Nullarbor Roadhouse SA. to Ceduna SA, 30th April, 2023

 Didn’t leave camp as early as previously as hi we were off to try and to spot a whale. The place to see them is at the Head of the Australian Bight eastern end of the Bunda Cliffs. Arrived there about 9.30 a twenty min drive from where we stayed last night. We were really too early as there was an early morning build up of clouds and if we had come a little later in the morning the clouds would have lifted by then, then it would have been shining straight into the face of the cliffs. 

Walking down to the head of the Bight all well laid with good walkways and lookout platforms.

Look at this one, don’t worry it’s just from a photo that I took. All’s good.

Looking west along the the Bunda cliffs all a continuation from all the cliffs we saw yesterday. The cliffs are composed of limestone, which extends far inland. The cliff face  ranges in height from 40 to 80 metres high and stretches from East to West for 800 kilometres. Amazing and some great scenery.

Guess who, having a whale of a time.!!

Looking south out over the Southern Ocean, still looking, trying to spot a whale. Can you see one, no we couldn’t either.

Southern Whales visit the Head of the Bight each year to give birth, and socialise. They are present here from June to October, (that’s why there was no chance of seeing any, but we tried) and then they spend the rest of the time on migration feeding well offshore in the Southern Ocean. Females give birth in an average once every three years to their five metre long calves. By late August visitors commonly see the mothers swimming along the cliffs with their young, would be amazing to see this but as you can see we are way too early in the season to spot them but we still enjoyed the scenery.

Below now looking East up the coast as you can see the cliffs have finished and you can just see the land curving round further out to sea.

Still looking over the Southern Ocean.

These are the walkways down to the looking platforms.

This is another photo I took of a photo to show what you could see later in the year. Wouldn’t that be great.

Now back on the long straight road heading for Ceduna for two nights back out on the coast  after mainly been inland and crossing the plains in so much isolation.

We stopped at Penong to have a look at the windmill museum.

Below

A little bit of wind got up while we were there and it started to turn round for awhile and we could see that it was producing water into the tank below it. It was 11metres in diameter. 

Some interesting old  windmills which have been donated by people off farms etc.

This is different and moveable. 

We have now arrived back to civilisation and settled into a park in Ceduna for two nights to give PT a well earn break from driving big kms each day. He has done really well. From  now on we will be slowing down having two nights every stop except for three more one night stops and two three night stops. Doing a lot less kms as well time to relax a little more but we will still be busy each day. 

We have travel 2131kms so far.

Mandrabilla Wa. to. Nallarbor Roadhouse SA. 29th April, 2023

Today we are on our way to continue along the Nullarbor 

 Plains  along the Great Australian Bight which is my highlight of the trip. We had a little mixed weather today but mainly fine with a few quick short showers. Our first stop was Eucla where we stopped to fill up with Diesel before we crossed the border to South Australia. Continuing on, and before we knew it we were at the WA/SA border. Called Border Village. We could just drive through but people coming from South Australia had to stop and be searched for fruit or vegies going into Perth. This is an no no between WA and SA . Apparently we get checked (so we are quickly trying to eat all our fruit and veg) further on as we approach Ceduna. We are stopping there for two nights which will be nice after all our one night stops since we started on the road. This is our sixth night. Although the experience of stopping in these Roadhouses are fun in their own way it will be good to get back to a real town and real caravan Park. As the Nullarbors are  all short of water we can’t fill our tanks at these places whereas usually at other places there is always plenty of water to keep the tanks topped up. We do carry a lot of bottled water although that seems a waste to do dishes etc.  But all good back to normal life tomorrow. After crossing the border our clocks went forward again by 3/4 of an hour. So that now makes us 2 1/2 hours behind NZ . Today we headed into The Great Australian Bight which was a busy day stopping a lot to take photos. We didn’t see as much as we thought we would as a lot of these cliff top sites don’t have roads going out to them that are user friendly for a motorhome. So we had to either walk quite far out to these one’s or not see them at all .We would still be walking by dark. But what we saw was amazing views from very high cliff tops looking right down to the wild ocean. Very exposed with the sea crashing against the cliffs which go on for ever.  Great fun. Continuing along the Bight high up we were driving inland a little knowing  we were not far from the cliffs shear drop of, straight down from the top of these tremendously high cliffs. We were also driving through the Nullarbor National park today. After a lot of stopping and starting today we eventually arrived at our digs for the night the Nullarbor Roadhouse. Tomorrow we continue driving along the Eyres Highway and weather permitting stopping of to go whale watching from the top of the cliffs. We haven’t seen any yet but it might be just a little early for them to come in close.

