Adealide to Port Pirie

We met an excited Robyn at Adelaide Airport, then headed back to Adelaide Shores Big4 Caravan Park to get her checked into the exotic "Turtle" Cabin, before heading up to Carmel & Geoff's place for a farewell "High Tea". Carmel had again excelled with the goodies and fine china, and we said our farewells, promising not to leave it another 30 Years before we meet up again!

Carolyn & Robyn in Snowtown.

Bright & early Wednesday morning, we headed off on the big drive north, with our first overnight stop to be at Port Pirie. It is pretty uninteresting scenery, but everyone is chatty as we travel along and find our first coffee stop at Port Wakefield. Now I wouldn't rush off and book your next holiday at Port Wakefield just yet! Not a lot here, but the bakery was doing a roaring trade, selling countless varieties of pies, plus old favourites like finger buns, cream buns, match sticks, eclairs and even a rock cake! We sampled a few & the coffee was pretty good too. Robyn has settled in well. Coffee and cake isn't going to be a problem!


Back on board we hit the highway north, taking a short detour through Snowtown. Remember Snowtown? Yep that's right, bodies in barrels in the bank vault. Now even made into a movie. Not much else there, except a display about the wind farms, that dot the hills nearby. There is one blade from a turbine, which just goes to show how big these windmills are! A quick body count, yep still three, and we are back on the highway to Port Pirie.

Old Port Pirie Railway Station

Now you wouldn't think there was much to do in a city whose claim to fame is a lead smelter, but we found the town and the surrounding area of the Southern Flinders Ranges, really enjoyable. You can't ignore the lead smelter, with its 207 metre smoke stack, situated right on the end of the main street. But the current operator, Nyrstar, is totally focused on keeping the town lead free, and there is a community based, free service to monitor blood levels in adults and especially children. We did a tour of the smelter in a mini bus (I was worried that on the last tour it had been a big bus!), which was really interesting and informative. Our guide, Ian had worked as a furnace operator at the smelter for 37 years, and had worked through the old days of no protective clothing, to limited protective clothing, to dismissal for not wearing protective clothing. We weren't allowed off the bus, Ian said, because of OH&S rules, but I know it was so we wouldn't grow extra fingers and toes!

Port Pirie's Opera Swimmer

Our caravan park at Port Pirie was the Beach Caravan Park, and it was right on the river and very close to town. Robyn continued with her marine theme of cabins, this time residing in "The Dolphin". Each morning we would awake to the sounds of opera coming from the river. Port Pirie has its own opera swimmer, who swims up and down the river every day singing opera. Sure you get a bit of a falsetto gargle from time to time, as he takes on water, but I have to say it is unique.

The King Tree is really big!

On one of our days, we took a scenic drive up into the Southern Flinders Ranges. I must say, that the local tourist authority needs to do a bit of work. We couldn't find a detailed map, and the information available was sparse to say the least! Sort of like finding your way around the streets of Sydney using a map of NSW!  It was a very full day, not least because we kept going over the same ground! First we drove up Collaby Hill Road to the Beetaloo Valley and Reservoir, through some very nice farm country.

Statue of C.J.Dennis at Laura.

We arrived in Laura, the home of famous poet C. J. Dennis. Actually, we became very familiar with Laura, as every road we took seemed to come back through Laura! The third time through, we found our way out the other side and on to the Bakery at Stone Hut, by which time we were well overdue for coffee and cake. The Stone Hut Bakery was excellent. All real home made goodies. On to Wirrabara and the Wirrabara Forest, the first pine plantation in South Australia. There is a famous orchard, where all of the European trees were trialled, but we never found it! The signage was woeful. The only orchard we found was O'Riellys, and he wasn't home and he isn't famous! We did find the King Tree, at the third attempt, and it was pretty big. 

The pier at Port Germein.

The drive home took us through Germein Gorge which was spectacular, with its red rock features, and down to Port Germein. At Port Germein, is the longest timber jetty in the southern hemisphere, at a touch over 1500 metres. That's a three kilometre walk out to the end and back, which we all did. My suggestion to the local council, is to install a toilet out there. It is a bloody long way back! The reason it is so long, is the shallow water. This used to be a very busy port, shipping grain in huge sailing ships all around the world. With the railway and steam ships, the port became redundant. Now it is a tourist attraction and fishing spot.

Mystery machine at Port Germein.

Now for a bit of trivia. Check out the next picture, and see if you can figure out what it is. It was in the water at Port Germein. Well, it is home made tractor to launch trailer boats. Not much use for a boat ramp here! You could find that by the time you got back, you could be 500 metres from shore!! So this guy tows his boat out to where he thinks there will still be water when he returns! Pretty ingenious if you ask me.

Grain Silos at Port Pirie.

Back in Port Pirie, we had a look around the waterfront. There are some wonderful old buildings. The railway used to run down the middle of the main street. These days the railway just crosses the main road to bring ore to the smelter and grain to the silos. The sheer size of the silos, shows just how much grain gets grown around here.It still goes out by ship, but as the ships get bigger the harbour won't be able to cope, and the grain will all go by rail or road.

Saeid (working), Rafael & Helen,
with John & Carolyn at Caffe Florence.

Last task on our agenda in Port Pirie was to locate some relatives of our friend Daphne from NZ. Given that they run a cafe it really wasn't a problem at all! Daphne's brother Will lives in Port Pirie. His daughter, Helen, and son-in-law Saeid, run Caffe Florence in the centre of town. We called in and ordered lunch and coffee, then started asking some questions, then the excitement really set in! We were all welcomed like long lost friends, by Saeid who was the only family member at the restaurant. More coffee and home made cakes, Saeid was on the phone, and we were given strict instructions to call in for breakfast the next morning, when Helen, son Rafael and father Will, would all be there. And they were! Hearty breakfasts all round, more coffee, lots of conversation, grabbed between customer orders, and we were on the way, waddling back to the car, thinking what a great experience we had. If you are ever in Port Pirie, you have to go to the best cafe in town, CAFFE FLORENCE.


We rolled past the cafe with the caravan in tow, horn blowing, and Saeid, Helen, Will and Rafael waving farewell, along with half the town, waving, but with bewildered looks! Who are those people? We turned north, and put on the after burners, en route for stop number two, Woomera.