Aus Day 6 - Where did you say we where?

Saturday 25th September Aus Day 6

Up in reasonable time this morning and left the caravan park at 08.40 but stopped for more provisions and fuel in the town so, didn’t finally hit the road until 09.30. It was not long before I stopped at the Port Augusta Botanical Park Lookout where I took the following photos of the area including looking towards the Flinders Range.

View from Port Augusta Botanical Lookout

View from Port Augusta Botanical Lookout

View from Port Augusta Botanical Lookout

As you can probably see from these pictures, it was a beautiful day with a clear blue sky and the temperature was getting to be quite warm, just as I had hoped.

It must have been rush hour on the road I was travelling as I was encountering almost 2 vehicle a minute. However, as you can see from this view looking back in the direction of Port Augusta it wasn’t too much of a problem.

Looking Back down the Highway towards Port Augusta

As you can imagine when travelling this sort of road you tend to take advantage of any potential photo opportunity and the following were taken at the Ranges View Lookout, somewhere near Bookaloo.

Distant View of the Flinders Range



Very Distant view of the Ranges

Shortly after this I was starting to get into the salt lake country and took these first views of one part of Island Lagoon to the South of Woomera.

Island Lagoon - I wonder why that name???

Another View of Island Lagoon

JB at Island Lagoon

I was now approaching Woomera, probably the largest over-land military testing range in the world where travel off the State Highway is prohibited without a permit. Since I didn’t have such a permit I thought it best not to wander. However, I took the following picture advertising Woomera attractions just before getting to the Woomera turnoff and Spud’s Roadhouse were I stopped for a little refreshment.


Woomera Advertising



Spud's Roadhouse



Wider View of Spud's Roadhouse

Having had a wander around the roadhouse area and studied the information boards which outline the establishment of the township of Plimba (which is where the Roadhouse is – Woomera is 6kms up the road) and the Great Artesian Basin from which most of the water for the dry central regions is taken.

I rejoined the highway for the next stint. Dotted along the highway at quite frequent intervals are picnic/rest areas as well as strategic lookout points. My next stop was at one of these lookouts overlooking the salt lake of Harts Lake views of which are shown below. The white areas are salt deposit on the lake shore.


View of Hart Lake



Hart Lake shore line



JB at Hart Lake



Example of Flora around Lake Hart

Sauntering on up the highway; I was being passed by everything else on the road. This amounted to an average of one vehicle every 15 kilometres, it really was quite busy!!! Eventually I arrived at my planned destination for the day, Glendambo, having covered a distance of 289 kms (179 miles).
The township of Glendambo (Pop: 35) consists of a BP Petrol Station, a Shell Petrol Station, a Roadhouse, an Hotel and a General Store. Oh yes, and 2 Public Telephones. However, there is no Internet and no mobile phone coverage. Consequently, although I am drafting this Blog update, I will be unable to post it until some future time, as yet indeterminate.

Having booked into the Caravan Park, a bit of a posh name really, had a bit of a scout around which took me all of 15 minutes (well I did it slowly) and then retired to the Hotel bar for a reviving beverage. They didn’t have any of that so, I had a beer instead.

A bit later on after having had a bite to eat I tried my hand at a bit of sunset photography, the results of which you can see below;


Sunset at Glendambo



Sunset at Glendambo

It was then back to the Hotel bar (See below) for another beer and to watch the Rugby League in which the Tigers beat the Dragons 13:12 a pretty tense match. After this Zebedee was calling and so it was off to bed.


Decoration above the Hotel bar