30^th September: Ceduna

A big trip today and we just steadily wore the kilometres down. The countryside changed from trees and bush to true Nullarbor at the Nullarbor Roadhouse for a short time but the treeless plain is mostly north of here.

 We saw a lot more on the train. But the road is straight and mostly flat as this is the largest flat limestone plain in the world. As Karst country, it is full of caves and underground streams and supports very little vegetation. Trees are small mallee forms and inedible salt bushes and so there is not much pastoral industry out here. But as we drove towards Ceduna, the wheat fields and silos started to appear.

We have encountered the same people over and over again, all travelling eastward. Not as many trucks today but lots of caravans! There are also a few mad people pedalling push bikes across. Economical, I guess, as one uses a lot of fuel, but somewhat hazardous as there large trucks push a large volume of air and a cyclist could be in danger of being blown off the road! We saw the first bike ridden across the Nullarbor by a helmeted cyclist at Nandroo. It looks like a child's bike and I can't imagine doing it!! Absolute madness!! A woeful lack of toilets on SA section as well as non-equiped Rest Areas ie no picnic table.

 

(The yellow Torana we keep seeing has just left: it took 5 minutes to get it started!! Very noisy at 6.30 am!)

The highlight of the trip was the Great Australian Bight. We pulled in twice to view points to see it. The first place there were two rows of rolling sand dunes down to the water's edge.

 It was very cloudy at this stage!

 The second was the cliffs proper! 200 – 300 ft straight down into the pounding surf!

It was an awesome sight!! There were many other places we could have gone to see the bight but most were crowded as I think a good number of people camped out there but the wind was so fierce and I don;t fancy it myself, as beautiful as it is!! I thought we might go to the Head of the Bight where there 20 or so whales playing but then we discovered it cost $15 each to do so and it was 15 kms down. We've seen lots of whales and so we gave that a miss.

But the Bight is spectacular.

 Once the seabed, the plain is so flat and it just drops into the sea, creating wonderful cliffs! We parked the vans and wandered around and it was easy to see where the limestone had been eaten away. One doesn't stand too close to the edge!  

Thereare some interesting signs along the road:

We did see a dead youngcamel, lots of kangaroos and three wombats.  All road kill!

 

One thing I did discover was that there is a golf course across the Nullarbor – 18 holes from Ceduna to Kambalda, north of Norseman, one every so often at little settlements and roadhouses. Apparently, some people travel across just to play the 18 holes!

We couldn't get into the park I had thought would be good but it was packed and when I had tried to book, I kept getting the fax machine. A sure way of not having to answer the phone and turn people away. But this one is the same price and better. We will walk to the beach! We stay for a rest day tomorrow (Yes, I know; the itinerary doesn't say that but the drivers need a break before we do a couple more long stints!)