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Day 8 - Baden Flat Rest Area -> Yunta Rest Area
Today 481kms / Total 2178kms
Lots of driving today. While the countryside we'd been passing through earlier had looked in good condition, the closer we came to the Darling River at Wilcannia, the greener and wetter it got. This culminated with driving through flooded paddocks on either side of the road, even though we were still 15kms from the river. It must look spectacular from the air.
The Darling had been in flood when we passed through Wilcannia last year, but we all agreed that this year's flood was higher.
You can compare this to the photo taken from the same point a year earlier (it's at the bottom of the page).
We crossed through the fruit fly exclusion zone on the outskirts of Broken Hill and commemorated it by munching our way through Peter and Pam's supply of apples and pears that would otherwise have gone into the bin. After refuelling both cars and humans in Broken Hill, we pressed on into South Australia. The difference in the countryside was fantastic with green everywhere (well, green by Australian standards!).
We had another free camp tonight at Yunta. This gave us the opportunity of having freight trains on one side and road trains on the other while we tried to sleep.
Day 9 - Yunta Rest Area to Wudinna, SA
Today 474kms / Total 2652kms
Yet another long travel day today, as we're trying to get as close to Ceduna as we can for a short fourth day. Not a lot to report, except the countryside is still green (have I mentioned this before?)
We stopped for lunch at Port Augusta at the head of the Spencer Gulf. There was a lovely grassed area next to the old wharf, so we took advantage and had lunch sitting in the shade.
Port Augusta waterfront.
We ended the day at Wudinna on the Eyre Highway. Sue and I had spent 2 days here last year before we set off north through the Gawler Ranges Nat. Pk. on the way to Alice Springs It's got a lovely little caravan park with friendly staff and a small dining room where we had a delicious meal.
At Kyancutta, just before Wudinna, we stopped for a quick break and found a small outdoor museum honouring the early farmers. One of the exhibits was this roller, made from an appropriately shaped tree, an old wheel, and a retired boiler. I suspect the early farmers did it tough!
Old roller, Memorial Park, Kyancutta.
Day 10 - Wudinna -> Ceduna
Today 210kms / Total 2862kms
A nice short day today, although it was raining for most of the trip. The most memorable thing was being passed in the rain by a B-Triple truck. This is a semi-trailer (articulated lorry for our English readers) with 3 trailers behind the prime mover. In the rain, it's like being overtaken by a moving waterfall! Fortunately, we were in radio contact with the driver, so could slow down after he had pulled out to the 'wrong' side of the road to let him get passed faster. No photos of this event - sorry, but I was just a bit preoccupied at the time!
Day 11 - Ceduna
Today 0kms / Total 2862kms
A recovery day today, as we get ready to cross the Nullarbor. There's not too much palatable water in the next 1400kms, so we're making sure to top up our drinking water tanks. We have 5 litres in the car plus a 20lt jerry can on the back of the van plus 100lt under the van, so while it's all available for drinking, we're making sure that the 25lt is set aside purely for drinking. The local Ceduna water is OK for drinking, but doesn't taste the best, so it will go into making sure the van's 100lt tank is full.
We expect that it will take about 4~5 days to cross the Nullarbor while still allowing time to see the sights. We would love to see some whales in the Great Australian Bight, but fear we're a bit early in the season.
Day 12 - Ceduna
Today 0kms / Total 2862kms
We went out for fish and chips last night. This part of the world is famous for its King George Whiting, so we couldn't resist having a fish and chips (and salad) takeaway while sitting on the foreshore. We followed that with a walk along the esplanade and back to the caravan.
Peter & Sue spot something on the horizon while walking along the beach front at Ceduna! Pirates?
There must be some very small electricians in Ceduna (enlarge the photo if you can't read the notice).
A very placid view across Murat Bay and the jetty at Ceduna, contrasting with the strong winds earlier in the day.
Day 13 - Ceduna -> 22k Peg Rest Area
Today 473kms / Total 3335kms
Finally into new territory (well, for Sue & I at least)! We left Ceduna and headed west. The road leaves the coast for a while and wanders inland before paralleling the shoreline about 10 to 12kms in from the ocean. This is where we started to cross the Nullarbor Plain. As we all know from Latin in high school (don't we?), this is from the two Latin words Nullus and Arbor meaning No Trees. While this is not exactly correct (there are a few scattered about), it is an area of 200,000 sq kms along the Great Australian Bight with not much above a metre tall. It is the world's largest single piece of limestone, and at its widest point, it stretches about 1,100 kilometres (684 mi) from east to west across the South Australia / Western Australia border.
We diverted off the highway to look at Fowlers Bay. This is the location that Edward John Eyre used as a base for his expedition to cross the Nullarbor in 1840/41. He set off with a companion, John Baxter, and 3 aborigines, Joey, Yarry and Wylie. During the journey, Joey and Yarry shot Baxter and then deserted taking valuable supplies, but Eyre continued with Wylie and reached what is now Albany in Western Australia after 4 months and 3 weeks. He described the Nullarbor as "a hideous anomaly, a blot on the face of Nature, the sort of place one gets into in bad dreams". Fortunately, modern transport has improved its reputation a bit but some people still find it boring! We certainly didn't.
