Van Gogh Alive

 

Van Gogh is very much alive at the Royal Hall of Industries at Moore Park. He's there for a little bit longer. Do  go see him.

     Starry Night video       

Starry Night Over the Rhone video  

Get ready for the gunshot in this one:    

Bound for South Australia - 11: The road not taken

 

 

 

 

 

That's a lot of unsealed road. I went the other way.

Bound for South Australia - 10: Whyalla

 
Whyalla was a surprise. It's not just steelworks. It has beaches, parks, a new jetty (circular indeed).

 

 

 

And there are even some very pleasant cafes in the main street. 

Bound for South Australia - 9: Port Augusta

 

 

 

The solar power tower just south of Port Augusta uses an array of mirrors to focus the sun's heat, which is stored in molten salt. This is used to drive a steam turbine to generate electricity.

 

 

 

I enjoyed a stroll around the Australian Arid Lands Botanic Garden.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The view from the bird hide therein. No birds at that moment. But pictures of the ones that could have been there.

 

Port Augusta is where the Augusta Highway crosses the top pointy bit of Spencer Gulf. When Matthew Flinders was here in 1802 he made a note of the red cliffs. 

 

Lots of road trains pass through here on their way north to NT or west to WA.

Bound for South Australia - 8: Aroona camping

 

I spent a happy two nights at the rather idyllic Aroona campsite, near the Heysen Range in the Flinders Ranges. Tent sites were spacious, the toilets were clean and odourless, and each site had its own tap supplying spring water. Emus came wandering through, with their teenage families, and the night sky was of course magnificent.

Bound for South Australia - 7: More Flinders Ranges scenery

 
 

The view from the Heysen Viewpoint just off the Yuluna Circuit. Heysen was a German-born Australian artist who came to the Flinders Ranges  to do much of his fine work, and who now has a 1200km long distance walking track named after him. It goes to here from somewhere south of Adelaide.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here we are, in the Bunyeroo Gorge

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Below: the Heysen Range from the Aroona campsite

Bound for South Australia - 6: Wilpena Pound & St Mary Peak

It's one of the classic walks: the St Mary Peak circuit at Wilpena Pound in the Flinders Ranges. I had an attempt at it over 40 years ago, but we ran out of time and/or inclination when the track became a bit steep and precipitous in the approach to the Peak.

No false moves this time though. Here are my walking companions as we set out from the Wilpena resort, ready for our 9 hour, 21km day walk.

The pound itself is a large saucer-shaped area, several kilometres across, with a surrounding rim of mountains. Origin stories include giant serpents and meteorite strike. I think the mainstream one involves geological deformations and differential erosion rates.

In the 19th century it was used briefly as a grazing property, initially supporting many thousands of sheep and cattle. A few years later they were almost all dead, following the inevitable drought.

 

 

 

 

 

Approaching St Mary Peak

 

 

 

 

 

Exploring the top

 

 

 

Looking to the north, and to some of those serpentine mountain chains winding through the Flinders Ranges landscape

 

Back at the Wilpena resort, every evening there's a bit of a welcome talk and story telling session from a local traditional owner.

Bound for South Australia - 5: SA's border guards fail to stop me!

 

 

 

Here they are, doing their best! 

I made it into South Australia eventually, defying their best efforts to keep me out.

 

In fact it was all a bit scary and confusing trying to work out how to get into and out of South Australia in these uncertain COVID border restrictive times.

I'd decided to avoid the Mildura/Sturt Highway option when I read that if you got the permit regulations wrong you could end up trapped in Victoria, unable to go forward into South Australia or back home to NSW.

Hence the Broken Hill/Barrier Highway route. SA is open to NSW I'd read. But not quite! You still need a permit, I found out just in time. You need to have declared that you didn't have symptoms and hadn't been to Victoria, and to have printed out the online form. When I hit the border, there was nothing there. I sailed through. Except that more than 100km further into the state, suddenly there was a police checkpoint! They needed to see my permit. Would they really have sent me back all that way if I hadn't had one?

Bound for South Australia - 4: Broken Heel

Broken Hill's a mining town, but these days it's the legacy of films made in and around it that attract all the tourist attention. 

First there was Mad Max. Then the drag queens of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert have led to the creation of a Broken Heel Festival (postponed due to COVID this time). 

Top attraction is the very colourful Palace Hotel, featured prominently in the movie.