The Nullarbor Plain 22/2 - 24/2

We embarked upon our longest journey yet across the Nullarbor Plain. It is a trip that is described as one of the world's greatest road journeys. The Nullarbor runs between the two commercial centres of Ceduna in South Australia and Norseman in Western Australia and is 1194 km. We were starting from Streaky Bay and covered 1370km in total over three days.



The Nullarbor is one of the most unique areas of unspoilt wilderness on the planet. Only a small amount of people live there and it's mostly populated by animals such as Camels, Wombats, Kangaroos and Emus.



Our first overnight stop was the Nullarbor Roadhouse. Nullarbor means no tree in latin but only about 50km either side of the roadhouse is actually treeless. The area can be very windy and reduces the speed of your vehicle especially when towing. There is no shelter and temperatures can reach 50 degrees. Luckily it was only about 36 degrees today. Only a handful of fellow travellers stayed the night at the basic caravan park. It was very eerie listening to the wind under the stars of a clear night sky. Occasionally a road train would pull into the petrol station to break the silence.



Our second day saw us travel another 470km. We stopped at a number of lookouts to view the Great Australian Bight on the south coast of Australia. There were lots of flies waiting for us at these stops.



The drive was very tedious at times, just endless road and bush. It was cloudy and rainy and a cooler day which was ideal for travelling, however this brought other hazards...



The wildlife which normally sleeps under the blazing sun was out and about and playing chicken with the traffic. A Kangaroo bounced over the road just in front of us, followed by a rabbit and later an Emu (below). There was lots of roadkill by the side of the road today and the large crows were having a feast on it. The stench was also unbearable from those rotting away from previous days.



We drove into Western Australia having stopped at the Border Village checkpoint. Quarantine regulations prevent you from taking any fresh fruit and veg into the state. We had been eating our remaining fruit on the way to the border that morning.

Just the other side of the border is Eucla.



We made a short detour to see the ruins of the telegraph station at Eucla which is part covered by the sand dunes.



The sun came out and we decided to stop for the night at the Cocklebiddy roadhouse, another basic caravan park. Thankfully some other vans turned up later in the evening, otherwise it would have been very lonely. Somehow we managed to get 2 tv stations with a better reception than the more civilised towns.



The next day we were on the road early again to cover the last 440km to Norseman. This stretch included the 90 mile straight which is Australia's longest straight road. We also passed through Balladonia close to where the US Skylab crashed in 1979.



We arrived very tired at Norseman. We felt like we had jetlag as well as having gone into another time zone. We are only 9 hours behind the UK now. We had to wash the caravan as it had been covered in sand from a detour off the highway for some roadworks. Of course no one was actually working on the stretch in question.

Here are the camels in Norseman.



This is not the base of a pyramid but a large goldmine in the town.

Streaky Bay 20/2 - 21/2

We arrived at Streaky Bay, our last stop on the Eyre Peninsula before we head onto our trek across the Nullarbor Plain to reach Western Australia. Our caravan site is in this bay amongst the trees.



We took a drive to see some of the unusual rock formations on the outskirts of the Gawler Ranges. We first went to the Minnipa area where we climbed onto the top of Pildappa Rock. It has natural wave-like formations very similar to 'Wave Rock' in Western Australia.



As the rocks were inland there were a number of flies buzzing around so David decided to try out his Aussie mozzie net. He said that the flies still buzzed around him and annoyed him but they couldn't get onto his face.



Whilst in Minnipa we also visited the Tcharkuldu Rock which has a number of large Granite boulders scattered all over it. There is also a family of kangaroos that live at the rock but unfortunately we didn't get to spot any of them. Here's Jayne smiling quickly to avoid a mouthful of flies.



We drove further on into the Wudinna area. There we climbed onto the Polda Rock. There are often small pools of water on the rock with channels of water running down the sides into a small reservoir at the bottom for town use, but due to the dry weather in this area at the moment it was as dry as a bone.



We visited Murphy's Haystacks which are a group of Granite boulders in what is technically known as Iselberg formations. You can just about spot David below this one.



On our way back to the car David thought that he had finally got rid of the annoying flies. Unfortunatley he just didn't realise that he hadn't seen the back of them yet !

Port Lincoln 17/2 to 19/2

Feb 19th - David celebrated his birthday with a glass of bubbly in the sunshine. This was followed by a barbie and another glass of bubbly. It made a change celebrating his birthday in the sunshine without having to go to work on a cold February morning.



On route to Port Lincoln we travelled via the scenic Tumby Bay. It was very tempting to take a dip in the water as the temperatures peaked at 44 degrees (111 F) on our 3 hour journey.



Port Lincoln was named so by Matthew Flinders, the explorer after his home county. There are other references to Lincolnshire in the area such as Boston Bay and Louth Bay amongst others.



Here is Jayne at the base of our camp site overlooking Boston Bay. It was quite windy which helped to cool us down. Even the Pelicans were struggling to fly against the wind.



We didn't venture into the water as there were warning signs for Great White Sharks in the area. Yet another danger !



By the end of the bottle David was feeling more layed back and relaxed than normal and forgot about how old he had just turned.

Whyalla 15/2 - 16/2

This was our first impression of Whyalla, our first caravan stop on the Eyre Peninsula. It is an Iron Ore factory on the waterfront and all the roads and land around it all have a rusty colouring from the factory dust.



