16th October 2012 – Whyalla.

Well, we made it. We have conquered the Nullarbor. But, to be absolutely pedantic, the Eyre Highway only traverses about 20 to 40 km of the true Nullarbor. The majority of the Eyre is just to the south of the treeless plain, but the journey remains as one of the great drives of the World. From Norseman to Ceduna is approx 1200 km and during the drive you will pass through one true town (Penong), plus Eucla which is listed as a town, but really only qualifies as a slightly elaborate roadhouse. The remaining 6 named locations are roadhouses with very rudimentary caravan parks (showers, toilets, electricity and water which you cannot connect to your van). The roadhouse at Yalata has closed.

East of Balladonia

The majority of the vegetation is bluebush as an understory of eucalypt mulga with patches of low saltbush scrub. However the biggest visual impact is the straight sections of road – 90 Mile Straight (145.6 km) gets all the PR focus, but the entire trip is dominated by a series of other straights, many of up to 100km, and each connected by the merest slight curve. Some relief is found at Madura Pass where you drop about 180 metres to the Roe Plain, and then, after 120 km, pop back up at Eucla.

The longest of many

 A Pedestrian Xing out here?  No, a landing strip for the Flying Doctor.

 Yep, that's the ocean in the distance - from the top of Madura Pass

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Our campsite at Moondini Bluff.

Communication is ...... no, it isn’t, it just doesn’t exist: no TV, no Radio, no Mobile, and zero Internet. Of course you can use satellite type access for some of these, but the ordinary services are nonexistent. One of the excellent trade-offs for these privations are the outstanding dark nights with the accompanying brilliant star display.

We stayed at Balladonia Roadhouse (190km), Moondini Bluff bush camp (550km), Nullarbor Roadhouse (900km), then onto Ceduna. About 45km before Nullarbor R/H we caught up with our cyclist friends who were nearing the end of their most successful day. With the aid of a great tail-wind, they did 185km in one day, and this was done with bikes heavily laden with camping equip, food, and clothing!  We all camped together at Nullarbor and shared a big hearty pot of meatballs in homemade Italian sauce on a bed of rice – those boys sure can eat!

 They arrive at Nullarbor Roadhouse

The Fairway - Dingo Den Hole 14 on the Nullarbor Links

And the Green

As you head across this iconic piece of road you regularly come across signs that alert you to some of the potential hazards. It always amuses me to wonder just how the animals know that they’re not to go past the sign – this side is okay, but not the other!

Note the animals that you might run into! (note the 3 bike riders in the distance)

 This is about 300km west

However, some of them just seem to take advantage of the warnings. We were travelling along quite happily when we spotted something up ahead and as we got closer we realised that it was a pair of kangaroos. They remained stationary in the middle of the road, until such time that we had come to a complete halt. Once they had asserted their superiority, they bounded off before Shirl got the camera out.

Perhaps they were trying to warn us of the 5 foot brown snake that was just up the road – With the van on behind, I couldn’t swerve far enough, so his trip across the road became his last.

Just to the east of Eucla you get to see your first close-up view of the sea cliffs for which the area is famous. There are a number of lookouts in fairly quick succession, and each offers truly awe inspiring views. The cliffs seem to go on forever, as I suppose they should given that they are among the World’s longest sea cliffs.

 Looking to the West

And looking to the East - note the safety fence .... not!

A further few hundred kilometres along the road is where you find the “Head of Bight” which is the most northern part of the bight. It is here that each year hundreds of whales come to calve, and then remain while their new babies grow and build strength for the return to the Antarctic. We arrived at the very end of the season, but were rewarded with a mother and calf frolicking just below the lookout, plus another single adult about 100 metres off the cliffs.

 The "True" piece of the Nullarbor Plain (just east of Nullarbor Roadhouse)

Mum and Baby of Head of Bight. (it's hard getting a good photo - they don't send you an email to say they're about to breach)

Not long after we passed Yalata we came across a cattle grid in the road. This was the southern end of that great Aussie dog fence which runs for 5614 km from the bight, through South Australia, NSW and Queensland. Built in the 1880s it is the World’s longest fence, and also one of the largest structures.

