Crossing The Nullabor

We set off early from Fowlers Bay - our earliest departure so far, and headed towards Ceduna, the start of the Nullabor. In 41*c heat we reached Ceduna at lunch time and enjoyed sitting in the shade beside the jetty having lunch and a quickly melting icypole.

Time to hit the road and get as far as we can - Hopefully Cocklebiddy. Along the way we stopped at "The head of the bight". The staff member there was lovely, chatting about the whales (not there at the moment), the Yalata Aboriginal community and life living at such a isolated spot. We enjoyed looking around at the very bottom of Australia, and saw a very scrawny dingo wandering around the carpark.

At our first petrol stop at Nullabor Roadhouse we caught up with Hamish and Sara & kids, much to the excitement of our kids. Here the boys had a hit of golf at one of the holes on the "Nullabor Links" course. Nick noticed the valve on one of the campervan tyres had a slow leak when touched, so he decided to put the spare on.

Not far from the roadhouse we saw a dead camel on the side of the road. The kids were fascinated - not your average road kill I guess.

About 10km from here - BANG - we had a blowout - the spare, so back on with the tyre with the leaky valve. It was a slow and cautious drive to the border, where we were told there is a mechanic in Eucla that might be able to help. After being searched for fruit and vegie smuggling (which involved us winding up the van and emptying all the stuff out of the front half so they could inspect the fridge and cupboards), we made a slow trip to Eucla. Fortunately we made it, however the mechanic was out of town on another job 400km away. Guess we're staying here the night. Hamish and Sara stayed here as well and all the kids loved exploring and finding a horse and 3 week old foal which were incredibly friendly. Nick, Hamish, Sara and I enjoyed a quiet drink in the beer garden once the kids were in bed. Adult time at last.

In the morning we had the valve replaced and got a new tyre, and were on the road by 9:05am. Not bad really.
Today's drive was long and uneventful. We were amazed at the number of trees and even a mountain range on the desert, then suddenly endless kilometers of scrubland. The only animal life we saw were a few eagles and a couple of dingos and many dead kangaroos on the side if the road.

We had been told of a lovely campsite called Newman Rocks about 150km east of Norseman. As we were driving in we commented how nice it was to camp back off the road as many of the other stops were literally on the side of the road. Driving down we came to a waterhole, which was absolutely full of tadpoles with bodies the size of 20 cent pieces. We set up camp with amazing 360 degree views, (again with Hamish and Sara) and off all the kids went catching geckos, and tadpoling. After tea we lit a campfire, had hot milo and listened to Hamish read "The Far Away Tree" complete with funny voices for each of the characters. Certainly this spot will leave us with some very special memories as we near the end of the Nullabor.