Kimba

Visited: spring and summer

Recommendation: The township of Kimba is lovely. The low cost campground is very pleasant and there are walks close to it that can yield some interesting birds.

I have enjoyed driving through South Australia. Beginning with the arid area from the Northern Territory with hundreds of kilometres of gibber plains followed by heath like scrub. The humidity arrived as I approached the coast (my glasses steamed up and the mosquitos are bloated) and now moving west, the combination of arid and temperate has given way to fields of crops. In Queensland, the crops were sugar and tropical fruit and in the Northern Territory there were no fields to sow. This is the first time I have seen field after field of grain. Huge silos dot the horizons and there is a distinctly English countryside feel about the area. 

I arrived in Kimba feeling very hopeful. I had liked Port Augusta and Whyalla and Kimba promised a free campground within the town. In my experience, free rest areas and campsites don't exist in built up area. Kimba itself resembles a English village (I am originally from the UK) with its stone and brick houses (something else I have not seen often in Australia) and manicured gardens. It had such a nice feel and I felt quite nostalgic, which doesn't happen very often! The campground was one of the best I have ever been to and better than a number of caravan parks that I have paid for the privilege of staying in. 

Best of all was a walk just across the road through bush. It was really lovely and I began to pick up some western species which surprised me this far east. Western Whistlers sang from the tree tops and I caught several glimpses of the White-eared Honeyeater. Unfortunately, both stayed stubbornly out of range of my camera. I also saw a pair of Mulga Parrots feeding on the ground but the gloom made my photos destined straight for the recycle bin.