Ceduna marks the accepted end of the crossing and we arrived to find that, to our delight, the annual oyster festival was underway – Ah, let me think of how many ways that I can eat an oyster! Just as Ceduna is the end of the Nullarbor, it is also the start of the Eyre Peninsula which can be split into two clear areas of focus – the southern coast is very much a series of fishing towns: each one a gem. Inland from the coast is wheat growing country: and a lot of wheat there is. To support this enormous grain growing, there appears a seemingly endless supply of large silos and grain loading jetties. Our route took us along the south coast with a 4 day stop at Streaky Bay where we set up right on a beach. However, our site had ground so hard that we couldn’t drive any pegs into it even when we resorted to trying to drill a hole with an electric drill. Our solution was to grab a couple of very large rocks and tie the awning ropes to them.

View near Streaky Bay

Oyster Festivities at Ceduna

Our 2^nd evening and a knock on our door revealed that our intrepid cyclists had found us. This presented a small problem in that there’s a limit to how many rocks you can use to tie down 3 tents.

The local info centre has a somewhat unusual display in the form of a replica of a 5 metre White Pointer Shark which was caught off the local coast. Over 1500 kilos, and caught on a 24 kilo breaking strain line, by a bloke who was fishing for snapper! I bet he had a job to fillet it.

I think they're waiting for some Shark Fillets

 Murphy's Haystacks - east of Streaky Bay

I spy you, Ya can't hide from me.

Once we got to the tip of the peninsular at Port Lincoln, we found that we had also found the peak of the wind – we got tired putting the awning up each morning (very little wind), and then dropping it each night. This seemingly pointless exercise was necessary because, you guessed it, the cycle guys had caught up to us once more so we again had campsite guests. The weather on the day that they left was very strong winds plus rain, so at first it seemed silly for them to go. We heard from them that evening and they had had one of their best days so far – marvellous what a strong tailwind can do for your average speed.

 Taken from the front of our van - Port Lincoln

Statue of 3 x Melbourne Cup winner - Makybe Diva. Owned by Port Lincoln Tuna Boat owner.

I’m not sure that many people know that the underwater shark scenes from the “Jaws” movie were shot around Port Lincoln: True. If anyone would like to replicate those scenes, you can do a shark cage dive where they guarantee real deal white pointer(s) will come along and try and eat you. Only $400. If you don’t like that, perhaps a dive with friendly sea lions is more to your taste.

We are now at Clare in the epinonomous wine valley. After Port Lincoln, we stopped at Arno Bay to catch up with a former workmate whom I hadn’t seen for 25 years. We spent a lot of time reminiscing and recalling both old colleagues, and funny happenings – interesting to think that some of these ‘moments’ were maybe not thought of as significant at the time, but since they are the ones we’re recalling many years later they must’ve had some impact on us!

Whyalla from Hummock Hill - The entire beach disappears at high tide

We also stopped at Whyalla so I could have some physio, and while there we did a quick drive around. Clearly the steel works are the big thing for the town, but the snapper fishing is also a large component of Whyalla’s economy.

We have decided to give Adelaide a miss as we were there last year. So now we’ll go via Burra to Mildura where we’ll stay for 4 or 5 nights before pushing down to Bendigo. After a brief visit to Melbourne to get some warranty work done on the van, we hope to be home very early November.

I’ll post another update perhaps from Bendigo or Melbourne.



25th September, Kalgoorlie

Having just spent nearly three weeks travelling across the southern portion of Western Australia, we are totally entranced by the glorious beauty of it. Admittedly, it is dominated by seaside views, and that whenever they exist, it is taken for granted that they will look really good. However, these seaside views are outstanding. From the colour of the water, thru the rugged cliffs, to the numerous islands the areas ability to extract moments of awe from you is never ending.

As we had explored the Bunbury, Busselton, and Margaret River areas a few years ago, we went directly from Perth to Albany, and yes, the route was ‘wildflower nirvana’ – everywhere is!

