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We are starting to get too close to home now but I suppose we have to return at some time and we want to be home for Christmas. We have driven back to Norseman where originally we were going to spend two nights so that we could have a bit of a look around but since we extended our time in Kalgoorlie-Boulder we are trying to save one day here and I don't think there is a lot to do, we had a quick look around before driving to the caravan park and we both feel we don't need the two days. We drove and set up and tonight I will have to start planning our trip across the Nullabor which I am looking forward to but Robb not so much.
Because we like to limit our daily driving to around 2 hours each trip we have decided to make Balladonia our first stop, at two hours and 10 minutes it seems perfect and there is a Hotel Motel Museum Roadhouse there that we can stay at. No need to rush in the morning so we take our time, when we are ready to leave our first stop is the dump point in town because the caravan park doesn't have one. Once that little job is taken care of we go in search of the lookout which has been recommended to us by a couple of friends, we have been told it is ok to take the caravan up there so we look for the signs and then turn off towards the mining area where the lookout is. On the way to the lookout we had passed Norseman Mining which was quite an impressive sight, I took a few photos here of the mining site and then we proceeded up the hill. The road is quite steep in some areas and then it goes onto gravel so we had to shift into 4WD to make it to the top but we eventually get there ok. We parked and walked to the lookout and just as we did it starts raining, we had seen mist in the distance but wasn't expecting it to reach us so quickly. The rain and mist covered most of the views we were likely to see and the photos I took weren't very successful at all, the wind suddenly picked up and I only had a light top on so I was freezing with the combination of rain and wind and hurried back to the car. We didn't want to wait for the rain to stop so we drove back down the hill to get onto the Eyre Highway and our destination at Balladonia. We arrived in Balladonia and easily found the Roadhouse, we filled up with fuel and booked one night here only to find out when I had paid that the cost was for power only as they are in drought and their water supply is all from rain water. To be honest if we had of known that we probably would have stayed at a 24hr stop by the road as we can supply our own power, not their fault but maybe something to remember for the future. It did however seem a bit ironic that when we decide to cross the desert it rains nearly all the way to our first destination. We could choose our own site so chose one not too far away from the amenities, we can stay hitched up for the night which is perfect when you are only after an overnight stay. We set up and on checking internet coverage we find we have 3G on Telstra and zero TV, I can live without TV and will access data from my mobile service, it is a bit slow but we will work with it. It is a long night out in the middle of no where without TV or anything else to do, as long as I can do my photos and blog I will be happy. After lunch we walk over to the Hotel for a beer, the hotel itself is closed at the moment because of lack of staff which is an ongoing story in WA but we can have a beer in the cafe. We discuss the rest of our journey across the Nullabor together while we are here and make plans for the rest of the trip to Ceduna, we come away with what seems like a good plan for the remainder of our stay in WA, we do realise that once we leave WA it may be a long time until we can return.
We had planned to drive from Balladonia to Madura a trip of three hours and seven minutes and we arrived in Madura Pass Oasis and we didn't have any internet service and we knew we wouldn't have any TV or water so decided to drive through to Eucla which was going to be tomorrow's destination. One thing we did achieve though was driving the 90 mile straight, the longest straight road in Australia, that is one long straight road driving east from Balladonia. I think we are both quite keen to get off the Nullarbor, Eucla was another 180kms further on but we thought if we get there we can spend two nights and take time to visit Bunda Cliffs. We were both interested in the fact that the RFDS use different sections of the Eyre Highway for emergency landing strips, the sections of road are clearly marked with large yellow signs. We arrived in Eucla and Robb stopped to fill up with fuel while I went in to pay and book our accommodation. I asked the person on duty about Bunda Cliffs and he said we would come across them as we drove to Ceduna and they weren't far off the road so I decided to book for one night only and thought we could take a short side trip to view the cliffs. We have decided to drive the 490+kms straight onto Ceduna tomorrow rather than take another stopover. I am not sure if others know this, because we didn't, but there is a separate time zone for the WA/SA border, when you enter this zone from WA at Caiguna you add 45 minutes to your time and then when you get on SA time at Ceduna you add another 45 minutes (daylight savings times, it is different in eastern standard time). We also found out this afternoon on arrival that we need to complete a border pass tp get from WA into SA and we also need to pass through a quarantine process where we will be required to throw out any fruit and veg we are still carrying, so after we set up this afternoon I spent the next two hours cooking up all the fresh produce we had and Robb accessed the website to organise our border passes. We are both a tad tired after the long drive today and knowing we have another one tomorrow and I am looking forward to bed.
Before we set off this morning I took a few shots around the park at Eucla which overlooks the Great Australian Bight, the park looks down over a large flood plain out to the water, this whole coastal area is beautiful with some amazing cliffs and bright blue water. We pulled into the first photo opportunity stop we came to and I took a few photos from here, we missed the next one and then stopped at the next which was quite a way along the Eyre Highway, this spot had a fenced walkway along the top of the cliffs and took you around far enough so that you could look over the row of Bunda Cliffs along the Bight, this would be one of the most spectacular views we have seen. There isn't much more to report on our trip over the Nullabor, I love the changing landscapes but you do get to the stage where you are looking forward to seeing anything, even an old shed. We were very happy to arrive in Penong where we drove around to look at the Windmill Museum, we have visited here before but I love a good windmill. Penong is only 72kms from Ceduna and we were really looking forward to arriving and getting out of the car, last time in Ceduna we had stayed at the Foreshore Caravan Park that we enjoyed but it was bit tight getting our van in the site and the roadways aren't very wide so we thought we would try somewhere else and we chose the Shelly Beach park and we were very happy we did. It is right on the beach and we have a lovely outlook from our site, the park is very well maintained and the service on booking in was excellent. For some reason I put us in the wrong site and had to go back and tell them at the office, they were very nice about it and we could leave our van where it was. We were both exhausted after two long days driving, over 490kms each day we were both looking forward to going to bed that night and we both slept really well, we thought the time changes might have bothered us but I think we were so tired it didn't matter.
We slept in on Sunday morning and took our time getting up, there isn't a lot to do around Ceduna and we had a good look around last time we were here, we needed to go shopping so we did that and took it back to the van to pack it away before taking a drive to Denial Bay looking for the oyster farm which unfortunately was closed, we came back to the Oyster Shack for lunch which is only open Monday to Friday. In the end we just drove back to the van and had lunch there, we had bought lots of fresh salad items that morning so we had a meat salad for lunch. We haven't had many days doing nothing and because we were still a bit tired we were quite happy to hang around the van not doing much. We are moving onto Kimba tomorrow for one night, it is a three hour drive from here, much more pleasant.
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