A study in red (and grey)

I was tempted by delightful coastal footpath on the west bank of the Spencer Gulf at Port Augusta but I only had time to check out a short section where it wound through saltmarsh. The busy railway lines are an ever-present background because these lines head in all directions for thousands of kilometres.

Saltmarsh and mangroves, Port Augusta

From a distance the saltmarsh looks like a sea of red but actually there are a number of species. The mangroves were looking very healthy as well.

Baby Grey Mangrove

Adult Grey Mangrove (click to view large to see the pneumatophores)

None of the succulent saltmarsh species were flowering unfortunately but they are still very beautiful when looked at closely.

And this one has me puzzled as well. I have no ideas on what it might be but the spiral leaf pattern is spectacular.

And one more, green this time.

Chenopods and more

You can't really avoid Port Augusta when you're traversing the southern part of the continent but it's worth stopping and spending some time exploring.

It's right at the head of Spencer Gulf and Matthew Flinders wasn't impressed with the area when he was here in 1801. "No person shall have occasion to come after me to make further discoveries" he wrote to Banks.

But I was impressed. The saltbush and other chenopod species cover the plains, interspersed with daisies, grasses and other interesting plants. Mangroves line the banks and as a backdrop the light changes the colour of the Southern Flinders continually.

The head of Spencer Gulf, Port Augusta

A long train moving south

Cemetery in the saltbush, Port Augusta West

Cemetery in the saltbush, Port Augusta West

Grey (White) Mangroves on the gulf

Arid Botanic Gardens, Port Augusta

Varied interests

Sometimes my interests coincide. Proof?

Bottle-nosed Dolphins when I was chasing up the Matthew Flinders story at Port Augusta.

A beautiful salt lake at Locheil (and the Loch Eil Monster) when I was chasing a geocache.

Sadness at the amount of the weed Patersons Curse when we visited the old Ghan railway station at Quorn. It might look pretty but ...

I used to be a cemetery walk guide and old isolated graves like that of Jimmy Finn in Pitchie Ritchie Pass are hard to resist. Never seen one like this before.

Unexpectedly a bearded dragon in a senna bush when we were checking out an old rural school site near Port Germain.

At the School of the Air in Longreach we discovered that Southern Cross windmills have three legs and Comet windmills have four. So we've counted windmill legs ever since and pondered on the importance of artesian water in the outback.

Arid lands

Flinders was here before me. In 1802 the Investigator dropped anchor in Spencer Gulf near where Port Augusta is today and while Robert Brown led a group from the ship to climb a nearby hill Flinders and another group rowed further up the gulf to see if it turned into something interesting. They climbed a small, red sandy cliff to get a better view but the water narrows to a muddy tidal mangrove and samphire swamp rather than a big inland strait or lake or river so they returned to the ship.

We also had a look at the view from the top of the cliff by driving to it through the Australian Arid Lands Botanic Garden, and this morning we went up to the same area by boat. We were told that the Grey (White) Mangroves are gradually encroaching naturally on the area and parts of the cliff are collapsing (as cliffs do) so in the future this area will not look as dramatic as it does now.

At the lookout on top of the cliff a group of plants have been planted to commemorate those that Robert Brown, Ferdinand Bauer, William Westall and Peter Good found when they were climbing the mountain that now bears Brown's name. They found, collected and drew many new plants and 200 years later the climb was commemorated by a repeat climb and collection. What a great idea.

We read all about it in a display at the Arid Lands garden and then bought quandong-flavoured icecreams to eat as we explored the eremophila walk. There are longer walks to explore as well as bird hides but we'll have to do that another time, and of course it would be great to revisit in a different season.