Albany has many more really big hills than we had imagined – everywhere you go it seems to be up or down, with even the main street being a quite descent hill. This idea of going “Up” allows me to raise the issue of town names down here in the south. A good number of towns end in “up” – Dwellingup, Amelup, Burngup, Pingrup, Ongerup, Boyup, Burekup, Cowaramup, Manjimup, Quinniup, and I suspect that if we travelled wide and far enough we'd find a Stuffup. It was so bad that when we were looking at a grain lift, we expected the control buttons to be marked as “Up Up” and “Down Up”.

 Panorama of Albany.

 King Sound from the beach

Dog Rock within the town.

Way back in the early 1950s a whaling station was established at Albany, and it continued until 1976 when it closed as Australia’s last such place. These days they run a really good tourist facility with most of the original plant still in place. It is quite an eye opener to do the tour and learn just how brutal, and how smelly, and how tough the labour was to harvest the oil, meat, and baleen. Such was the volume of blood and guts that ran down into the sea from the slaughter slipway, huge numbers of sharks congregated in the small adjoining bay. The numbers were so great that men in small boats were sent among them to kill them by use of rifles! They also have a real whale chaser ship up on a slipway so that you can climb aboard and wander around. I certainly wouldn’t want to live on one – the rooms and facilities make a caravan look like a palace.

 Skeleton of a Blue Whale - all 72 feet of it.

 Harpoon gun on bow of Whale Chaser boat.

Engine Room - they only employed short guys.

 We did a day trip to Denmark - this is the local river.

And again

As we moved on towards Esperance, we deviated to Hyden to see the famous Wave Rock. It was good to see it in real life (as opposed to photos), as it is larger than expected, and that it’s a relatively small part of a huge rock ridge that extends to cover a vast area.

 Beside the road to Hyden - bloody wildflowers everywhere.

 Okay, I'm lookin at it.

 I'll try swimming up it....

 Hey, this is great. Ya don't get wet if you fall off your board.

Another rocky feature - Hippo's Yawn.

Our next stop was at Ravensthorpe where our little deviation ended as we got back onto the Esperance route. While there we popped in to see the annual Ravensthorpe Wildflower show and were duly stunned by the enormous range, variety and number of flowers on display. No longer as we drive along at 85kph will we assume that all the yellow flowers consist of three or four plants. We now know that just within the Ravensthorpe alone, area there are at least 30 to 50 different yellow plants! Plus a similar number of red/orange/plum coloured types. Astounding: but we are becoming a bit “Wildflowered out”.

 Ravensthorpe Wildflower display

There's more than one Yellow out there!

 I’m sure that everyone has seen photos of wild kangaroos lying on the vivid white sands of Lucky Bay at Cape Le Grand National Park. Well, it isn’t a simple distortion of facts, nor even a bit of spin – we day tripped from Esperance and were quite taken while walking hand in hand along the squeaky white sand (ain’t love grand?) to see Kangaroos hop out onto the beach and munch on the seaweed that had washed up. This activity was clearly strenuous as once they had eaten, they needed to lay and rest awhile. Winter storms have created quite a bit of beach seaweed and thus the ‘roos have a smorgasbord of fodder. Note the larger roo in the photo – she is carrying a Joey in her pouch.

 

Lucky Bay - 60km east of Esperance in Cape Le Grand Nat Park

 

Reputed to be the whitest beach in Australia.

 It's very Kangaroo friendly

 Dead seaweed washed up during winter storms.

Other beaches within the park are just as breathtaking, eg: Thistle and Hellfire beaches with water that is just soooooo blue. However, the coves and bays to the west of the town are also drop dead gorgeous too. I could live here (but not in winter).

 Hellfire Bay - also at Cape Le Grand

 Looking out to sea from Hellfire Bay

Twilight Bay - 5 km West of Esperance

Our caravan park was right on the beach and as we stepped from the van we looked out over the beach and bluuuuuue water to the archipelago. Clearly we aren’t the only ones who like the area, as living below the very long “Tanker Jetty” is Sammy the sea lion – a resident for over 15 years. It seems that he is not silly because he often swims out to the end of the jetty where the majority of fisher folk are, and as they throw the undersized or unwanted fish back, Sammy comes zooming from under the jetty to get a cheap feed. However, a chat to some of these folk reveals that none of them recall him ever taking a fish that was still on the hook – smart guy, eh?

