Louie the fly

Posted on by trekswalkabout

Star date 16/4/26

Wow there are sure a lot of flies out here. If you were a Ferengi, from Deep Space Nine you might think they would make a great addition to a meal. I’d rather not, not keen on eating them, having them between my sunglasses and eyes, up my nose, buzzing my ears or swallowing one. Poor Jess isn’t impressed either, she has her own fly net.

Wearing a fly net constantly gets a bit thin, eating meals or drinking a cup of tea can be challenging. Many years ago Chris forgot he was wearing his fly net and drunk a cup of tea through the net, he also nearly blew his nose through it. Judy has followed his example many times, with the cup of tea that is 😂.

Over the next few days we continue to head west along the Nullarbor, not as much to see this side of the border. We stopped for the night at the Madura Pass. The Madura Pass lookout offers views of the Hampton Tablelands dropping down to the coastal Roe Plain.

The view

Drove along the Nighty Mile Straight (146.6km’s) Australia’s longest straight road.

Stayed a night at Baxter Rest Area which was an awesome large area, well off the road. Bins, dump point, table and chairs. So many little bays to camp in leading off the main entry road. But OMG the flies, they were still around when it got dark and first thing in the morning back again with a vengeance. If we were Ferengi we would have had enough flies to last us several days of meals. But since we are not Ferengi we could not wait to get out of there.

Just one of the unusual things you can see out here.

We called into the Balladonia Roadhouse, famous the US Skylab space research laboratory which burned up on re-entry on the 12th of July 1979 scattering fragments in the Balladonia area. Balladonia was rocketed to international fame for the point of impact of Skylab.

The day after Skylab returned to earth, Balladonia Roadhouse had a call from the American President, Jimmy Carter apologising for crashing the satellite in the Australian outback and offered the U.S Government assistance for any damage.

We stayed a night at Newman Rocks, a free camp area off the main hwy 142km’s east of Norseman. It is a large area with a bins and tables. Right at the back is an area of rocks, with a lagoon and impressive views. Again more flies and horse flies wow they would make a great finger food for the Ferengi, and the smallest mossies I’ve ever come across. Not much of a feed in them, sorry Ferengi.

Live long and Prosper 🖖🏿

SA/WA

Posted on by trekswalkabout

Star Date: 15/4/26.

We stopped at several viewing areas overlooking the Great Australian Bight, some with some great views of the cliffs.

One area had many people camping there on the cliffs edge, one of the few places left to camp. Great views be awesome to have a sunset on the cliffs. Fingers crossed for on the way back.

The Vegemite Kangaroo at Border Village.

SA/WA sign at the border. Unfortunately surrounded by a fence.

The big whale at Eucla.

Eucla has its own timezone. 45 mins behind WA and 45min ahead of SA. All our devices are on different time zones. A common issue travellers talk about so nobody really seems to know what the time is.

Next to the roadhouse at Eucla is a good gravel road down to the Eucla Old Telegraph Station, with free camping close by.

The Old Telegraph Station is only a short walk, most of it is being taken over by the sand now. So sad to see some graffiti all over it. Eucla telegraph line and manual repeater station were established in 1877. Together with the telegraph line, a jetty and tram line were also constructed for offloading supplies brought by ships. 1927, the Eucla Telegraph Station closed.

The station also had to deal with a rabbit plague. The sand drifts were caused by the rabbit plague that destroyed dune vegetation. Now it is little more than a few old stone walls protruding above the moving dunes.

The Old Eucla Jetty was a bit more challenging to get to. Follow the 4wd tracks they said. Well that worked in the soft sand, we were happily following the 4wd tracks and other foot prints. Until we came to hard ground with no clear 4wd tracks and multiple tracks leading off in all directions. We took what we thought was right, which turned out to be wrong. Having us taking the long way, getting lost and following our nose or maybe Jess’s nose to the beach. Which we eventually found a little distance from the old pier.

Built in 1887, the old Eucla Jetty was once used by sail & steam ships to bring stores from Albany and Esperance. It was also used to export wool and Sandalwood from out of the Eucla region. The original jetty structure extended out into the Bight for more than a hundred meters.

Some young people climbed up there easy.

There were some other people there in 4wd’s so we asked them was there a clear road back. Yeah sure follow our 4wd tracks. 😳 So we did that coming back and again came across hard ground, with no tracks and multiple ways to go. Thankfully another 4wd came along and we headed off on the track they took. Eventually we go back to camp exhausted, very hot and sweaty.

