Adelaide to Flinders to Port Augusta

 

Quentin met me in Port Elliot and we spent the day walking along the coast, drinking wine, and catching up over a nice dinner. The following day we headed north towards Adelaide. Between the storm clouds we stopped at a few hikes enjoying the lovely scenery of the Fleurieu peninsula. We headed to Adelaide where we spent the afternoon in the South Australian Museum. It was a really cool museum filled with tons of native artifacts, as well as, stuffed versions of native animals and birds. There was also a floor dedicated to different minerals found in South Australia. It was a really cool museum and I could see spending all day there. That evening we stayed in a campground in Belair National Park. Luckily it had a nice indoor area for relaxing in the evening, but on the downside it rained so much and I was really worried about my tent. My tent did end up holding up  though, so it was okay. Its a good rain resistant tent. The next day was supposed to be even rainier though so after spending the morning at the Adelaide market and eating a variety of really delicious foods we headed North to Clare where there are a bunch of wineries. We stopped for a yummy wine tasting which was really lovely. It was funny, Quentin was absolutely appalled that a wine tasting costs money ($10/pp rebated it you buy a bottle). He said in France you don't pay to go for a wine tasting, it would just be free, which I found pretty surprising. We ended up getting some wine for the next few days though which was really great. That night we drove out to a campsite on the edge of the outback. It was really beautiful and we  were the only people there. It was so dark and between the spouts of rain the number of stars in the sky was so incredible. The milkyway shone so bright and beautiful. In the morning I woke to about 200 galahs flying over, which was a really cool wake up. We drove north to the Mount Magnificent. There we walked through this gorgeous canyon called Alligator Gorge. The steep cliffs were a beautiful dark iron red and probably 50 ft high. The gorge varied in width from a few meters across to maybe 10, it winded along the dry river bed and was really great.

Our next trip was up to the Flinders Ranges. We stayed in the parking lot of a pub on the way up. Once at the Flidners ranges, we did a beautiful walk to the top of a mountain. We overlooked the vast outback, the many large kangaroos, and the purple and red mountains of the surroundings. It was stunning. That night we stayed in a campground in the park, and were the only people in the area. It was so beautiful and peaceful. Traveling in the off season is so incredible because so often we are the only people in an area. Getting to enjoy the scenery with no other people is so amazing. On the down side, it is a bit cold, but it is stunning. The next day we got rained out and decided to head to Port Augusta.

In  Port Augusta we spent a day enjoying the incredible botanic garden. The garden focuses on the arid plants of Australia and there are a wide variety of cool gum trees as well as a variety of other unique plants. It was really cool to explore and the grounds were large with a large 5km loop we spend most of the day walking. I got a really lovely snack there of lemon myrtle (a native plant/seasoning) pancakes with quandong (a native fruit that tastes like a smokey peach) ice cream and jam. It was so delicious.