasn't an island at all but a small jutting out hill on the mainland. It was pretty barren, but had lots of holiday homes and spectacular views. There is a boat ramp but no access to any beaches that we saw. The “island” is partially surrounded by mangrove.

The view from "the island' back to Port Pirie

The Southern Flinders Ranges

Next stop on our tour was Napperby which is a tiny settlement a few kilometres off the National Highway. Its found in flat farming land right at the foot of the beautiful Southern Flinders Ranges. Just outside the town is a free camping area that as toilets, water and barbeques. It has no power and all vehicles must be fully contained. There is a maximum stay of 48hours and would be a lovely place to stay.

We passed Warmertown on the way back, there's not much there, a few houses, a hall and a food outlet. We had a nice walk along the foreshore back at PP where Pip had fun smelling the smells and chasing the seagulls on her long lead.