Great Ocean Drive

The rain has gone so we did the 40km Great Ocean Drive along the coast to the west of Esperance which was delightful. The coast changes around every bay but the water was astoundingly blue everywhere. There is a bike path/walking track separate from the road and that would be a fabulous way to explore this section of coastline.

The drive leaves the coast and passes the Pink Lake. This salt lake can be very pink depending on the weather. The colour comes from salt tolerant algae which contains carotene.

Norseman and Esperance

The one and only caravan park at Norseman was ordinary but expensive at $40 for one night. We stayed hooked up to reduce the amount of packing up in the rain in the morning. We didn't see much of Norseman but I was taken by the camel statues made from corrugated iron which are featured at a main roundabout in the town.

It is only a 2 hour drive from Norseman to Esperance and it was dry when we arrived and set up camp but the forecast was for wind and rain with the possibility of 100kph gusts. We stocked up supplies from the local Woolies and battened down.

At 2am we were woken by the noise of the wind and rain which caused the caravan aerial to bang. We finally worked out cause of the banging but could not go back to sleep because of the noise of the wind and the shaking of the van. Our caravan park is one block from the beach and that has provided a lot of protection from the wind. The two parks on the foreshore don't allow dogs so we were lucky in having no choice other than to stay here because the wind at the foreshore parks must have been a lot worse. The wind did not get to 100kph but maxed out at 82kph at the Esperance airport.

At 5am the power went out for most of Esperance. The van ticks over to 12 volt for lights etc and we turned on the gas for the fridge and the water heater. The power was back on within a couple of hours.The downpour caused minor flooding at the caravan park and we needed gum boots to get to the toilet block.

It rained on and off most of the day but the wind died down by mid morning. The dogs have been in the car all day and night except when taken for walks. Both were keen to get back in each time to escape the wind or rain. As soon as the weather clears we will be visiting the car wash which also has a dog wash!

We plan to visit Cape Le Grande national park when the rain clears on Friday so the dogs will be off to doggy day care. In the meantime we will explore Esperance between showers.

Crossing the Nullarbor

The long drive across the Nullarbor was interesting and there are significant distances between roadhouses, particularly on the WA side of the border. Fortunately there are lots of parking areas to break the journey. We did not visit each of the sights, saving some for our next crossing.

The roadhouse at Balladonia has a museum featuring debris from the Skylab spaceship that landed in the desert.

We are at Norseman preparing to drive to Esperance. Storms are forecast for both towns so we expect to see more rain.

Bunda Cliffs and Whales

It was cloudy all day so the Bunda Cliffs lacked the red colour shown in many photos. The wind was blowing fiercely across the cliffs while we were watching the whales and that made taking photos very difficult. There was one episode of two whales together with their tails out of the water, a few blows and one breaching whale. They were clearly visible just below the boardwalk constructed specifically for viewing the whales when they calve which is from August to September. There were three other cliff lookouts on the route west but no whales at those locations.

The Nullarbor is a treeless plain and the name derives from nullus arbor. There is no permanent water course anywhere.

We saw two wedge tail eagles feasting on roadkill. The road surface continued to be of excellent quality and there are a few straight sections marked as emergency landing zones for the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

We stopped for a late lunch at Border Village on the SA side of the border, or perhaps it was morning tea based on WA time. We had missed critical information about produce cannot be taken into WA and had to surrender all of our fresh fruit, vegetables and even our honey. We knew about not taking fruit into SA but did not appreciate WA has strict quarantine regulations. The officer who inspected our Jeep and caravan knew we had dogs as Coco barked at him. He asked if we had any other pets and I told him about the cats. He asked again if we had any other animals because if we had birds they would not have been allowed to cross the border. If we had known we could not take the fruit and vegetables we could have cooked some of them, eaten others and given away the rest to east bound travellers. Instead it was all binned at the checkpoint except the one banana I ate while the van was being checked.

Our overnight stop is a free campsite just by the highway at Mandura Lookout. The lookout is over the plains and in today's cloudy conditions it was not particularly engaging. The trucks will be climbing up the hill during the night passing about 50m from where we are parked. We would have been better off stopping at the last free campsite as it had toilets and was a lot cleaner than this location, and was further away from the highway. Without electricity we don't have heating so will have an early night to stay warm in bed.

Tomorrow we will head for Norseman which will be the first proper town since Squeaky Bay.

Nullarbor

We headed west today and stopped at Smoky Bay and Ceduna, both of which have long jetties with swimming enclosures. The highway is in excellent condition and accommodates passing road trains reasonably well.

We passed a recently abandoned caravan along the side of the road. It was missing one wheel and the owner was here at Nullarbor trying to get a replacement.

The last roadhouse we stopped at was Nundroo which was very basic but we wish we had refuelled there because diesel was only $1.29 per litre and here at Nullarbor it was $1.65. These places are only about 150km apart so location cannot justify the much higher price.

There is a roadhouse, hotel/motel and caravan park here at Nullarbor. There is power but no drinking water, just water for showers and the toilets. There are some interesting murals painted on the old buildings that are no longer used or have been converted to camp kitchens. It is a popular overnight spot because Head of Bight is only 20km away and that is where we hope to see whales tomorrow. At the roadhouse there are a couple of small planes that do flights over the whales and the Bunda Cliffs that drop 90m to the ocean. These cliffs run for 200km. A large helicopter also landed and took off while we were here this afternoon. It was a rescue helicopter but there didn't appear to have been any emergency. 

The Nullarbor Links is the world's longest golf course. It is an 18 hole par 72 course spanning 1365kms from Ceduna in SA to Kalgoorlie in WA with one hole in each participating town or roadhouse. Each hole includes a green and tee and a rugged outback fairway. The green at this location is artificial grass and made a safe place to let the dogs have a run without hurting their paws.

Streaky Bay South Australia

During the drive from Port Augusta we passed a restricted military area where armoured vehicles were being unloaded for a major exercise. We have passed several loaders carrying these tanks.

While driving in South Australia we have noticed very little graffiti and hardly any rubbish along the sides of the roads. Since leaving Adelaide we have seen no wildlife and no roadkill apart from a couple of bunnies.

At the Streaky Bay Foreshore Tourist Park we have a partial view of the bay which is very calm. We drove the loop road around Cape Bauer and walked down to a blowhole. The calm sea resulted in a blow that was not very dramatic but from the surrounding area it is clear the water spout can spread over a 50m area.

The town of Streaky Bay has a long jetty with a fenced jetty swimming pool. It is a friendly, neat and tidy town with green lawns along the foreshore. We have seen fishermen cleaning large quantities of fish caught in the bay. The name of the town comes from the streaky effect in the bay caused by different types of seaweed.

Tomorrow we head further west and will drive through Smoky Bay and Ceduna. We will decide where to stop for the night depending how far we get.

Port Augusta

The first day of winter was warm and sunny. The Arid Lands Botanic Garden is wonderful in many regards. There is a great viewing area across Spencer Gulf towards the Flinders Ranges. The visitor centre is in a lovely building mostly built using rammed earth walls. There is a good café, a plant shop and a gift shop at the visitor centre. The plants are fascinating and there are various walks through the garden. The picture shows the leaves and nuts of a eucalyptus pimpiniana which also has fine yellow flowers. I returned to the garden at sunset to take pictures at sunset.

Tomorrow we drive across the north of the Eyre Peninsula headed for Streaky Bay