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Published: April 13th 2009
DAY 156
We played cards last night until we could not see the cards anymore, but that was because we sat in the games room and the lights went out at 9.40 plunging us into near darkness, well Andy was beating me anyway so I was not too disappointed. We went to bed early, although not much earlier than usual.
It was a slightly warmer night, though it did feel like a cold morning. Today we are packing up, we had 2 nights at this camp site in Ceduna, it wasn’t a bad site it was just the people were a bit strange.
We were up with the lark and at it straight away; we both went up to the camp kitchen for our breakfast of Tea and Toast and made our toasted corn dog sandwiches for our journey, we felt that making the sandwiches before leaving just makes it easier to eat when we are on the road and the added bonus was this camp kitchen having a sandwich toaster so we had made toasted sandwiches albeit they would be cold when we eat them, it would still make a nice change.
Today we plan to
A Bridge to Far
Not really only to the beachhit the Nullarbor, so we have taken on more water, 48 Litres, the long range fuel tanks on the truck are full and the Jerry can is full up, along with the diddy spare 5 litre can that we had petrol in when we cooked with the mountaineering stove, if we had stayed using that method we would probably starved to death by now.
The last thing we do once the trailer is packed and the truck is ready is go and have a shower, then we are all systems go.
We pull out of the campsite excited at the prospect of this huge journey its 1404 Klicks to Norsman, or 850 Miles in UK money, on the same road
“The Nullabor” is a main route that connects South Australia to Western Australia, so we wondered how busy it was going to be. There had been a fair few people leaving the caravan park early this morning and last night we did hear some people turn up late. We are told that there are a fair number of people around at the moment and the grey nomads will also be on the road heading North for the
winter.
The sun was hot and the sky was blue, driving out through Ceduna to pick up the A1 West, we have to pop in to the supermarket for a couple of bits we had forgotten yesterday and as we are walking around by the freezer cabinet, not paying too much attention to anything in particular, when I notice what looks like a box of hairy logs about 3 ft long, so I said to Caroline, “Can we have on of these?” “Yes”, she said without looking put it in the basket, I was wetting myself laughing at her face when I told her that they were Kangaroo tails, which is a delicacy of the indigenous people. Caroline said “We wouldn’t get it in the saucepan anyway”.
At Penong we turn off for Point Sinclair and Cactus Beach, this has been highly recommended to us, and is where, apparently, some of the best surf in Australia can be found here and some of the worlds best surfers gather here. A guy that we met on Kangaroo Island at Western River Cove (the one with the beautiful dog called Coco, blog Day 140, Fush) said to us that this
beach must not be missed.
From the main highway it was 21 K’s over rough ground to the beach, we noticed loads of people camping in the dunes at an area that was designated as the camp area, but someone else had said drive on another Kilometer to a place called Point Lehut, were we passed the “No camping” sign, however when we stopped to look at the view we found there must have been at least a dozon people camping down at the point right next to the jetty. It was amazing really this place is just like a little surfing community we felt out of place not having a surfboard on the roof.
We took some pictures then turned around and drove the 21K’s back to the main highway and on the way back stopped at the dried salt river bed, we looked at the sun soaked sand dunes and they looked as if they were covered in silk. The whole surrounding view was stunning. The salt lagoons that still had some water also had a nice pink hue to them.
Back on the main road our next stop is a good couple of hundred
On & On
The Road jut goes on and on K’s on, when we get to the Great Australian Bight, we pull in at the Head of Bight Interpretive centre, which was closed, partly because it is not quite the season to see the Southern Right Whale, they are not due until May. The Southern Right Whale was heavily depleted when Whaling was popular, there are refreshing signs that the Whales are coming back here to the “Nursery” giving hope that these spectacular creatures are thriving.
There are a few caravans in the car park here; one of them appears to be having problems as he has a wheel off, we don’t offer to help as there are about half a dozen people around him.
However, we walked on down the board walk all the way to the edge of the cliffs and looked over, unfortunately there were no Whales to observe as they only come back to these warmer waters between May and October. It was a brilliant place I would love to visit again and I would make sure next time would be when Whales would hopefully be around.
We left the Head of the Bight, overtaking the caravan that had problems, he was driving
Nullarbor
The official part of the Nullarbor slowly and none of the other caravans were around.
14k’s on we finally pulled in to the Nullarbor Roadhouse at around 4.15 after covering only 380k’s, we wanted to be parked up in plenty of time, simply as today was the first day and we just needed to find out how things worked, we are unsure of this terrain so wanted to feel safe.
There were Dingo’s roaming around the car park, all 5 of them, they certainly didn’t look wild, slightly scrawny and they knew what they were up to, a truck driver pulled in, in his Kenworth and they all ran over to the truck and mooched around until the drivers tossed some food out of his window. These Dingo’s clearly scavenge for what food they can get, but you are not supposed to feed them, therefore keeping them wild.
When we take in our surroundings, we suddenly realise that we may get to see a camel roaming around, but if they are anything like Wombats then we won’t be lucky, however there is a little aeroplane parked round the back and we notice then that there is a tiny airstrip.
We are pitched
Active Dingo
It was too hot for these Dingo's today up, there are a few caravans and a couple of tents. There is also a Landrover with a rooftop tent that we were looking at buying when we first arrived here. It looks nice but we quickly confirm to ourselves that it would not have been practical for us.
As this is a roadhouse, plenty of truckers stop here for rest breaks, there is a small dining room and a café, not to mention souvenir shop. Diesel here is $1.60. Adjoined to the toilets is a shower facility, not perfect but clean, you can get a 5 minute shower for a dollar, so that's not to bad.
The wind is quite blowy and it takes ages to boil the kettle, so we eventually bring everything in side to cook, as it is just easier. We are going to cook all the vegetables up, or else we will have to toss them in the amnesty bins so the only alternative is to scoff it.
An hour or so after we pulled in, I saw the caravan with the dodgy wheel pull in to the site. It was then that I noticed he had only 3 wheels on his
Scavaging
The truck driver throws some titbits for the Dingo's twin axle caravan, I started to sing three wheels on my wagon, but Andy told me not to be cheeky, I wasn’t it just reminded me of that old song. This guy did have spares on the back of his van so obviously his problem is a lot bigger than just a flat tyre. Soon after he pulled in, he has his mat and tools out and lying on the ground bashing something with a hammer.
We finish up tea, and just check if we have got any Telstra service to check the blog, and we have 5 bars as indicated on our USB Dongle, so the 100ft tower we have parked right next to is Telstra amongst other things.
We make sure that anything of value is locked in the truck or at least in the tent with us, the only thing left outside is the table, but as it has legs it may walk off in the night. Anything of edible quality has to be out of reach of the Dingo’s so rubbish is placed in the bin before bedtime.
The discussion of cards is on the agenda, but decide that the DVD of Bush
Road Kill
We recon there is some road kill under this truckers fuel tank as a Dingo is determined to get what ever it is. mechanics has to be watched so we settle down in the trailer and watch this Funny DVD that Sue and Cliff kindly brought me.
Eventually our eyes are tired so we fall in to bed, shattered.
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