The Eyre Peninsula and Port Augusta, South Australia

We may have crossed the Nullarbor but we were still more than 1900 kilometres from home, so after a night in Ceduna we took the Flinders Highway down the west coast of the Eyre Peninsula.

Ceduna

St. Canute's Catholic Church at Streaky Bay; a huge church in a little town.

Dry stone walling is common on the Eyre Peninsula due to the availability of suitable rocks.

Coffin Bay

Port Lincoln. The Parnkalla Walking Trail was interesting but windy,and we needed the exercise!

Port Lincoln is a vibrant town with much to offer the tourist. Statues commemorate explorer Matthew Flinders, the tuna fishermen and also Melbourne Cup winning race horse Makybe Diva. 

The fishing fleet

We enjoyed our return visit to Port Lincoln having fresh fish & chips for dinner, stocked up on supplies and enjoyed the walking. 

Next stop, Tumby Bay to see the silo art by Martin Ron. What a surprise to find that like Benalla, Tumby Bay also has a Street Art Festival. 

These are just a few of the street art works by some of my favourite artists.

DVate

Lisa King & Elle (on left side)

Adnate

Kitt Bennett

Andrew J. Bourke

Choq

George Rose

Smug

Insane51

Adnate & Barngarla collaboration

Overnight at Tumby Bay then on to Arno Bay where we walked the mangrove estuary boardwalk.

Wheat crops again so more silos. This one at Kimba painted by Cam Scale.

 As we drove north we passed Iron Knob, the birthplace of the Australian steel industry.

Over-night at Port Augusta but we arrived early so we could fit in a visit to the Australian Arid Lands Botanic Garden. But first a look about revealed some bridge art, the one of the former mayor Joy Baluch appeared over night and has been kept to honour her.

  

The Australian Arid Lands Botanic Garden at Port Augusta was established in 1993 to research, conserve and promote Australia's arid zone flora. The many walks through the different regions show the great range of trees and shrubs that grow in the dry climate areas of Australia.

From the garden look-out there is a big view of the Flinders Ranges, from the Red Cliff Look-out there are views of the head of Spencer Gulf.

From the bird hide we spotted a few birds. We hadn't seen many birds, other than wedge tailed eagles, so we did some twitching. Most of the birds were unfamiliar to us.

 Before leaving Port Augusta we visited the Wadlata Outback Centre. This is probably the best Information Centre we have ever seen. Their presentation on the geology / formation of the land in the area was top class and so presentable to all. We spent much longer there than we expected.

We were excited to see the old truck driven by the last mailman from Birdsville Tom Kruse, and I was delighted to see a carriage from the old Ghan, with balcony. What good memories!

Port Augusta was a surprise to us and we were pleased that we had factored in some extra time to discover it.