On the other side of the hill is this lovely coastal view.



On arriving at the caravan sight our impressions of the area improved when we realised that this was the view from our caravan.



The bay in front of the caravan was also lucky enough to benefit from a beautiful sunset.



We drove to Point Lowly to view the lighthouse and came across this friendly reptile who happily posed for a photograph.



The locals come onto the bay by the caravan site with rakes to search for rather large blue swimmer crabs, which bury themselves just under the sand. Jayne walked cautiously across the sand and through the puddles to ensure that she kept all of her toes.



After a day of 40 degree heat the weather again decided to show us how variable it can be and we had another beautiful sunset over the bay, but this time it brought with it some unexpected sheets of rain.

The Flinders Ranges 14/2

We decided to take a drive into the Flinders Ranges to see Wilpena Pound, an apparently unmissable natural attraction that you must see when in the area.

We drove through Quorn and Hawker on the way, passing a number of ruins from early settlements. The best were at Kanyaka Homestead which was built in 1851 by Scottish settlers known as the Proby clan.



We stopped for lunch at this beautiful viewpoint and everything went pearshaped !

David spotted a rather large skin coloured spider climbing down the headrest of the car behind Jayne's head. We jumped out of the car in a panic as we do not know which spiders are dangerous and which are not.

Jayne then also noticed that we had a leak out of the back of the Ute. We had some spare petrol in the back after our trip into the outback, and this was leaking out after travelling down a dirt track. David sorted out this problem whilst Jayne continued looking for the spider. To our worry we lost sight of him again but knew that he was still somewhere in the car. Valentine's Day turned out to be three's a crowd !



We had no choice but to get back in the car and continue our journey onwards, in some trepedation. On entering the Wilpena Pound Resort area we spotted a number of Kangaroos. This one just wandered around in front of us and stopped for a quick scratch.



Unfortunately due to our unplanned antics we had just missed the shuttle bus into the Pound itself and the next one was not due for another 2 hours (they don't tell you that in the tourist information guides). We looked at walking into the Pound but it was at least a 2 hour walk and it was a very hot day. We had not come prepared with enough water supplies for the journey.



As so often seems to happen to us the weather decided to change and the sky turned very dark. It started to rain and thunder with lightening flashes. We decided not to wait around for the next bus after all so this was disappointing after the eventful journey we had trying to get there. However the drive itself was very scenic and we had still enjoyed the views.



There were heavy sheets of rain coming towards us as we began our drive back, and it was later reported on the News that there had been flash floods in Hawker, an area we had driven through.



On returning to the caravan David removed everything from the car (wearing a thick pair of gloves) and hoovered out every orifice he could to try and remove the spider. Unfortunately we think he is still in the car as David didn't actually see him come out, but the good news is Jayne looked up the dangerous spiders of Australia on the internet and he didn't appear there. We Think !!

Coober Pedy 11/2 - 12/2

Having arrived early afternoon in Coober Pedy which is the Opal Mining capital of the world, we went on a 4 Wheeled Drive sunset tour with a private guide to see the Breakaways which are just north of the town.



The Breakaways are an area of land that used to be covered by a massive inland sea.



The area has been used as a location in several films such as Prescilla Queen of the Desert, Mad Max III and Pitch Black, plus the mini tv series Stark.



The rocks below are known as the two dogs. The aboriginies have a number of names for various rock formations based on their 'Dreamtime' legends but you often need some imagination to recognise them.



The longest fence in the world is the 'dog fence'. At 5300 km long it runs from the Eyre Highway in South Australia to the Gold Coast in Queensland. The fence is designed to prevent Dingoes from killing sheep and some sections are now over 100 years old. Each part of the fence is still maintained today and the person responsible for this particular area has about 320km to look after.



The area turned very eerie as the sun was setting because you felt so isolated and could see nothing but land for miles. We both felt much happier being with a local guide who knew the area very well. The sun eventually set over the Breakaways and we headed back into Coober Pedy.



Coober Pedy is a desolate and dry place. Its looks like a film set or a place in North Africa. When we arrived on a Sunday afternoon we saw only a few aboriginals.



No large companies are allowed to mine the area only individuals. You only need a Prospectors Licence for about £20 to start, plus about £50,000 of equipment. There is no need to replace what you have dug up so large conical piles of dust and earth scatter the landscape.



This is the easier way to find Opal. The machinery sucks up the mined material and drops it out of the bucket onto a conveyer belt. The mined material is scanned in the little cabin under ultra violet lights and if Opal is present then the rocks glow. The man sitting in the cabin removes any identified Opal and the remaining 'Mullock' dust is emptied into the conical piles that surround the area and give it it's unique identity.



However as we had no machinery we had to make do with our bare hands and root around in the 'Mullocks'. This process is known locally as 'Noodling'. Sadly we didn't find our fortunes but it does make you realise that Australia is still full of untapped mineral wealth.



The temperatures in Coober Pedy can sometimes reach 50 degrees celsius inland (122 degrees fahrenheit) and people have their homes underground. They have a constant temperature of 23 degrees and are very soundproof. Some of the shops and hotels are also underground.



The main street contains a number of shops selling Opal and features all manner of attractions on the outside to try and attract you in.

Although Coober Pedy is an Outback town they do not go short on entertainment facilities. They have a Drive-In Cinema, a Racecourse (although admittedly this is only used once a year) and a unique desert based 18 hole golf course.