Stopping at Eucle to fill up with Diesel. Made a new friend.

Eucle is high up after travelling on the flat plains. This road goes down to the beach but we just kept going.

We are now crossing the WA/SA border

Another new friend

Now to explore the Great Australian Bight.

The views are just amazing looking west.

Zoomed in down to the beach

Royal.Flying.Doctors.Sercice  showing where the emergency planes are allowed to land for mainly medical conditions.

Note how the side of the roads are much wider wider more space for the planes to land for the R.F.D.S. With all the outbacks in Australia they just use the roads for the flying doctors to land.

This was one of the sights we wanted to see but left the van here and walked out to the cliff tops weren’t going to risk the road.

Well worth the walk. All I can say is Wow.

Looking along to the east.

Looking straight over the top of the cliff

Looking along the West Coast.

Looking back east along the top of the cliffs.

Now on to the next big walk to the cliff tops. Again couldn’t take the van.

A lot of area at the end of the road were people do free camping. Quite a few campers out there on the cliff tops.

Campers dotted along the top of the cliffs.

Another Wow looking west

Looking straight down over the cliff edge.

Looking along to the east

We made it we have now finished the crossing of the Nullarbor Plains. Just before we stopped for the night

This is what most Roadhouse’s look like big area for the big rigs to park up for the night. Apparently they had had very heavy rain during the afternoon but we missed that. 

Mural on side of building.

Close up you can see the arrow were we have stopped for the night

Camping in the Nullarbor Roadhouse camping area. A lot of campers came in after us.

Balladonia WA to. Mundrabilla Wa 28th April, 2023

Going back to last night at Balladonia Roadhouse this is the sort of sites that we pay for first and then go and choose a site. Great spot  plenty of space between campers. Very pleasant to spent the afternoon.

Left Balladonia at 7.00am for our longest driving day for four and half hour non stop, except to fill up with fuel and ate a muffin. It was after 1.00pm when we got here as there is a time change in this part of WA  so we  have lost  3/4 hours today. Strange we thought. We now have to eat as much of our fruit and veg tonight and tomorrow night as they have a border control crossing over to South Australia which we are doing on the 30th April so those items we haven eaten in the way of fruit and vegetables, we have to discard. Today we have had mixed weather mainly fine and sunny and a few very quick showers. All we have done today is drive snapping photos out of the front window as we go so there could be a few spotty photos. Didn’t stop just wanted to keep going as we wanted a shorter driving day tomorrow as that’s our big sightseeing day mainly driving along the coast of the Australian Bight. Lots to stop and see so will get another early start. 🤞 for a sunny day for the photos but we can’t control that. This is going to be my highlight of the trip. Have spent a lot of time over the year reading up places of interest along the way. Really looking forward to tomorrow. I have posted photos below on todays road trip showing all the different colours of the Nullarbor Plaines so far with the occasional comment below. They  are self explanatory showing the landscapes we have been driving through.

 

The start of the big long straight. Even when this finished the roads continued to be fairly straight with just a few little bends. Certainly makes driving easier. The roads where in very good condition. I think Daniel would like to see this photo.

I really enjoy all the different colours in the vegetation which is alway a great contrast with the red soil.

These straights just go on and on. 

Peter filling up at our half way spot today. And the

Muffins we had after dinner tonight were yummy.

Cocklebiddy Roadhouse our half way stop today where PT is filling up with diesel above 

Look how flat these Plains are, a massive area.

These markings on the road are the start and finish, which are  also further along the road by at least a kilometre, are used by the R.F.D.S ( Royal Flying Doctors Service ) as an emergency airstrip. To attend to accidents or any other urgent medical reason. This is common on the outback roads in these very isolated areas.

Now arrived at the Mundrabilla Roadhouse were we are spending the night after travelling  457kms today. Above photo looking out of our  van window in the area of the campground. Another peaceful place to spend the night.

 

This mural on the side wall of the road house.