Loving the Outback.

Tuesday 23^rd August

Red dirt, old buildings, wide open spaces, awesome sunsets and brilliant night skies. This is the outback all summed up in a sentence. I am thinking of home now that we have turned east. And we turned east today, onto the Eyre Highway heading for South Australia. John and I have been in Western Australia now for about eight weeks. We have seen some great places; the coast is beautiful, now we have gone inland we are happy to again experience the outback.

Coolgardie.

Nothing sums up the outback as well as the Nullarbor Plain. We officially don’t join it for another two days of driving, but once you turn onto the Eyre Highway and know the Nullarbor is ahead of you, you know you are going on the longest stretch of straight road in Australia.

Syd at the start of the Eyre.

We left Kalgoorlie for the short drive to Coolgardie before going south to Norseman and joining the Eyre. Coolgardie has wide streets and historical buildings similar to Kalgoorlie, it lays claim to being the first town to discover gold in the area. I had learnt about the goldfields at school, here I am fifty years after leaving school seeing the goldfield towns. The museum in Kalgoorlie was a history lesson in itself. John and I spent an hour or so walking through the displays, the gold vault was very interesting.

Eyre Highway.

Sunset at Balladonia Roadhouse.

After taking a few photos of Coolgardie we continued on our way, fueling up at Norseman and watching the landscape change as we headed east.

The first part of the drive involved a few photo spots, the first one a road sign depicting camel, kangaroo and emu, they all inhabit the area and to be on the lookout for them. Them a sign telling us Adelaide was 1996 klms east. Gulp! That’s the distance from Melbourne to Brisbane. The Eyre Highway is around 900klms long. We have decided to do the drive over about three days, Balledonia Roadhouse our first overnight stop after 300klms. We got to the caravan park around 2pm. The drive wasn’t too boring, lots of trees and not so much open country. We stopped for a coffee in one of the parking areas that are provided. I always make the thermos, so we have nice hot morning coffee. No shops out here, the roadhouses are every 250 klms or so, they sell basic groceries and fuel. We had a cappuccino there after settling in. Of course no mobile or internet out here in the outback.

                       

Not many caravans drove in to join us, but we enjoyed a lovely quiet night and slept well.

Wednesday 24^th August.

John and I were up at 6am, ready to have breakfast and pack to continue the drive, our next stop about 360 klms to Madura Roadhouse. The country opened up to flat scrubby plains, we looked for emus and camels, the only kangaroos we saw were roadkill Two eagles flew off as we approached at one stage, but didn’t go far, as soon as we passed they would have been back to the carcass. No camels, but we still have tomorrow. We did see a shingle backed lizard crossing the road.

We stopped to take photos of the sign saying we are now on Australia’s longest straight stretch of road, 146.6 klms long, also the sign saying the Eyre Highway is used as an emergency landing strip by the Royal Flying Doctor.

Road Train passing us.

Believe me that road was straight, lots of road trains passed us .We booked into Madura about 1pm and had a lazy afternoon. Other travelers joined us as it got later into the afternoon. I went to the bistro later to order seafood for dinner.

Thursday 25^th August

Hampton Tablelands

John and I left the roadhouse about 8am; I realized later I should have put the watch ahead as entering South Australia we gain one and a half hours, only half an hour behind New South Wales. So it was already after 9am.

The drive was interesting, following the hills that had appeared yesterday as we entered the Madura Pass before coming to the roadhouse. They are named the Hampton tablelands and stayed on our right until early afternoon when we entered the treeless Nullarbor Plain and the Nullarbor National Park. We are seeing the country side after the rains earlier in the year, the landscape is very fertile and many shades of green in the numerous shrubs and grasses.

Lookout over the Great Australian Bight at Eucla

A few small wallabies were near the road early this morning, this afternoon we ran over a snake, too late to get out of his way, he was curled up on the road.

At Eucla, the coast appeared, the Great Australian Bight, a welcome change. We had been away from the sea for a while; the day was perfect for whale watching along the stretch of cliffs at the lookouts. Probably the highlight will be whale spotting at the Head of the Bight tomorrow, lots were seen today, as someone told us.

Old Telegraph Station ruins at Eucla

The Nullarbor Plain

Bunda Cliffs

We booked into the Nullarbor Roadhouse about 4pm. Its our third night without television, however we do have phone and internet after two nights without. John and I settled in and had showers, we had to insert a $1 coin for the privilege. Water is scarce in the outback, none of the roadhouses provide water only power. We filled our water tank in Kalgoorlie and have used it wisely. It has to last until we get to Ceduna  tomorrow.

As soon as we had internet, the footy tips went in!