A family holiday for 6 months around Australia. Switching off for a while to remind ourselves of why we are doing what we do. Enjoying time with our little family that we have created. Creating some great memories and taking some awesome photographs as well.
We only stayed a couple of days in port Augusta. It was more a rest time for us and preparation time to head up the middle of Australia.
While we stayed here we permanently fixed our solar panel to the roof of the van as it was becoming increasingly difficult being placed in our bathroom every day.. this way it can function all day as its supposed to. The batteries are of a super size and can easily last all day without a direct sun positioning.
We went for a boat cruise up the inland water way. Watched dolphins playing and shot some photos through the uppermost part of the inland sea.
Outback River Cruise
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We headed off without the license (as it was left in Victor Harbour) after a quick stop at the outback information center.
Ice creams for the girls
The Old bridge ferry
This old ferry carried parts up and down the waterway for building supplies. After finishing the bridge they realised that is was on the wrong side of the bridge so could not be taken back to the open ocean. they just left it to decay.
The new Shopping village at sunset
The outback centre snake
Drove on to lunchtime stop for some red dirt pictures and a family shot...
arrived at heart lake to see the sunset and get a shot in. Camp fire night with Merrilyn and Brian.
A quick trip to Port Germein before heading forward to Port Augusta. The longest jetty in the southern hemisphere.
Port Germein was once an important transport hub for the surrounding districts following the opening of its jetty in 1881 - at the time known as the longest jetty in the Southern Hemisphere. Due to the shallow water along the coast, the long jetty was built to allow sailing ships to be loaded with grain from surrounding districts. Bagged wheat came from the local area, the eastern side of the Southern Flinders Ranges via Port Germein Gorge (opened in 1879), and from the west coast in smaller boats. About 100,000 bags of wheat were loaded per year. The jetty was extended to its full length of 1680m in 1883.
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This jetty is very long and the wind today is tremendous, almost blowing us off the jetty. A cool little lighthouse still sits by the edge of the water and we took a couple of snaps here and decided to head up the road to the next "main town".
The jetty was extended to its full length of 1680m in 1883.
The girls stop for a quick snap
Cannot fit it into the full shot
Talk about repetition
At low tide the bottom shows for kilometers
The old lighthouse still stands
We arrived safely at Port Augusta and had the rest day to relax for us all. As we arrived at the main entrance to the van park we noticed barbed wire surrounding the fences and a sign saying if your not in by 9pm, the gate gets locked. Not a comforting thought to be caged in a van park. We cleaned the van a little, and grabbed an ice cream for the girls. Tomorrow will see me mount the Solar panel and fix a few things for the red centre journey.
