So we hot-footed it out of there this morning and headed North up the Spencer Gulf coastline stopping into check out Port Pirie and Port Germein along the way.
Port Pirie is quite a sizeable port town with huge silos for the grain storage before it is loaded onto ships. We had a bit of a wander around here and checked out the Regional Art Gallery which although small was very nice.
We headed out of Port Pirie for Port Germein - but the GPS took us down a street that ended at a caravan park - that was fun backing up and turning ourselves around to get out of that street.
Once we got that sorted we just headed in the direction we thought was right and the GPS got back on track for us then.
Well Port Germein was a very small quaint little seaside village that has an extremely long jetty - it was originally 1676 metres long. It is one of the longest wooden jetties in the Southern Hemisphere and in its heyday Port Germain was the largest grain shipping port in Australia.
The Port Germein jetty and goods building are state heritage listed.
It's a long way out to go before you hit water deep enough to go fishing
This is the cute old lighthouse at the jetty - we dubbed it "the coffee pot"
We walked the jetty all the way out and back - a lovely 3km walk (the jetty was damaged years ago and now is 1500m long) and then enjoyed a coffee at the waterfront.
We reached our campsite at Mambray Creek Campground in Mt Remarkable National Park around 1pm. Patter a quick camp setup and leisurely lunch we set off for a short hike.
We walked the Daveys Gully Hike where we were treated to views of Spencer Gulf.
Like this "selfie" we took along the path
After that we took a stroll around the "Wirra Water Loop" which takes in the dry creek bed that runs along the edge of the campground - where there are many magnificent River Red Gums.
This campsite has some of the best examples of River Red Gums in South Australia and it was a delightful way to see out the afternoon walking the interpretive trail provided for the "Wirra Water Loop".
These old Wirra giants can have sinker roots as deep as 9 metres which is the key to their survival in the long droughts in this area. These sinker roots tap into deep groundwater reserves and pump water back up the to shallow roots near the surface.
We were well a truly ready to settle in for a late afternoon wine in the magnificent environment - but disaster!! - we had run out of wine. Not sure how we managed that??
So it was a lovely cup of tea instead! - with emus feeding in the vicinity of the campsite around us.
The amenities here are very good - with flushing toilets and hot showers - but they don't miss you with the cost for the camping.
But on the whole It is a great campspot as usual in the bush - very dark and very quiet at night.
We were off to bed early as we have a long walk planned for tomorrow.
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