Monday, September 27, 2010
Our granddaughter, Jessica's 11th birthday today - Happy Birthday, Jessica!! Our last morning in Esperance! A light shower overnight but dry this morning, that is until we were taking the awning down - must have been about 1 litre of water pooled on the awning & it almost landed right on top of John! Finished packing up & headed north towards Norseman. Passed through rural areas & a couple of small towns. Stopped at Salmon Gums for our morning coffee. Norseman was caravan central, as everyone travelling east fuelled-up for the first stage of their trip across the Nullarbor & later today all those coming in from the east will arrive to refuel after their long trip. I counted about 20 caravans from where we were parked near the information centre - & there were others parked around the town, too! The Information Centre was kept busy answering questions from those about to embark on the eastward journey!
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| Norseman, WA Caravan Refuelling station |
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| Fraser Range, WA: Port Lincoln Ringneck Parrot eating Eremophila flowers; Blackbutt tree; Black Beetle on Eremophila bud; Tan beetle on gum leaf; Caravan Park, our Penguin on far right |
We arrived here about 1pm, along with several other vans & campers! Had lunch & a bit of a look around before heading off, at 3.30pm, on the 3 hour Sunset Tour & a bit of a look around a small section of the property. We travelled in a 4WD OKA, a small [but quite high!] of road bus.We saw trees, camels, roos, rock-wall well & dam structures built in the late 1800's, & hundreds of rabbits before ending up on a hill with wine, beer & nibbles to watch & photograph the sunset! Beautiful! Sadly the rabbits are an enormous problem & the owners cannot start redeveloping the property until they are able to control these pests. They dig into & destroy everything, eat the tree roots so the trees die & the white ants move in, hence a lot of areas where the trees are disappearing - very big problem. Scientists are apparently working on a new strain of Calicivirus which will hopefully help.
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| Fraser Range Sunset Tour: Sunset; Camels, in retreat; Rock Well; Euro, on skyline; Windmill silhouette; OKA bus & grass lands from rock wall dam |
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Very windy night, the little van did a bit of shaking last night! Windy for most of today. We had a very peaceful & relaxing rest day today. Most of the other vans left early this morning & we had the place pretty much to ourselves. There was one other couple we chatted to at morning tea before heading off for a walk with cameras to take some shots around the property near the park. Got some nice pics in an erosion gully.
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| Fraser Range, WA Erosion Gully shots; Gimlet trees |
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| Nullarbor Golf tee at Fraser Range, WA; Emu parade gathering |
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| Fraser Range, WA: Camp Fire; Eremophila flower; Camp kitchen building; Welcome to Fraser Range; Field flowers;Stove in Camp kitchen; Old cars at entrance to Tourist park; Old Wool Shed, being renovated & eventually to be museum & reception |
Less windy last night but still blowing & quite cool. Temperature 12 deg when we departed our lovely outback oasis after breakfast this morning to continue our eastwards trek! Travelled 90 km to Balladonia where we had our daily coffee. The main highlights to be seen today included a wedge-tailed eagle sharing road kill with a couple of crows,unique road signs, road trains, other caravans, a few cars & the never ending straight bitumen road! Just after leaving Balladonia we started on the '90 Mile stretch' - Australia's longest stretch of straight [but not flat, undulates quite a bit] roadway - 145 km - to Caiguna.
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| Crossing the Nullarbor: Road Trains; Caravans & Motor homes;Signs; Roadhouse stops |
Our first time adjustment since leaving Perth was at Caiguna, clocks forward 45 mins.
Another 64 km along the road we passed the Cocklebiddy roadhouse. Lunch stop near road to Eyre Bird Sanctuary, ate in car so flies didn't get in lunch, mouth, eyes, ears! We had hoped to drive into here but the lady at Norseman Information centre talked us out of that idea very quickly! The 4WD road in is very rough, quite long & the last 12 kms requires the letting down of tyres to drive over deep dry sand - & then no way to re inflate tyres!
Eastwards for another 91 km to our stop for tonight, the Madura Hotel CP. Just before reaching Madura the road goes through Madura Pass where you get view out over the Roe Plains & views toward the southern ocean from the lookout at the top of the pass.
As with most of the hotel/roadhouse stops across the Nullarbor the CP at Madura was nothing flash, no grass, but some plant growth under some reasonably big trees, a bit of noise from highway truck traffic & clean bathroom facilities. Token system in ladies shower for 5 mins of hot water. Men had key to their bathroom & no tokens, work that system out!? Left van hitched up to Land Cruiser tonight.
