No tags yet.
We left Port Broughton in good time and our destination was to be Whyalla but we wanted to make a couple of stops on the way and the first stop was to be Port Pirie. We stopped on the outskirts of town and asked Siri to find the Tourist Information Centre which is always a bit risky because we could have found ourselves driving to India. As is was she got lost and wanted us to do many u-Turns to find our destination. We eventually gave up and phoned the centre and asked for their help which made life much easier for us and we eventually arrived at our destination. The main reason we called in here was to view the shark exhibit they had. As it turned out there were two exhibits, one was a virtual reality, diving with the sharks exhibit, and the other Shakka the shark exhibit. Shakka was caught up in a snapper line in Port Pirie and drowned, the community felt a bit of sympathy for this so she has been rebuilt with all the marks of the original on the body of the model and the community chose her name and she now has her own exhibit. Sharks don't have bones they are made up of cartilage so once they go that is it which meant it had to be completely remodelled. There is a video of the remaking of Shakka in the exhibit which is very interesting. The entry to this exhibit is only $3 and well worthwhile a stop off. The centre itself has local information you can collect, the two shark displays and lots of souvenirs for sale. The staff are very helpful, we were passing through but if you are staying this would be a good start off point.
Our next stop was Port Augusta where once again we called into the Tourist Information Centre which in this case was called the Wadlata Outback Centre. The centre focuses on our indigenous background of this area and you will find a history of the outback here but we heard it takes 3 hours to go through and we didn't have that time to spare. We looked around the centre and read the information that was on display and pic
ked up a few brochures that we thought might be useful and then back in the car driving towards Whyalla.
I loved the drive through this very dramatic landscape to eventually arrive in Whyalla and yes you guessed it our first stop was the visitor information centre where we picked up brochures on the area and also information about caravan parks which we had already looked up but there was also an RV park in the area for $5pp per night for anyone interested but you needed to be fully self contained and we didn't want to go without power and water for the time we were here so we chose to go to one of the two parks here. We booked into the Whyalla Caravan park, this was the first park we looked at and we were happy enough with it so decided to book in. The gentleman who looked after us was very pleasant and we asked for a drive through spot and that wasn't a problem. The rates were good and you have everything you need here so nothing to complain about. We also liked the position, close enough to the areas we wanted to look at and we are on the way to our next stop. All up good stop so we booked for two nights after originally thinking we were going to stay in Whyalla for two nights then changing back to one night we now feel we need two nights here to see what we want to.
We set up, had lunch and then decided we wanted a bit of a look around the area and also to revisit the visitor information centre to book into the steelworks tour for the next day. We made it just in time and after making our booking and checking the time we needed to return the next day we drove onto our next stop which was the Whyalla foreshore where we walked the jetty and out onto the swimming pontoons before heading back to drive to Hummock Hill Lookout. We drove up to Hummock Hill from Whyalla foreshore and as I would suspect everyone visiting here would be amazed at the views. I took photos all around it didn't matter where you stood every outlook was spectacular, we were going to wait for sunset but we had another hour and we needed to do a few things back at the van so planned to return tomorrow night. Don't miss this view though if in the area and when driving back down make sure yo who seems to be environmentally conscious while supporting the local area with jobs in a safe environment. u view the miner's cottages on the entry to town.
I have to say I had no idea what to expect in Whyalla but found myself quite impressed, for one thing the town is much larger than I thought we asked at the information centre and they thought the population was up to 40,000. You have everything you need here including a beautiful coastline, what looks like a progressive town, all the infrastructure you need plus an employer of the steelworks who seems to be environmentally conscious and interested in developing his business.
