Streaky Bay (South Australia) to Esperance (Western Australia)
After a great three days relaxation at Streaky Bay, it was time to head off. The wind blew a gale most of the time, but before hitting the road we had to wash the car and caravan at the local car wash, courtesy of all the birds in the trees doing their business all over our car and caravan. What a pain, we must remember next time to get a spot not under the tress, always sound nice for shade but they have their own issues!
Bailey also has to have a shower in the van.
After this short delay we headed to Ceduna for some yummy King George Whiting fillets and a large serve of hot chips. YUM! Best around, it's the home of King George Whiting.
Then it was time to hit the Nullarbor Plain. Nullarbor comes from Latin nullus = no and arbor = tree, i.e. Tree Less Plain and it in most part is treeless. I always thought it was an Aboriginal word! This is a beautiful part of Australia, many people that tackle the "crossing of the Nullarbor" try to do this as quick as possible, but they don't know what they are missing!
Our first night we travelled 158km west of Ceduna, a grand total of 268kms! No point rushing these things! We camped on a hill just beside the road, and except for the wind we had an enjoyable time.
.
The next day we headed to the Nullarbor Roadhouse, famous for whale sightings. We weren't there in whale season, but I did manage to land this one! Our camp was 10kms further west & then 12kms to the coast, the days drive was 165kms, no need to rush things!
.
.
The Royal Flying Doctor was at the roadhouse while we were there
Jayne and Bailey off exploring in the desert
Our free camp near the Head of the Great Australian Bight - just fantastic
Be careful around the cliffs
Morning tea before we headed off
On the way out we punched a hole through the sidewall of a caravan tyre. An expensive thing to do
We drove a total of 80kms and stopped for lunch at another cliff spot (Twiggy's Camp)
Our target was a camp just east of the Western Australian border where we had to eat the remaining vegetables and fruit before we crossed the border where they confiscate these things. Honey also has to go. We saw one poor bloke there who had a horse float full of furniture he was taking to Perth for his daughter who was moving there. They made him unload the whole float - 3 TV's, beds and assorted furniture just laying in the dirt, while he sprayed the float clean with a high pressure washer - poor bloke was there for hours. Total daily drive was 184kms, what a leisurely pace.
Still on the Bight, but no longer the high cliffs, just a nice beach. What time is it?
The time differences here are crazy. When we pulled up today it was 5.30pm SA time, but 10kms west it's only 3.00pm. To make things really weird, the locals 10kms west use their own time, being 45 minutes ahead of the rest of WA, so they think it's 3.45pm! This is not an official time zone, thus our mobile phone says its 3.00pm!
Once you cross the border into Western Australia there really isn't much to see, so we put a mammoth drive in doing 658kms in a day. But we were helped by the 2.5 hours time difference between SA and WA.
These are my co-pilots during this 658km drive! At least Jayne shared the driving once she woke up! She's really good and definitely drives for half the trip, if not more!
Our free camp at Fraser Ranger Rest Area and a salt lake just there
At Esperance, there's a "dog beach" just near our caravan park
Bailey loves his soccer, but he's old now and really suffers afterwards
.
His brand new soccer ball lasted about 2 minutes!
We're in Esperance for 3 nights now. We enjoyed a Valentines Eve dinner at the local pub, which was really jumping.
