We left Adelaide on 7 April and drove north to Port Augusta which sits at the top of the Spencer Gulf. Most of the terrain en route was flat, dry and uninteresting - mainly wheat country but occasionally other crops. We drove through Snowtown where 8 bodies were found in barrels of acid! We stopped at Port Pirie (on the east side of the Spencer Gulf) which is the 6th largest city in South Australia. It has some nice old buildings and has the largest iron smelter in the southern hemisphere, using ore from Broken Hill. We walked around for a while but there wasn't much to see there. It is a working port but we couldn't get close to the harbour. 


 
As we approached Port Augusta, the southern Flinders Ranges came into view and we drove along them for quite a while. They are beautiful! We were intrigued by a very bright light which was evident from quite a distance and, having discounted a lighthouse or a gas flare, were mystified. We asked at our hotel and were told it belongs to a tomato grower. The light is a solar-power tower and is used to provide desalinated water, heating and cooling for growing tomatoes hydroponically. The company, Sundrop, provides Coles' tomatoes all over Australia.
 
Port Augusta is also the home of the Playford B and Northern coal-fired power stations which we've heard of from news reports and which finally closed last year. Some of the locals want to replace the plants with a solar power station. The town has a large tourism industry because of its proximity to the Flinders Ranges and also because all traffic across southern Australia passes through Port Augusta (the Eyre Highway to Perth, Adelaide Highway to Adelaide and Stuart Highway to Darwin). It's also a stop on the Indian Pacific and Ghan train routes. It used to be the centre of the camel track network but, of course, the camels have long been superseded by trains and cars.
 
We settled in to our hotel/motel which is right on the waterfront, so a very pleasant location. There is a 7.5km walk/cycle path along the waterfront which gives a great view of part of the Flinders Ranges. Port Augusta is a small country town with some attractive 19th century buildings. That night, we went to one of the historic hotels for dinner, having first phoned to make a reservation. On arrival, we got as far as saying "we made a booking" when the waitress said, with a huge grin, "Oh! Robert! Your table is over there!". And there was a table, with a huge sign saying "reserved for Robert" in an almost empty dining room! We were obviously something of a novelty to the waitress!! 


 
Next day, we drove to Whyalla about 70kms south on the west coast of the Spencer Gulf. The countryside was quite mixed. In parts, it was semi-desert but in others the land was flat until it reached a range of hills which just rose up suddenly. They were low hills but very picturesque.  
 
Whyalla is the 3rd largest town in South Australia (after Adelaide and Mount Gambier) and is an iron ore port with a steelworks founded by BHP. During WW2, they developed a shipyard to build ships for thd Royal Australian Navy and then, because of its importance to the war, had to build a military garrison to defend the steelworks and shipyard from attack by the Japanese. Quite an interesting place! We stopped at the Flinders/Freycinet Memorial, the beach and at Hummock Hill which has good views over the city.

 
 
We returned to Port Augusta via Iron k*** which is an iron ore mine surrounded by a few very old and dilapidated houses. What an awful place that was! The people who live and work in such places deserve significant compensation for putting up with such conditions. It was interesting to see it though!


 
We travelled a lot of kilometres to get to Port Augusta and then Whyalla so spent a lot of time in the car! But, we agreed that it was worth it! We saw some very different countryside and interesting places.  
 
The next day, 9 April, the temperature plumeted from the 34C of the previous day to around 20C and it rained! It was the last day of our trip and we drove from Port Augusta back to Adelaide, dropped off our rental car and then flew back to Perth.