Youngs' travelling adventures: Port Pirie

We decided to stay at Port Pirie for a couple of nights because I was reading a brochure about the town and saw that we could do a tour of the Nyrstar Port Pirie Smelter. (In 2009 it celebrated 120 years of production and it is one of the largest integrated zinc and lead producers in the world.)
We arrived on Thursday afternoon and stayed at nice Caravan Park. Our site looked over the Port Pirie River and the Flinders Ranges.
On Friday morning we were taking our time getting ready because the tour wasn't until 12.30 when we heard a man singing opera very loudly and off key. We looked out into the bay and saw a man swimming and he was the one singing. It was very unusual.

Aerial View of Port Pirie and Smelter.
The stack is 205m high.

View from our caravan site-
The Flinders Rangers and Port Pirie River

The tour of the Smelter was very interesting. We started off at the Visitor Information Centre -VIC- and watched a video on the Smelting Process. Then we got on a small bus and they drove us around the Smelter Plant with the tour guide explaining the different areas.( Luke almost fell asleep.)
On the tour they were discussing the lead levels in the workers and if their lead levels were to high they were sent to another part of the Smelter to work until their lead levels reduced.
The wider community is also tested for lead levels and Nyrstar are running a 10 for them program to help people to become more aware of how to reduce lead levels in children and babies.

After the Smelter tour we drove down to Port Germain and walked out on the Jetty. The jetty is 1580 meters long. It was longer but due to storm damage it lost approx 200m.

Sign about the Jetty

View from the end of the Jetty back to
the mainland.

View across the water to Port Pirie.

The shores are very shallow - The tide recedes for a couple of hundred meters.

We really enjoyed being at the end of the pier watching people catch fish and crabs. Occasionally we would see a dolphin and stingrays. The stingrays were pinching the bait from the crab traps.
We walked back to the mainland and watched the tide creep in. There were no big waves just the gentle rising of the water like when a river overflows.
It was getting late so we headed back to the van for tea.
On Saturday we packed up and took the scenic route around Mount Remarkable to Port Augusta stopping along the way to stretch our legs and have lunch..

Views of Mount Remarkable.

Mount Remarkable in the distance.
Flinders Ranges

Bangor Historical Site

Taking a break from driving at a park.
The girls were complaining that Todd and I
were going to slow.( Now that we are older
we get dizzy very quickly.)

Views from Hancocks lookout.

I love the rugged mountains.

Kids at Hancocks lookout.

South Australia has some cool playgrounds.

We arrived at Port Augusta on Saturday afternoon.
Todd's parents had previously arranged to meet us here on Sunday the 1st of May.
Port Augusta is known as the crossroads of Australia because roads from Sydney to Perth and Adelaide to Darwin pass through here.
We stayed at a big 4 caravan park and when Todd's parents arrived on Sunday the kids were very excited to see them.( Someone to talk to other than Mum and Dad.)
We were discussing where we had been, about Port Pirie and the singing opera swimmer. Three years earlier Val and Tony stayed there and they heard him too.
In the afternoon we went to the Waldata Outback centre at the V.I.C. (visitor information centre)
It took you through time from when Mega fauna roamed the lands then Aboriginals up until the modern day. It had lots of information and short movies about the outback and explorers.

Tuesday morning we woke up to a rainy day but we had decided on Monday to drive out to Wilpena.
The drive was about 11/2 hours long and the scenery was magnificent. We got to Wilpena Pound and went to the V.I.C. They told us that there was a walk we could do into Wilpena Pound but it was 3 1/2 kilometers long. ( A bus could take people in 2klm) but we had just missed it and another one wasn't leaving until 3pm. We sat in the car and had lunch because it was still raining and discussed what we were going to do. ( Todd's parents left us after lunch to some things that they wanted to do.) We decided that we probably wouldn't see much of the pound because of the low lying cloud.( Remembering Mt Shank) But there was a walk we could do to see some Aboriginal Rock Drawings. Even though it was raining we decided to do the walk. It took us about 1 hour to get to the rock, longer than we first thought it would.The kids were starting to complain when it came into view.
On the way back Todd bought out some bribery food, chocolate, and they soon cheered up. They made a game up- every time they found a seat on the way back they could have a piece of chocolate.
Even though it was a long walk in the rain and we saw some huge spiders in their webs I am glad that we did it because we saw some spectacular scenery.