Driving across the Nullarbor - and back again
August 7, 2007
Port Lincoln - Ceduna
Fuel Stop: Port Lincoln
54.4 Litres, $1.299/l (Regular): $70.66
Distance 655.1km Economy: 8l/100km
Fairly short drive today - 'only' 400km. It meant we got to Ceduna at around 2pm. Just out of Port Lincoln, we took a quick detour and visited Coffin Bay; named not due to being shaped like a casket, but rather named after a certain Isaac Coffin, a person whom I should have taken more notice of when I was reading the information board at the lookout, because I can't tell you anything more about him.
After Coffin Bay we kept travelling up the western side of the Eyre Peninsula towards Ceduna, past some picturesque old buildings visible from the roadside, as seen below:
Lunch was eaten at Streaky Bay, about 100 kilometres before Ceduna. One thing I noticed about the layout of the town centre was that it reminded me of Cowes, Phillip Island, the way the main street goes down a hill, ending at a reserve with a pier/jetty extending from there. We took another walk along the pier (it seems to be all we are doing in these towns!) and tried taking some arty shots.
The roads were really quiet today, we overtook nobody all day. The landscape was quite densely treed as we left in the morning, but as we headed northwards towards Ceduna, the land became more arid.
Ceduna is a reasonably big town, around three thousand people live in it and the neighbouring town of Thevenard, a few kilometres away. The main industries in the area are grain and fishing, but there is also a lot of industry servicing the amount of travellers, both tourist and transport, that stop here as the last major town before heading west over the Nullarbor. There is a four kilometre foreshore walk leading from the Ceduna Jetty to Thevenard, but we didn't walk it because it was just too damn cold and windy, with rain looming on the horizon as well.
We chose to stay at a cabin in a caravan park. Unfortunately, since we didn't book ahead, there was only a 'budget' cabin left. Still, it only cost $50 plus $8 for linen hire. The cabin was a bit old and crappy, but at least it had a TV, fridge, heater and a quite small double bed. I guess it is best to ring ahead to book accommodation, but we only tried the one park - there is at least one other in the town. We did, however, book a cabin for on the trip back in a couple of weeks.
August 8, 2007
Ceduna - Eucla
Fuel stop: Ceduna
46.7 Litres, $1.499/l (BP Ultimate): $70.00
Distance: 448.5km Economy: 10l/100km
Today we hit the actual Nullarbor Plain. On leaving Ceduna, we drove through a fog bank around the town of Penong. Visibility went down to a few hundred metres, and it actually looked quite eerie - just the trees lining the road and a short distance down the road was all you could see. On driving through Penong, the dozen or so windmills by the side of the road made quite a surreal sight, emerging from the fog. I am just kicking myself that we didn't get a photo of it. However, later in the day we more than made up for that missed photo...
As we went on the farms and fields thinned out, and the open landscape, with saltbush and trees, took over. We planned some whale watching at Head of Bight, but since it on Aboriginal land a permit had to be bought at Yalata Roadhouse. However, when we got there, the place was boarded up and closed. Luckily we didn't need fuel, as the next available stop was the Nullarbor Roadhouse, some 200 kilometres away.
All was not lost though, as there was a visitor centre at the actual site where the whales are, so we were able to get tickets ($10 each). Awaiting us were six southern right whales, including one white one and a couple of calves. A sea lion also joined in. They were only a hundred or so metres from the shore - loads of photos were taken by us. Truly a spectacular sight.
Afterwards we had lunch at the Nullarbor Roadhouse. We didn't need to buy fuel, as we filled up at Ceduna. A good thing, and something to remember: fill up in the bigger towns where you can, as the price here was $1.689 per litre for regular, $1.719 for premium - around 20 cents per litre more than Ceduna. If your car can last the 500km to Eucla, the price there was similar to Ceduna's, so you can save a bit of money.
Also at Nullarbor Roadhouse were some wild dingoes, as you can see above. We stopped at a few more lookouts along the highway, as it runs quite close to the coastline for a while. While we saw some impressive scenery, with sheer limestone cliffs 30 to 60 metres high, there were no more whales visible. The official Nullarbor, treeless stretch ended just after the roadhouse, with the scattered trees gradually becoming more numerous.
At the South Australia/West Australia border we had to stop while quarantine officers checked for fruit, vegetables, honey and other things that you aren't allowed to bring into the state. It doesn't take long, and we were soon on the way; just 12 short kilometres from Eucla. After arriving we checked out the ruins of the old telegraph station, which are slowly being swallowed by the sand dunes.
Whales, dingoes, treeless plains, limestone cliffs, sand dunes: quite a day, and we now feel like we are really in the outback!
August 9, 2007
Eucla - Balladonia
Fuel Stop: Eucla
49.41 Litres, $1.479/l (Regular): $73.08
Distance 538km Economy: 9.2l/100km
Fuel Stop 2: Balladonia
48.21 Litres, $1.699/l (Regular): $81.91
Distance 526.1km Economy: 9.2l/100km
Today's drive was quicker than yesterday's - there were no whales to be seen as Eucla is the last we see of the ocean until we get to Perth. We noticed a lot more wildlife today, most of it dead however. Just out of Eucla we spotted a (live) emu wandering about the scrub not far from the road. Some of the most impressive creatures though are the wedge-tailed eagles, which often were feeding on some roadkill by the side of the road. They were not always scavengers - we learned on a previous holiday to the Northern Territory that they used to hunt rabbits, which were in plague populations across a lot of the country. Then the calicivirus was unleashed, wiping out a lot of the rabbit population. This resulted in a drop in the available food for the eagles, which were then forced to eat the animals killed by traffic. The wedge-tailed eagle is quite a large bird, with a wingspan of up to two metres. One of them that we encountered was feasting on a dead kangaroo in the middle of the road just looked at us as we were approaching in the car, with an expression of "I'm not moving, you go around me!"
Out of Eucla the road drops down off the limestone part of the Nullarbor Plain on to lower lands where it stays until rising up again over the Madura Pass, where we stopped briefly at the lookout.
Lunch was eaten in Cocklebiddy, at the Wedgetail Inn. We finally bought a sandwich to eat, as the past days' diet of meat pies and hamburgers was beginning to catch up on us. It would be hard being a truck driver, living off the food in truck stops, I tell you. After a driver change we hit the home stretch - around 150 kilometres of dead straight road. The western end of it has recently been upgraded and is quite good to drive on.
At around 2pm we arrived at Balladonia, for a bit of a look around at the museum where a chunk of Skylab fell to earth in 1979. But, the museum was closed for refurbishment... Anyway, we stayed there the night and had a wander around the grounds. For a place that is swarming with rainwater tanks and holds every drop of water precious, it seemed a little strange that there was a swimming pool in the motel section! At the back of the roadhouse is a runway where a twin engine aircraft with some rather strange appendages was sitting. It took off in the morning, circling around the area. A bit of googling of the registration number revealed it to be a Shorts SC-7 Skyvan 3-100, used for airborne surveys and various geotechnical measurements. Pretty tricky.