Only another 1000km to go...
Morning Tea at Fowlers Bay on a table made from an old wharf loading trolley.
Modern day Fowlers Bay is set among rolling sand dunes.
We decided to stop at Head of Bight for a bite to eat, even though it was not whale-watching season. The Southern Right Whales gather in the Great Australian Bight to breed and raise their calves from May to August each year. They come close enough to the coast that they can easily be seen. At Head of Bight, there are board-walks along the cliff tops where you can spot the whales.
Head of Bight. As can be seen from the sky and the water, it was very windy with some showers coming through.
As it was out of whale-spotting season, all we spotted was a lovely little Welcome Swallow on the hand rail.
Welcome Swallow, Head of Bight.
The Nullarbor cliffs were very spectacular as they plunge about 300ft straight into the sea. They tend to be undercut and dangerous in places, so discretion is called for when sight-seeing.
Australia ends here! The sea here has a very 'deep ocean' feel to it, rather than the coastal surf and reefs we're used to in Qld.
We picked out a free camp site overlooking the ocean when it was time to call it a day from travelling. There had been a few showers during the day as well as quite a cross-wind that wasn't helping fuel consumption very much. We refuelled at the Nullarbor Roadhouse and the $1.96/lt for fuel didn't help the budget much either. I guess they have a captive market.
Time to circle the wagons for the night at a rest area with the catchy name of '22km Peg Rest Area' (it's 22km from the SA/WA border).
Day 14 - 22km Peg Rest Area -> Eyre Telegraph Station Access Rd., WA
Today 369kms / Total 3704kms
Due to the vagaries of Daylight Saving and state borders, we had a small miscalculation last night. Peter's phone updated itself to WA time while we were still on SA time (we were still physically in SA but only 20kms from the WA state border). We had agreed to be ready the next morning at 8:30. Peter and Pam were working on WA time while we were working on SA time. There is a 2 1/2hour difference! So we were ready at 8:30 our time when they thought it was still 6am! In addition to this, the locals use the unofficial Central Western Time Zone of UTC+ 8:45!. Anyway, it all worked out in the end.
Now for Western Australia! This is the biggest of our states and is larger than Western Europe and four times the size of Texas. At the border we are still 1300 kms from Perth, the state capital. With a population of less than 2 million (1.4 million of whom live in Perth), it's a rather empty place!
After we had passed through the WA quarantine checkpoint (no fruit, vegetables, plants or honey, thank you), we proceeded to take in numerous beautiful views of the cliffs and the ocean until we got to Eucla. This was an important settlement in the 1870s when the first overland telegraph line was opened to connect WA to the rest of the country (and the world). The first message, sent to Perth in December 1877, stated simply, 'Eucla line opened. Hurrah.' You seldom get a good 'Hurrah' these days. The Eucla Telegraph station was abandoned in 1910 after having been in use for 33 years and being at one time the busiest station outside the major cities. It has now been overwhelmed by the coastal dunes.
Eucla Telegraph Station - experiencing a few difficulties but service will be resumed as soon as possible...
Back onto the highway we passed the time looking at road signs that seldom appear elsewhere.
The Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) uses appropriate parts of the highway as emergency runways for accidents, etc. There are no doctors living between Ceduna to Norseman (1200kms), so the RFDS is an essential service. A donation never goes astray!
These appear all the way across the Nullarbor, but this one had a particularly perky camel!
(For our overseas readers, the one in the middle is a wombat. A lovable animal but with a stubborn streak that makes a mule seem positively pliable by comparison.)
As we approached Cocklebiddy, we decided to see if we could find the Eyre Telegraph Station. This was the next relay station after Eucla for the Morse messages that passed between WA and the eastern states in the late 19th century. The first 12kms was dirt but at least we weren't making much dust as there had been recent rain. As the track was known to deteriorate and was unsuitable for 2WD cars and caravans the closer you got to the site, we left P&P's rig and our caravan at an old decommissioned microwave tower and continued in one vehicle.
It gives you a sense of the rate of advance of technology when something that was state-of-the-art only a few years ago (microwave towers for communications) has now been overtaken by fibre-optic underground cable and satellites. We wondered what Eyre and the early telegraph operators would have made of it. All the towers across the Nullarbor now stand bereft of microwave dishes. I bet the eagles and other raptors like them, though!
The site of the Eyre Bird Observatory is where Eyre and his expedition recuperated for about 4 weeks in his trek across the Nullarbor. They managed to find water by digging 2 metres down in fine sand. The Eyre Telegraph station was subsequently built on the same site although the current building is the second, the first having been abandoned. The Eyre Bird Observatory is now the occupier of the final Eyre Telegraph Station. Over the years since it was decommissioned, it had most of the timber removed and had generally fallen into disrepair. It was also being threatened by being overwhelmed by mobile dunes, but not to the same extent as the Eucla station. In 1977, the station was restored by Birds Australia and the Post Office Historical Society.
The Eyre Telegraph Station housing the Eyre Bird Observatory.
Part of the original telegraph station buildings.
Parts of the telegraph lines still exist.
One of the dunes near the station. There are working parties to carry out dune stabilisation, as can be seen by the trees on the dune at top right.
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