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| Madura Hotel Caravan stop, WA: Yellow Eucalyptus blossom; Old car, still waiting for fuel!; 'The Penguin' at the camp site; Photo taken from golf tee looking towards green - flag just to left of tree on right of picture. Watched 3 guys try this one, 2 went far left & one far right. don't know if they found their golf balls again!; Sign about this golf spot. |
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Still quite cold wind this morning. Quick get away after breakfast, & back on the road again bound for the town of Nullarbor in SA.Drove 115 km to Mundrabilla Roadhouse where we stopped for fuel & another 65 km to Eucla for coffee stop. Travelled through the WA/SA border check point at Border Village.Coming from WA you don't have to hand in fruit & veges at this point but you do further on at Ceduna. Going in to WA you have to hand in all fruit, veggies & honey at the border. Our 2nd 45 min time change was here at the border & we will have another change next Sunday for daylight saving in SA & NSW. From Border Village the road runs along the top of the Bunda Cliffs and we got our first real look at the southern ocean & it's rugged cliff faces! Stopped at the first car park to have a look & take a few pics! Drove on a bit further to another car park for more looking & 'shooting' - of the camera kind! Ate lunch here but had to sit in the car as the flies were dreadful!!
Another 182 km along we reached our overnight destination of Nullarbor Hotel/Motel CP. This one was even more sparse, only vegetation on whole site was 2 trees! Bathroom block was clean & 5 min hot showers were $1, only problem is it was about 75metre walk, a long way if you have to get up in middle of night! Quite overcast & looking showery when we arrived here. However, we quickly set up the Penguin' before driving a bit further east to the Whale viewing place at Head of the Bite. Sadly there were not many whales visibly - we saw 3 at a distance - when we were there & it was quite cold & very windy, so we didn't stay for very long. Apparently there were about 26 whales there in the morning!
Back to van for dinner to use as much as possible of our remaining fruit & veggies before we reach Ceduna tomorrow.
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| Bunda Cliffs, SA coast, just past Border Village |
We have not booked at Ceduna as there are 5 CP's so we plan to just roll up & see what we find - that was until I talked to a lady [in the bathroom] & she told me it's a long w/end & the Oyster Festival in Ceduna this w/end! I relayed this info to John on return to van, he phoned Big 4 CP & I think we got 2nd last spot, & then only because we had small van!
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| Nullarbor Plains and some more unusual road signs |
Wind still cold & temp still about 12 as we head off again for another leg of the eastward trek! Decided not to try the whale place again, $10 each to go in, & weather still overcast. The Nullarbor Hotel marks the western edge of the real 'treeless plain'. The road passes through some quite flat areas with very low growth vegetation. It is, however, quite green due to the good rain in that area this year. The road veers south east into more tree covered country after a short time, with most of the very flat treeless plains further to the north. Ate lunch at roadside picnic area in Penong before reaching the quarantine check point at Ceduna. Had to hand over 1 onion, a bit of garlic, some celery & a bit of lettuce, just could not manage to use all that up in time!
Very much warmer here than it has been for the whole trip, had showers & changed into lighter clothing. Still windy, though & a little showery looking. Settled into our CP site & headed off to replenish the fruit & veggies & a few other things!
Dinner out tonight at local football club - Fresh oysters for me & Kilpatrick oysters for John, followed by King George Whiting & salad. Very nice!
John coming down with a cold! He should have had an early night but was getting towards the end of the latest Diana Gabaldon book, which he just had to finish!! Those of you who have read these books will know what I mean. Hope it doesn't take her two years to finish the next one!
I stayed up very late trying to catch up on the blog! I don't think my body clock has adjusted to the 1 1/2 hour time difference yet!
Saturday, October 2, 2010
John really has a cold today & is feeling a bit washed out. Visit to chemist for cough medicines, etc this morning. Stayed in the main street of Ceduna & watched the Oyster Festival Parade! Quite a lot of community effort & co-operation is involved in this annual event. Walked down to foreshore area where there were marquees with food & various goods for sale as well as the side show alley type stalls. Wandered back to main street, bought pies at the bakery for lunch - oyster pie for me & steak pie for John. Apparently it is the only place in the world where you can buy oyster pies! It was actually quite nice, oysters in a sort of a mornay sauce with cheese & bacon on top. This afternoon John has mostly slept & I have got the blog up to date again! Enjoy!
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| Ceduna, SA: The crowd moving to foreshore after parade finished; Vintage car & caravan in parade; Two photos of the District Health service parade, old guy on the scooter had sign on his back 'Return to Hospital'!; Sturts Desert Pea growing in pot in main street; Purple statice & Norfolk Island Pine Trees, centre of main road |
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