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Published: February 23rd 2015
Lucky Bay in WA to Streaky Bay SA.
This will be a relatively short blog as we have driven a lot of ks (1600 approx.) from Lucky Bay to Streaky Bay and to get us just a little short of half way from the west coast to the east coast of Australia.
The major part of this stage of our journey is the famous Nullarbor Plains, Norseman to Ceduna, ( about 1200ks) which we covered in two days. Many folk talk of this road with its long straights and barren salt bush terrain as boring or a challenge. We find it neither of the above. There is always something to see and the landscape seems to be always changing. For most of the journey, Nullarbor is inappropriate as there are trees and salt bush covering large areas of this huge plain.. In between there are dried up salt lakes, at the Norseman end, birds and lizards to watch out for, 'roos to avoid etc.
The sign posts on the road warn of Wombats, Camels, Emus and of course Kangaroos. This was our 5th crossing of the Nullarbor, and once again we did not see a camel or an
emu, nor a wombat. We did see a fox and cub not mentioned on the sign board. The last two trips we saw many Wedge Tail Eagles; this time 3 or 4 in trees some distance from the road, and just one at the road side. Unfortunately he took off too quick for a photo. But as a first on this road, we came across a mob of a couple of hundred sheep crossing the highway. I could see a dark stain on the road some distance ahead, but by the time we got to that point, the stain turned out to be dusty sheep which were all safely off the highway.
Many so called knowledgeable people say to only cross the Nullarbor west to east or fuel consumption will climb driving into the windy westerlies. We have experienced on a previous crossing wild westerly winds and buckets of rain. This trip there was either no wind or a light south easterly breeze that didn't buffet us until we were less than 100ks from Ceduna.
Our first night out from Lucky Bay was at a bush rest stop about 60ks out from Norseman. It was warm, and as
evening approached, a very black cloud front came, but with little breeze. We heard a few thunderous peals, and expected a down pour like we drove through three years ago. All we got was about 20 rain drops and it was all over. By morning all was clear, and still no breeze.
We stopped for lunch at the Madura Road House. I think we have now stopped at least once at every road house across the Nullarbor. I was hanging out for a hot pie (Thought of you Adrian as I bit into a tasty chicken pie) and we shared a generous basket of potato wedges with sour cream and sweet chilli source.
Our stop for the night was just over the WA/SA state border at one of the cliff top ocean look outs. To our surprise, we were the only overnighters. On previous trips there would have been 4 to 10 groups parked here. We talked to a couple who had stayed just a little further east in a much larger new parking area, and they only had two neighbours. There was really very little traffic with caravans or motor homes across the Nullarbor. There had been
temps in the mid 40c range a few days before, but the cool change we experienced at Lucky Bay was still affecting this region.
Day two we got up at sunrise, but talk about being confused. We had left our clocks on WA time, and then changed to Adelaide time, 2.5 hours ahead of Perth time. So 5.00am sunrise was really 7.30am, and sunset was similarly screwed up. Even after two nights at Ceduna, we still struggle with getting up at a reasonable hour, and sunset and bed time still seem messed up.
The journey from Ceduna to Streaky bay is just a little over 110ks, so we meandered down cruising at Sunday Morning drive speeds not exceeding 80ks per hour. I think two vehicles passed us, and two caravans that left Ceduna at the same time as us also arrived just behind us here.
Pelicans are found over huge parts of Australia, both on coastal and inland water ways. Interestingly enough, we have a small colony of pelicans on the stream over our back fence at home. Pelicans always make for interesting photo opportunities.
One regular visitor to the caravan park here at Streaky Bay
says that on very hot days the pelicans like to be hosed down and drink the stream of water from the garden hose. One bird obliged for me today even though it wasn't particularly hot.
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Very cool
I love watching a storm roll in