Leaving Ceduna after getting our food organised for the next week - the weather is favourable to be travelling this way , so we’ll strike while it’s good .
First stop today was Penong , windmill capital of Australia - even a windmill museum - these are just some of them , you’ll notice the ute & van in a couple to give you some scale . The 2nd photo is “Bruce “ 35 ft span makes it the largest of it’s type - gearbox & fan weighing 4.5t , and is capable of drawing water from 500 feet and pumping 250,000 gallons a day ( over 1,000,000 litres ). There are only 2 others of this type erected outside Queensland , one in NSW and this one .
There were many others to look at - a small mobile one , and another with completely different blade configuration .
Back onto the highway and onto the famous Nullabor Plain , this stretch of road is famous for being a boring drive ????? we cant understand that comment , we find it an interesting place - changing vegetation , the cliffs and the wide open expanse of land that seems to go on for ever .
Todays destination was Head Of The Bight , where the Bunda Cliffs start and the sandy beaches disappear for 185 klms . The cliffs themselves are 80m tall and there are 3 distinct layers of limestone . There are 2 separate viewing areas with wheelchair accessible ramps to both . Whale watching is a popular activity when the whales are here - they can be seen not far from the cliff edges - 5mins after we left 3 whales showed up - how did we know - 3 ladies that we were chatting to , called in to see us on there way out and told us !!
This is our camp for the night , there were 3 coach’s , 1 caravan , 1 motorhome and a couple of other travellers .
We had a chilly night , fortunately we had our wonderful new diesel heater - works really well and doesn’t take long to warm things up - if you ran it on full blast , it would only use 300ml of diesel per hour !!!
After a chilly morning , we headed off again , not far down the road is Nullabor Roadhouse , it’s a fuel station , hotel , motel caravan park and truck stop - Diesel is $1.98 a litre !!! Resisting the temptation at that price , we carried on , Eucla was only 193klms away - it usually has fuel cheaper than most other places on the Nullabor !!
The treeless plain is also starting to be not so treeless - here’s 3 I zoomed in on hahaha .
Here’s another thing that’s a bit rare here - Corners in the road !!!!
Generally it’s usually straight .
On the way to the border there are 3 scenic lookouts , there’s a couple of unofficial ones as well , but these give you a great view of the cliffs .
You have to be on your toes here , never know what you’re going to run into .
This is from lookout 2.
These are from lookout 3 , the cliffs stop and beaches return briefly , then there’s more cliffs .
Next thing is the border crossing where quarantine officers will inspect your vehicles , fridges , eskies and cupboards . We were organised and had all our food cooked and frozen , so they were in & out of the van quickly . They check the car mats for burrs as well ! You aren’t allowed to take some fresh fruit & vegetables and honey into WA , they will confiscate them - there’s a few other things as well - best to check . It’s also a long way to the next supermarket !!!
Arriving at Eucla we filled the ute - 107 litres at $1.86 - saving us $12 , every little bit helps at this price - we had to pay $1.98 a litre for the next 2 fill ups anyway !!
After filling up we decided we’d come all this way , we may as well have a look at the Old Telegraph Station . On the way we found the war memorial which overlooks the Eucla airfield and the Eyre Hwy as it continues on down on the Roe Plains .
Finding our way ( very easily ) to the Old Telegraph Station , we were a tad annoyed by the reports we’d read about the track being 4wd accessible only - Bollocks - we could have quite easily taken the van down there and camped the night - we’d unhitched and left it near the fuel station .
After a short walk through the sand hills we found the remains of the station house , most of which was being consumed by sand and grafitti . Sadly , people have been etching their names into the render of the walls for at least the last 45 years , now the spray painters are having a go as well .
After looking at the ruins we headed out to look at the old jetty - it was about another 500m walk out the sand dunes . The jetty is also suffering at the hand of the elements , with sections missing .
Back to the ute and back up the hill to hitch up again . Rather than go back to the sand dunes we continued further along the hwy . When leaving Eucla , you descend Eucla Pass ( more of a downhill run , no corners till you get to the bottom ) and you are at the eastern end of the Roe Plains . The Nullabor Plain continues for a long way beyond here , it’s just that you don’t drive on it till you get to Madura Pass , where you drive back up from the Roe Plains . But that’s tomorrow . Today we found another free camp for the night about 20 klms west of Mundrabilla .
The weather looked to be favourable to continue our trek west , so we decided to put in a bigger day behind the wheel .
We had a great night , cloud cover kept the warmth in for most of the night . As we got ready to leave there were a few spots of rain , further down the road that turned to rain , not for long though , they do need every drop they can get here !!
Before too long , we’d arrived at Madura and filled up again - the joys of filling up with the hi flow hose - yesterday when I filled up I used the hi flow pump - it tends to foam up a bit and cuts out early , so you dont fill up as much as you could - we were about 10 litres out due to this - it didn’t mean we would run out , it’s the inconvenience of it all when you’re watching the fuel gauge and the kilometres and knowing that you cant get as far as you normally would !
Anyway , back out onto the hwy again , up the Pass , and there’s a lookout , in we go . They say you can see the Southern Ocean from here - need better eyes for that , it’s a long way off !! Being back up on the Nullabor Plain again gives you a good look at the Roe Plain stretching out to the horizon - it’s massive , we’d been driving on it for the last 178 klms !
The scenery could pass for somewhere in Africa .
Back to the road again , did I mention straight roads , we finally turned our last corner for 141 kilometres , that was a lot of straight road , and it only stopped because they put in a couple of little corners - sort of like someone had left their vehicle parked , and just drove the grader around it - and then it continued straight again for a while before turning right and going straight again .
Fuelling up again at Balladonia , we carried on . The road was climbing a bit and finally came to the top of the hill and we had views to Fraser Range and some more straight road .
We arrived at Fraser Range Homestead where we stayed the night . After setting up , we decided to go for a walk up the hill to the water tank for a view of the largest hardwood eucalypt forest in Australia . Fraser Range is a granite mountain in the middle of the forest . A couple of the locals kept an eye on us as we walked past .
This is the view down to the homestead and caravan park .
And that’s a rap for these 3 days travelling - no phone service , radio , tv or internet to be had here - usually something massive happens while we are away from all the world has to offer - when we were at the Flinders Ranges years ago , the psunami hit Japan !!
Here’s a map link :- https://drive.google.com/open?id=1jRhKvKRF4_b5-z5dSJN0yUcnkf27q-G-&usp=sharing
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