Day 65 – Mundrabilla to Ceduna

Our first stop this morning was at Eucla and we were quite surprised by the size of the place. Well, there is a police station, a motel, roadhouse, nursing station and attached van park. Having seen the ruins of the Old Telegraph Station and sand dunes on previous visits, we decided to give it a miss today.

 

Apparently there are over 250,000 wild camels around this area, and some of the road signs we passed kept reminding us to watch out for them (not that we saw any today!). Australia now has the most pure breed of camels in the world.

The caravan park was almost deserted when we got up this morning. We heard most people pulling out very early. Of course it all depends on which time zone you are operating on! We got up at 7.00am and left at 7.45am WA time, or 8.30am Eucla time. Its very tricky trying to work it all out at present. Another 12 km down the road we passed through Border Village on the WA / SA border where people heading west only were quarantine checked for fruit, veges, seeds, nuts, and plant matter. Strangely enough we had to put our clocks forward another 45 minutes to SA time, then another hour forward for daylight saving!

After entering into SA we started to officially cross the Nullarbor Plain – a treeless plain that spans 260,000 square kilometres, bordered on the south by the impressive limestone cliffs that drop suddenly in to the Southern Ocean (The Great Australian Bight). We can see the ocean on our right for a good part of the trip, and there are six parking bays where we can pull off, stretch our legs and take a closer look at the mighty sea crashing into the cliffs. A very impressive sight. They are called the Bunda Cliffs, and are known as ‘Australia’s Land’s End’. We definitely had the feeling we were at the extreme bottom of the continent and could fall off Australia quite easily.

After driving 186km from the WA / SA border we arrived at the Nullarbor Hotel / Motel / Roadhouse. Like most of these roadhouses they have fuel, basic food (sometimes very basic, sometimes surprisingly good), and souvenirs. After driving for a couple of hours and seeing absolutely nothing we are quite glad to get out, visit the toilets, fuel up, let the kids have a play or walk around, so we appreciate them even though everything is extremely expensive.

One thing that surprised us today – we saw not one dead kangaroo on the road – only one dead wombat. After yesterday’s effort it is quite amazing – there is obviously no fresh water anywhere around here for them. We did however have to keep getting off the road to allow huge loads to pass us – sometimes half a house, sometimes like in the photo below, a complete massive mining haul truck tray which took up the whole road.

We called in at tiny town of Penong. We visited the Penong Woolshed, a 100 year old wooden shed now filled with local arts, crafts, jams and old artefacts. A nice little stop off.

Next stop – Ceduna.  Firstly we had to stop at the quarantine station on the edge of town, while the inspector looked in our fridge and saw we were not carrying any fruit or vegetables.

 

Then it was off for a short drive through town. At around 4.00pm SA time we checked in at the Shelley Beach Caravan park out the other side of town. Last time we stayed at the foreshore caravan park in town, and the pub next was so noisy it kept us awake all night, so we were wiser this time, and chose one out of town. This is a nice park, right on the beach with a games room for the kids (they always love that!). Not a bad achievement – crossing the Nullabor in only two days (560kms today) – two very long days!