At the end of today we arrived in Port Augusta and crossed our path out from Tassie for the first time after nearly 11 weeks on the road but we have chosen to stay in a different caravan park this time, one with an air conditioned room and a BIG screen TV for tomorrows game.

We woke after a cooler night to increasing winds today but a nice temperature. After packup we headed off to Kolay Mirica Falls on the 4WD track. It was slow going in places especially over one hill that was very rocky and washed out. We eventually arrived and they turned out to be another disappointment really. The time to drive around to them versus bang for your buck was a bit on the negative side. I am probably being a bit harsh but after all the wow stuff we have visited it was a bit non wow today. Anyway we pushed on after a few photo’s to the campsite we should have stayed at last night. Instead of our rocks for a fire there was a BBQ plate, toilet and wood fired shower.

Kolay Mirica Falls from the car park

Volcanic Rhyolite formations

Rhyolite crystal formations from the top

The Kolay campground we should have got to….

Good size huntsman in the bog

Back on another 4WD track we drove past quite a few of Emu in the paddocks and a heaps of kangaroo. We traveled on till we got to the public access road out of the park onto another gravel road that went down past the Buckleboo Stock route (a fun soft sand and mallee scrub route from what we read about it). 93Km later we arrived at Kimba a bit jolted, thrown about and I had sore eyes from concentrating on the road so hard for so long. We stopped at a hill just outside Kimba and stretched our legs for a bit before driving on to Iron Knob.

Yes at Iron Knob they are mining the local knob for, you guessed it Iron Ore. They claim to be the starting point for the steel industry in Australia. BHP runs the mine and the town had nothing going for it really but a nice little park for our lunch stop today and more bloody flies. We did visit the big shovel on display before heading down the Eyre highway for the last time. We can not claim to have driven all the Eyre Highway as we missed the 149Km section from Minnipa to Kimba by going through the Gawler Ranges.

Usual ‘big stuff’ on display at Iron Knob

The strangest thing we did today was visit stobie pole number 251 along the highway between Iron Knob and Port Augusta. What is a stobie pole I hear you ask, well they are a concrete and steel power pole with a triangle arrangement of 3 wires on top. Now we stopped and did the strangest geocache we have ever done here. For 45 years a guy called Joe lived next to this pole and the highway. People brought food for him and the story is so strange I will give you a link to read it all (click here).

Strange things you find on the side of the road!

Into Port Augusta at around 4PM the girl suggested we take a powered site as the unpowered area was about to be invaded by a bus load of school kids, advice taken we headed to site 148 and got the power cord out for only the 6th time for the trip, the extra cost will be worth it! The lounge TV is big and the room is air conditioned, all set for tomorrows game. We have to stay 2 nights to be able to watch the game and then we will head out to the Flinders Ranges for a taste of them before heading for the boat on a some what convoluted route we have chosen to finish the trip off with. Stay tuned…..