1st to 6th March - Cactus Beach & Fowlers Bay

We camped at Cactus Beach (Point Sinclair) for 3 nights. This is on the western coast of South Australia, just at the start of the Great Australian Bight and Nullarbor Plain. The place is a surfing mecca, we were here 6 years ago and not a lot has changed, but they do have flushing toilets now which is a blessing.

The only problem with Cactus Beach is the wind, as everywhere is quite open to the weather direct from the Great Southern Ocean and Antarctica. So the winds are a bit cool and strong. Looking out over the ocean there is no other land between here and Antarctica, so it’s quite an eerie feeling.

We did quite a bit of bike riding here, I can ride about 7, or 8km’s before my thumb lets me know that’s enough. The roads are all dirt here with corrugations, so it’s not the easiest to ride on with just one hand.

Cactus Beach Camping

Other than that my thumb seems to be repairing quite well. It’s funny the things I can and can't do, and Jayne is great filling in for the things I have trouble with, like opening a tea bag, try that using only one thumb! Jayne also has to empty the toilet, as that takes two hands. It given her a new understanding of this chore.

We then spent two nights at Fowlers Bay, we didn’t stop there last time, and I always felt we should have.

Fowlers Bay - Morning Cappuccino's

I wanted to visit two places while travelling across the Nullarbor, the 1^st being Yalata Aboriginal Reserve as they have camping spots right on the beach on the “Bight”, however in Ceduna the Tourist Information told us that we “will damage both vehicles” getting into these camping places and that Fowlers Bay was the same scenery.

The second was Cape Arid National Park via the Balladonia Road, which is a short cut to Esperance. But the Ranger at Cape Arid also told us that we would damage our vehicles on this road and that if we were still going to do it then “when we got to Balladonia Roadhouse, have a coffee and before you leave ring a relative, and ring them back when you get to Condingup Roadhouse saying that you have finished” making sure we state how long it’s going to take so that if we are late, they know where to come looking for us! We can get to one place by going a longer way around, and coming in mostly on tared road.

Needless to say, we’re not doing those roads.

We are having trouble learning to slow down, and we have to make sure that we spend more time in each place. Previous holidays it’s been all about getting the trip done, now it’s more like making sure we are seeing everything and relaxing.