Monday, Oct 24 - To Port Augusta

We got up at seven to find it had rained during the night and was still very cloudy. We walked over to the motel restaurant and received the breakfast we had ordered yesterday: one omelet with bacon, tomato and mushrooms and extra toast so we could split it. We failed to get on the internet but otherwise a very nice motel with very friendly staff.

We set off in light drizzle, and north of Clare the vineyards gave way to rolling wheat fields, beautiful green and gold with the Flinders Range slowly appearing on the horizon. We stopped in the village of Laura after some patches of heavy rain and went into the local IGA mini supermarket to stock up on crisps, cookies and chocolate so we can, at least, have a snack since we never seem to find lunch at a convenient time.

Near Melrose we turned off into a picnic area and walked around a bit and birded. It was an area of pasture where the farmer had left the giant old red gums standing along a dry creek. The trees were full of pink and grey galah parrots screeching, flying around, courting and looking for nesting holes. It was just beautiful!

After about 60 miles we reached Mt. Remarkable National Park on the southern edge of the Flinders. We drove up a steep road, saw our first Kangaroo for the trip(!), and parked near several trails. We walked to an overlook through a forest of skinny Eucalyptus and Grass Trees until we came to an overlook on a small canyon of deep red stone with Eucs growing out of the rock and beautifully contrasting with the stone with their white trunks and green foliage.

(pic: Euc flowers, grass tree)

We descended from the mountains onto the coastal plain towards Port Augusta, the northernmost point of Spencer Gulf, and got to our hotel, Standpipe Golf Motor Inn about four. It’s supposed to have excellent northern Indian food, but I‘m not sure about alcohol as the town is supposed to be dry, so we shall see.

We walked around the golf course looking for birds but it was pretty cool and windy. At seven we walked over to the Motel restaurant which may be part of the original hotel built in 1882; it was a large high-ceiled room and pretty well filled with customers. Well, we had the best Indian meal of our lives, not that we’ve had that many, but this was just perfect! We had dishes of prawns in a cardamom and coriander light curry sauce, Kadai chicken masala (curry chicken in a dark gravy of onions tomatoes and spices), Katchumba, a bowl of chopped cucumber, onion and tomato, rice and a basket of roti bread. It was just fantastic and the perfect amount. We had a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc from the Elderton Vineyard in the Adelaide Hills ,and for dessert a dish of mango and pistachio ice cream. Great dinner!