 Squid - like most jetties, one of the more regular catches (Sammy prefers fish)

 Come on, chuck me a fish, you won't eat all them anyway.

 What a hard day I've had.

The Esperance Tanker Jetty taken from the far end.

After a week in this blue heaven, we left the coast, heading inland to Kalgoorlie-Boulder (Yep, that’s the correct name of this city of 38,000 people). At about the half-way mark is the rough and ready town of Norseman where we decided to swing into the town proper to have a look. Much to our surprise we found our intrepid cyclists (see previous posts) who had (a) lost one of their original members, (b) picked up two others. During a chat and laugh we found that they were staying there overnight, then starting the Nullarbor and after some quick calculations, agreed that we will most likely catch them somewhere around the SA/WA border.

 The round-a-bout at the main intersection of Norseman

And we stopped here for lunch - great place names they have here.

The cyclist’s timetable will be slowed a bit because they are playing the “Nullarbor Link” which is the longest golf course in the World at 1365 km. The course starts at Kalgoorlie, where each of the two local clubs has a designated hole, and then each town along the way has a hole. However, there are not enough golf courses between Kalgoorlie and Ceduna to offer 18 holes, so they have made a few extra holes at the roadhouses. It is these that provide the real fun as they are but an artificial turf (or oiled dirt, thus a 'black') Tee and putting area joined by whatever nature has created – one fairway is all sand, the next saltbush, and another rocky gibbers. Hazards are also whatever nature offers – at the Mundrabilla hole, local crows steal the balls (about 200 per year). So, I guess you’re wondering what you do about a set of golf clubs if you are not a regular golfer? Not a worry as at either end (Kalgoorlie or Ceduna) an array of used – make that very used clubs can be bought for $5. Our intrepid cyclists are doing the course armed with a putter and a 7 iron. And they are expecting to do it under par of 72!!!!!!

We are now in Kal (as the locals call it) and love all the old buildings. Originally there were two different towns – Kalgoorlie and Boulder, but about twenty years ago they decided to formally merge into a single city. The government called for nominations for a new name under which the city would jointly march forward, and the winner was ...... Kalgoorlie-Boulder.  They may be weak on coming up with a name, but their grip on heritage is very strong. All the old shops have signs above the verandas identifying what the shops original function or purpose.

We were also so impressed by the very big hole that they have dug on the edge of town that we did a tour of it. We now know what an ant feels like among a World of humans, as we travelled in a standard 50 seat coach among some of the largest trucks on the planet. They carry over 225 tonne of ore, and use 140 litres of diesel each time they climb out of the pit and then return: lucky that they hold 3800 litres in the fuel tank! Should you ever feel the need to complain about the cost of your car tyres or service charges, consider that the tyres for these monsters are $40,000, and a service is in the vicinity of $2,500,000?  The ‘super Pit’ is 3.5 km long and 1.5 km wide and has a depth of 360 metres. 28 tonnes of gold per year are recovered from the 15 million tonnes of ore that they dig out. Everything about this hole is really really big.

Note the guy standing near the front wheel.

Driving around this site can be dangerous

It's deep, make that real deep.

Those big trucks look like matchbox toys

Look at the line of big trucks crawling up from the pit - it goes on like that 24/7.

One of the interesting oddities of Kal, is that the city is home to Australia’s oldest continually operating legal brothel! And, they run tours of it!! (I understand that they don’t offer any free samples or titbits).

 From across the road (Shirl wouldn't let me get closer)

I really didn't go up too close - I used a zoom lens.

On a similar focus, the magnificent old pubs have for many decades had female bar staff dressed (if that be the best word) in attire known as ‘skimpies’, and that for a suitable tip or donation they will reduce the level of clothing. Shirl won’t let me go for a beer.

Tomorrow we leave to cross the Nullarbor, so we will have very sporadic TV, Internet, and phone coverage for some 1365 km (until we get beyond Ceduna). Our expectation is that we will hit Ceduna around the beginning of October.