PORT LINCOLN
We spent the first part of the day viewing the high street in Port Lincoln which faces out to the sea. The statue above is of the explorer Matthew Flinders and his cat Trim. Flinders named Port Lincoln in 1802 after his home county of Lincolnshire in England.
CALLOW
We stopped for lunch at the small town of Callow. Australia is very helpful to drivers as there is a signpost 5 km before each town listing its facilities, so you know if you find petrol, food, and most importantly, toilets. Thumbs up to Australia for supplying good quality, clean, public toilets.
In Callow we found a super pub for lunch and chatted to a couple of Grey Nomads. This region is known for its oysters so we were advised where to get the cheapest and tastiest oysters.
I visited the public toilets in Callow and discovered their Crap Art project. Local artists had decided to spruce up the toilets with a bit of art work, and then decided to sell the pieces if anyone was interested. You simply take the painting away and leave some money in a box. Great idea!
PORT AUGUSTA
It was gorgeous weather for a drive today as we headed northwards to Port Augusta. Our first destination was the Arid Lands Botanic Garden which made for a very pleasant walk in golden hour as the sun was going down. We were beginning to see more birds on our trip now, I guess because there were more trees around here!
Next we sped off to the Matthew Flinders Red Cliff lookout to watch the sun set. The cloud formations were fascinating to see, with a 360 degree lightshow.
We had one of the best dinners of the trip in our motel (Standpipe Golf Motor Inn), both chosing the spiced kangaroo dish (saltbush duke crusted grilled kangaroo, with beetroots, onions and kipfler potatoes with a quandong and native pepper berry sauce). I was not expecting too much from Port Augusta (the crossroads of Australia), so was happy to find otherwise.
I had hoped to try some astrophotography on this trip, as it helps to be in areas of low light pollution, such as the Nullarbor Plain. But it had always been cloudy at night and hard to see the stars. Tonight though, we saw stars and decided to try to photograph the Milky Way. I have an app on my phone which tells me where to find the core of the Milky Way at any time and any place in the world. So, we knew where to point the camera and here is the result. It is not as good as I would have liked as we are on the golf course just outside our building, and hence there is light coming from the motel. Still, I would never get a shot like this here in Johor Bahru, Malaysia.
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