Eucla to Balladonia

---

A dull day in the car, making it a long day.

721km on the odometer and 8hrs on the road with very little to see, kids watching the Star Wars DVD's and doing their school work, even opting to sing in Japanese.



An early start 0730hrs, I guess winding the clock back us extra ensured we were up early. Temperature 16 degrees Celsius, odometer 77989kms and bright blue skies.

Plenty of dead kangaroo road kill being eaten by wedge tail eagles along this stretch of the Eyre Hwy.

0930hrs we stopped at a roadside facility for a toilet stop and snack, a couple of kilometres from Mundrabilla. Here we saw the biggest spider web we'd ever seen, approx. 3metres wide. Home to some very large Orb spiders. At Mundura we took in the view of the hostile landscape from the top of the pass, temperature 22 degrees.

An early lunch stop at 11.45hrs in Cocklebiddy, a very small community of 8 people and 3 buildings. Originally an Aboriginal mission station. Here we ate our lunch on the broken playground equipment and bought hot chips and drinks. Fuel here cost 158c/l,

Early afternoon, 1315hrs, we passed through Caiguna and visited a Nullarbor blow hole. Caiguna is believed to have derivied from an aboriginal word that means spear track, The blow hole is beilived to breathe air at 72kms per hour and the closer you get to the blowhole the more you can feel the air currents. The Caiguna blow hole is connected to a tiny cave that has roughly 1.5metre clearance. The cool air blowing out of the granite hole able to push gum leaves back at us when they were thrown in.
Caiguna marks the grave of Baxter an explorer companion of Eyre who was murdered by fellow explorers.

Between Caiguna and Balladonia is a 146.6 kilometre stretch of highway, (90miles) and is one of the longest straight stretches of road in the world. On this section of road the Australian CD collection commenced, which would punish us for the rest of the trip.

At 1545hrs we took a turn in the road just out of Balladonia. At Balladonia we set up camp at the roadhouse, purchased fuel at 156c/l and some supplies. The camp sites were spacious and shady however the amenities appeared not to have been cleaned since they were built in the 1970's and Alexandra became fascinated by the small 2cm scorpion that was residing in one of the shower cubicles. A fellow traveller removed it and amused Ally with scorpion stories. Bathroom Rating 1/2 a point out of 10.

A warm evening.

---