What an adventure.

Live Long and Prosper. 🖖🏿

Head of the Bight

Posted on by trekswalkabout

Star Date: 14/04/26.

Head of the Bight is a great place to see Southern Right Whales in the winter months from May to October. Outside that time the entry price is half price and is still a great place to visit.

Free camp area at the entry gate to the visitor centre.

A easy boardwalk leads you to the cliff edge with amazing views of the ocean and Bunda Cliffs.

Amazing views of the Bunda cliffs, our first glimpse.

A couple of small lizards heaving a fight.

The coloured one seemed to be loosing the battle.

Next was the sign for the Eastern End of the Treeless Plain. Nullarbor” is derived from the Latin words nullus (“nothing” or “no”) and arbor(“tree”), directly translating to “no trees” There was indeed no trees but small bushes. It is a really good road.

I was a little emotional at the sign, thinking of Chris and how much we both wanted to do this trip together.

The famous Nullarbor Roadhouse. We had lunch here and I bought a cute Emu with big eyes that will sit on my shelf at home reminding me of this trip. I’ve called in Nelly from the Nullarbor Roadhouse.

Photo of the original roadhouse.

Camels, Wombats, Kangaroos and dogs 😂 We have not actually seen any animals on the Nullarbor so far.

A few other signs at the Nullarbor Roadhouse.

Inside the roadhouse an amazing mural.

A sense of humour, love it.

Royal Flying Doctor Service R.F.D.S landing strip on the Eyre Highway.

The first scenic lookout of the Great Australian Bight showing the Bunda cliffs. Amazing, can see how the cliffs edges are falling away. A lot of the previous entry points to view the cliffs have been closed off deemed too dangerous.

We found a spot to camp for the night just off the road well hidden from sight.

Live Long and Prosper. 🖖🏿

To bodily go…

Posted on by trekswalkabout

Star Date: 13/4/26.

Time has come to finally cross the Nullarbor, as mentioned something we have tried to do many many times, that hasn’t happened for different reasons. With the current fuel situation it was once again up in the air but I felt it was now or never and something I had to do for both Chris and myself and a big step in my healing journey.

So the day has finally come, our idea is to take our time stopping as many things as we can. First stop was the Penong Windmill Museum. A great display of windmills of all shapes and sizes, including Australia’s largest windmill. We decided we would do Lake MacDonald – The Pink Lake on our way back.

Australia’s biggest windmill, called Bruce

Lots of windmills.

All shapes and sizes.

A brief detour to the Big Wombat.

Minions on the side of the road.

Bookabie School Ruins, the remains of a school that operated from 1892 until 1957.

We stopped for the first night at Kidnippy Rest Stop near Yalata. This was a big area, going a fair way from the Eyre Hwy. We were able to get a great spot along the back fence and had a really quiet night.

A few interesting signs along the way.

Live Long and Prosper. 🖖🏿

Gateway

Posted on by trekswalkabout

Star date: 10/4/26

Ceduna, gateway to the Nullarbor. We had booked into the Big 4 Ceduna Tourist Park, a month ago for 2 nights. When we arrived we saw they had a deal of pay 2 stay 3, so we decided to take advantage of the deal. Judy had booked and paid the deposit which covered her site. When we came and I paid for mine the price had gone up $4 a night so thought that was a bit rough when she had booked both sites and the deposit covered both sites.

I’ve never been a Big 4 fan because in the past most of them are not dog friendly. These days the demand for pet friendly accommodation for the travellers has increased and they seem to be changing their policy at least in some places. Even though this place allows dogs I would not say they are dog friendly and other travellers said the same.

It was still nice to have a break for a few days, catch up on some shores. The weather was not the best with overcast skies and drizzle.

A great mural near the other caravan park.

We did a drive to Thevanard Bought some fish and chips back in Ceduna and ate them down near the pier.

Some great murals around Ceduna.

The local post office.

All of the bins are painted with different art work.

We met some lovely people at the caravan park including 2 young inspiration people who had ridden their bikes across the Nullarbor. One from Ireland was riding around the world.

The Ceduna pier.

We were excited to head off across the Nullarbor on our first clear day for a while.

Live Long and Prosper. 🖖🏿