Leaving Adelaide and friends we headed down the Eyre Peninsular- the tourist guides and maps list many towns in bold type-that means big- but it is all relative on the Eyre big is 200-300 and small is 20 and even makes the map after all in the summer months 20 can swell to 2000 if the fishing is good. Speaking of fishing, every town is the ‘King George Whiting’ capital- only no towns other than Port Lincoln sold fish fresh- go figure. The coast was pretty and rugged and windy and wet. One lovely free camp was disrupted and packed up at 4am due to horrendous wind- I was a none responsive participant in this pack-up so was left in the van while Neil drove off- a brief moment that last and then I was on the phone demanding he let me in the car PJ’s and all- do you have any idea how much the insides of a caravan rattle, creak and sway on a dirt road- tis any wonder anything stays where we put it or that the van doesn’t just self-destruct.
From the Eyre we hit the Nullabor. Ceduna, SA, was the first town- once again one might expect a bit of size but alas a small IGA supplied us with the vitals. For one who expected large expanses of red desert the Nullabor was full of surprises. Nobody told me it meandered along the Great Australian Bite and hence had stunning limestone cliffs and Southern Ocean winds plus plus. Though thank God we had a tail-wind most of the way. The poor people coming the other way were reporting 3.3km/L fuel-ouch!!! The temperatures were no surprise- well into the 30’s mean’t we often stopped in the middle of the day under some shade (yeah right- no trees- only the occasional shed road side). This let our struggling fridge recover- it’s worse than travelling with a 2yo and dictates of every move.
The ‘towns’ on the Nullabor turned out to be merely roadhouses with dirt parking spaces called caravan parks which charged upwards of $30 a night- granted they ran everything off generators and no doubt had lots of expense getting supplies out there. We free camp any way.We stopped at Mundrabilla roadhouse/ An aboriginal funeral was to be held to next day in the nearby dry community so we saw a number of the locals at the servo/general store. They must live traditionally because there is nothing out there by way of food supplies. Mind you the land looks fairly unforgiving too. We saw the stereotypical animal warning signs- roo, wombat and camel and like all good tourists stopped for a photo. The only animal we saw alive was a dingo or two. A pile of dead camels roadside led me to suspect a recent aerial cull had taken place. Neil shivered at roo bones everywhere- but took comfort that hopefully the graveyard was 20 years in the making :). The flying doctor service run-ways broke the repetitive black straight road and the odd storm rolled in creating massive barrel like clouds. Yes we had rain on the Nullabor- several times in fact.
Norseman marked the end of the Nullabor- another tiny town which welcomed us with bucketing rain till we were cool and drenched through- and all that red dirt washed off . Nothing remarkable there we free camped.
In total the most we payed for fuel was $1.92 though we saw $2.10. We had been given prior warning about when and where to buy the cheapest fuel on the trip across and with our large tank, sub-tank and a jerry we only needed fuel twice. I thought given fuel in civilisation was about $1.56- $1.60 at the time that $1.92 wasn’t too bad.
Well will end todays post at Kalgoorlie where we caught up with an old friend Becky Lee Young and checked out the large mines- watching a blasting. Well I was looking for a big blast and lots of noise so I didn’t even notice the event had occurred- but by chance or good management I happened to have the video camera on just the right part of the pit to capture the moment which Neil played back to me just so I could have the experience which my deaf ears found unremarkable.
Well the next instalment should bring you up to date- Kalgoorlie to Carnarvon where we are currently sweltering :) (or perhaps further North depending how long it takes me to get onto it).
Going fishing.........and the boss is waiting- actually should make him wait more often- he has done the laundry to kill time...mmm what more could I get done ;p.
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