Sun. 21st Oct., 2012 - Streaky Bay to Port Augusta

Almost reluctantly, we left Streaky Bay at 8.30am.  We'd enjoyed our stay in this sleepy little town, which still slumbered softly on a sunny Sunday morning.  It was rather a shock to the system when we rejoined the Eyre Highway, which would take us to Port Augusta.

We were still in serious grain country, with vast fields on either side & huge silos appearing periodically.  This was surely one of the granaries of Australia that filled the nation's bread baskets.  It was on a par with the North American prairies.  However, we were told that insufficient rain would produce a poor harvest this year.  I felt at home in this type of landscape, coming from a similar one in England, albeit miniscule by comparison.  The scale of production, here, was almost incomprehensible, for it was hard to imagine how the huge sowing & harvesting operations were managed.

After three & a half hours, the arable land gave way to extensive areas of woodland & the terrain became quite hilly.  Signs, warning of kangaroos, suggested that we were leaving the highly cultivated region behind.  This was poorer soil where, at times, the trees almost disappeared & all that remained were bushes & scrub.  We saw dry creek beds, as well as some escarpments in the distance.  A sign, announcing "Iron Knob", confirmed that mining was going on & it was described as "the birthplace of Australia's steel industry".  We decided to have lunch there, but what a God-forsaken place it was!  We're crossing it off our 'bucket list', as we don't want to go there again.  Dry, brown, desolate & wind-swept, it has now taken over from Wyndham as the most undesirable place on our travels (at least Wyndham was by the sea & had an impressive look-out point).  Even the flies had deserted Iron Knob - there was probably nothing for them to eat!  It was inconceivable that anyone would choose to live there although I guessed that there was money to be made from the mining; but, you'd have to have no soul!  The area surrounding it was barren for as far as the eye could see, but telephone wires stretched across the landscape, so we could only surmize that the inhabitants of Iron Knob spent much of their time on the phone, keeping in touch with civilization!  We also saw a few television aerials, so they obviously had that other amenity that seems to be a basic requirement of modern life!

This little corner of Iron Knob looks far more inviting than it actually was!

The Big Galah is very happy near the corn fields!

With sighs of relief, we finished our sandwiches & continued on our way toward Port Augusta - we had just 26kms to go & it could only get better!

True to expectations, things did begin to improve as the Flinders Ranges came into view & Port Augusta emerged in the distance.  What a welcome sight!  We booked into the same caravan park that we'd stayed at way back in June, since when we'd travelled full circle.