Go North Young Man!

2019 is turning into a “stay close to home” year for our vacation plans.  So far this year we’ve spent time in Far North Queensland, NSW South Coast and more recently, spent 10 days driving through the Red Centre.  We’ll then finish the year with a Christmas vacation in Tasmania.

Our drive through the Red Centre covered new ground for Garry and I, as well as revisiting some old haunts we’d not seen for several decades.  Our adventure kicked off in Adelaide.  We collected an Apollo Motorhome mid-afternoon, stopped to provision it and then drove north to spend our first night in Port Augusta.

We decided to hire a camper van after Garry’s research revealed that it would cost less to do so than hiring a regular car.  Everyone we looked at charged a one-way rental fee that dramatically inflated this cost; up to $600 per hire.  However, for an unknown reason, a motorhome didn’t incur the same penalty.  We ultimately decided this presented a superb opportunity to experiment with the concept of becoming “grey nomads” in a few years time. 

We hired a deluxe vehicle with separate sleeping zones, permanent café style dining zone and a bathroom fitted out with a toilet and shower.  However, upon collection, we quickly discovered that deluxe referred more to its size and scale than the quality of its interior or the basic accessories included. A hard-won lesson indeed.

We ended up spending time at K-Mart buying basic luxuries such as a coffee plunger, high ball drinking glasses, serving platters, an electric kettle and serving tongs. Coles also had its free Tupperware container promotion running at the same time so we cashed in our reward points to secure some additional storage containers. 

Our extended shopping trip meant that half of our journey north was completed in darkness.  It was a shame as we’d hoped see the full extent of the famous Flinders Ranges as we drove.  However, all was not lost, as the following morning we took time out to drive through the ranges from Port Augusta to the picturesque country town of Quorn.

Quorn was a real treat.  The town has gone to great lengths to preserve many of its colonial buildings including its railway station.  The town was once a stop on the Old Ghan Railway to Alice Springs.  The original railway roughly paralleled the Oodnadatta Track.  This route traversed several dry lake beds that occasionally flooded and closed the line for weeks at a time.  In 1980 the railway was diverted on to a new line that ran 200km to the west of its original location.

From Quorn, we made our way back to Port Augusta where we spent the afternoon exploring a few of its popular sights.  This includes the Water Town, an unusual lookout built into the water tank of a preserved water tower, and an extended visit to the Australian Arid Lands Botanic Garden.  The garden overlooks the Flinders River and includes the spectacular Matthew Flinders Red Cliff Lookout.  The view of the Flinders Ranges was spectacular; as were the grounds of the garden’s themselves.

We finished the day with a two-hour drive to Woomera, arriving in time to enjoy a stunning sunset over the increasingly arid outback. Here’s more on our time in Woomera, a town that was once part of a highly restricted Defence zone.