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Published: April 1st 2011
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Wednesday 30th – because Graham had gone to bed very early he was up and about at 6am and I followed about half an hour after. It was a nice morning with a few clouds about keeping the temperature down. Last night and very early this morning we could hear a cock crowing and various other animal noises, so I strolled down to see where these creatures were. At the bottom of the caravan park I saw the culprit – a nice looking bantam cock with a hen and a youngster. Sweet, but I could have killed him at 5am this morning! There was a variety of geese and other chickens there as well so it may not have been the cute little chap to blame! Don, our neighbour, came round with half a cabbage, an onion and a tomato – he was travelling into SA today so would have to go through the quarantine station before he had a chance to use them up. We were very grateful and will certainly use them in the next couple of days. We gave him his Camp 6 book back after having had a good look through. I’d spotted where Sarah and Darryl
stayed on their first night on the Nullabor but it was too far for us to get to today.
We left Eucla at about 9am and trundled along the mainly flat straight road. I thought that it would be nice to have our tea break in the Madura Roadhouse just to break up the journey so we had bacon and egg toasted sandwiches and some entertainment from some other travellers who were chatting up the girl running the café. We spotted the tee for one of the Eyre Highway golf holes – a short par 3 of about 125 meters called Brumby’s Run. We refrained from filling the car with diesel there as we still had ¾ of a tank left but maybe we should have put some in as it was cheaper than the $1.96 per litre we paid at the Cocklebiddy Roadhouse further along the road. We found a spot for our lunch at Cocklebiddy, near another of the Eyre Highway golf holes – Eagle’s Nest, a par 4, 347 meter hole. After lunch we went on to Caiguna Roadhouse where we decided to stop for the night. It was still quite early but we had already
covered 350kms and the next stop was another couple of hours away. Just before we got to Caiguna there was another time change to deal with. The previous night the mobile phone had automatically gone straight to this new time which totally confused us – we had clocks and watches showing all sorts of different times! Anyway, we had to lose another 45 minutes so it was still early afternoon WA time when we stopped.
There hadn’t been too much of interest along the way today, just one live kangaroo hopping away and a few dead ones on the side of the road. We did see one lone cow on the roadside. It looked very healthy but we didn’t see another one so it must have been an escapee – it certainly looked a bit lonely. A huge wedge tailed eagle soared above us at one point but that was about it. A lot of massive road-trains were travelling east but only one truck and just a few cars overtook us. We also saw two cyclists travelling east. They were being sheltered from the wind by a large, slow moving motorhome.
As mentioned, Graham had driven 350 kms
today which was plenty far enough, otherwise we might have gone on somewhere else. To be honest, the camping area at the Caiguna Roadhouse was a dusty, dirty, dump of a place and in hindsight we would probably have been no worse off if we’d stayed at a free rest area and hung on to our $28. We did have an electric hookup so I put every electrical item on I could to make it worth while staying and decided to use the microwave to cook our supper. To make matters worse we couldn’t get an internet signal but bizarrely two big Telstra trucks pulled in later and set up alongside. In the end there were about 15 caravans parked up for the night so no doubt the roadhouse made a tidy profit.
It was dark by 6pm which is one of the down-sides of being in WA but we’ll get used to it. With no TV, radio or internet to amuse us we went to bed very early and got up on Thursday morning before the larks at about 5.30am! It was already light and a few other campers were up and about. We were on the road
at 8.30ish and paused to take a photo of the sign that marked the beginning of the longest stretch of straight road in Australia – it was 146.6 kms or 90 miles without a bend! As with yesterday, there wasn’t too much to look at today – we didn’t see a single camel, kangaroo or anything else come to think of it! During the last couple of days we’ve been listening to Kimbers Men and The Corries and today we listened again to Julie Walter’s autobiography and it was just as funny the second time round! We stopped for a while at the rest area that Sarah and Darryl had used overnight when they were crossing the Nullabor from west to east but we kept going as it was still a bit early to think about stopping for the night.
Whilst we were on the long straight road we met two cyclists who were heading east. They had an awfully long way to go before they reached the roadhouse we had left earlier. Graham tooted the horn in respect and they both gave a cheery wave. They had no back-up vehicle with them so good luck to them! When
we reached our next stop, Balladonia, we used a picnic bench to have our sandwiches and found a scribbled message that must have been put there by them the day before. “Pat and Roman crossing Aus on a push bike from Perth to Sydney, 30 March 2011 - Peace”. A massive challenge indeed. We topped up the fuel tank (at a cost!) and after another two hours of travelling we rolled in to Norseman. We had actually crossed the Nullabor a day quicker than we had planned but as we aren’t booked into Esperance for three more days we were a bit undecided as to what our plans should be now. We decided to check in at Norseman for two nights and then think again about our onward journey.
Norseman is not particularly attractive but is a considerably better location to be in than any of the roadhouses we had passed in recent days. There are a few shops, a couple of cafes, a couple of garages with reasonably priced fuel, an information centre and a supermarket. We needed to unwind after three hard days of travelling so a couple of days here would do us good. Graham needed
to repair the bike rack which has developed another fault and I had some washing to do, and there are a few places of interest nearby to pass the time. Most people use Norseman as a one night stopover but there are a couple of other vans which are here for a few days also.
We were surprised to see that the couple we met two days ago with whom we’d discussed ladies’ driving whilst towing the caravan also came into the caravan park. Mal and Lynette are over from Tasmania and plan to go as far north as Exmouth. Lynette had driven for a few hours across the Nullabor which made me feel a bit guilty (only a bit!) that in the end I hadn’t felt confident enough to have a go. I’ve driven the car but to have a caravan on the back is still a bit daunting for me.
We got set up and then drove into town and visited the Information Centre where I bought a couple of ‘stubbie’ holders and a fridge magnet as mementos of us getting across the Nullabor. We are gathering a nice little collection of fridge magnets although I
was cross with myself for not getting one in New Zealand (we’ll just have to go back!). Then we got some groceries at the local supermarket and went back to the CP and relaxed. By the time we had eaten our supper it was dark – we’ll have to start getting the citronella candles out again so we can sit outside without fear of getting bitten to death by mossies. We caught up with the news on the TV, listened to our Mo Mac n Me CD (we are looking forward to hearing their newly released one!) and then retired to bed.
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Darryl and Sarah
Wallaby Wanderers
Our rest area!
Glad you didn't check out the toilet facility here .... it was not good!!!!! We actually spent a peaceful night there though.....I'll have to check the blog for anything else exciting that might have happened!!! x x x x PS - love the fact Dad slowed down enough for you to get a photo of a decorated tree! I kept missing them - Darryl will say that was because I was asleep but I will say it's because he was going too fast and wouldn't turn around!!!