Around Oz the First Time - Chapter 86 - Eucla to Penong

Mother nature played with us today, add to that a two-and-a-half-hour time difference, and places to see and photograph, as well as a mishap or two, and we find ourselves holed up a little under 200 kilometres short of our goal. Not for the want of trying, we were on the road at 6.30am WA time, where the first 12 kilometres from Eucla to Border Village, may have taken only a few minutes on a stopwatch, took close enough to three hours, once the time zone and daylight saving differentials were taken into account.

Not that any of the clocks in the Cruiser, my Samsung included, adjusted for the changes, until well after the event, they stayed on the WA time for well into the journey today. I found that the service at Darwin must have changed the manner in which the clocks adjust, as when I investigated the clock settings, they were at what seemed to be factory settings. As soon as I adjusted it to Australian conditions, it gave me the right time. The phone waited for service at the Nullarbor Roadhouse some 200 kilometres into the trip to update.

The day is completely different to yesterday. Yesterday we had a zephyr of breeze and 39 degrees, we woke this morning to 18 degrees and overcast. We were expecting 39 degrees again when we were to arrive in Ceduna, in the early afternoon, at which time a cool change would take the tail wind, present at the start today, and turn it into a tail wind as we headed south towards Streaky Bay. What would a meteorologist know?

All of the lookouts of the Bunda Cliffs between Eucla and Nullarbor Roadhouse were on the agenda for today. These are places where the Nullarbor meets the ocean, firstly at a lookout you could conceivably walk down to the ocean, then at the other two where the cliffs and the ocean meet. Each one is unique in its own way, but they are all equally infused with grandeur.

Unlike Robyn and I who have semi-dressed for the weather, the others are ready for the 39 degrees projected for Ceduna later. The temperature gauge has not moved as yet, and the wind is biting. Silver Leader and Forbsy bear lookout #1, but Rosalie makes it about five steps before making an abrupt about face, returning to her van for not only a jumper but a jacket as well.

May I suggest she is not silly. Even dressed applicably for the cold, or so I thought, I am looking for more insulation. The hood on my Drifta hoodie, helps a little. They have not been here before and are largely impressed with the first lookout, but there is more to come and once the appropriate number of shots are taken, we load up and head further east.

We don’t make lookout #2 before I get flashed by a car coming from the other direction. Not seeing anything coming, I am curious as to why, and start looking around the dash to see if there are any warning lights that I should be noticing, and there aren’t. I spy a stationery truck ahead which seems to be awfully close to the edge of the road, and I radio the others to take caution. When we get close we see he has a flat tyre, in fact the rig was running on the rim for some time. A truckie warns us of what is to come. Around the bend the reason for the flashing, and the stationery truck become evident.

There is a trail of destruction, through which we have to zig zag. The truck has had an argument with some camels. Initially the truckie who warned us, said two, but looking to the mess on the road, there could be up to four carcasses amongst the mangled mess of meat, blood and bones. Not sure if it happened at night or not that long ago in the early morning daylight, everything looks horribly fresh.

Forbsy, I think this is as close as you are going to get to seeing wild camels this trip (although when we get to Penong, a conversation with another camper talks of an altercation with a mob of around a hundred of them), and we sure do not want to meet up with any the same what the truck did. There has been a lot of damage done to the truck and the road. The screech marks are on our side of the road, suggesting the truckie took evasive action, but so did the camels, with catastrophic results.

We are lucky our only altercations with fauna have been the kangaroo bouncing off the side of the Cruiser and the near misses of emus of recent days. All jokes aside about the breakdowns of the Jeep, to hit something of that size may be terminal for the trip.

Back to cliff watching, we wander into Lookout #2. The middle lookout is right against the cliff and ocean. Robyn is horrified as Forbsy and I jump the fence for better photos. Neither of us go anywhere near the edge, but she is on tender hooks the entire time. We both get a berating on our return to “safety”. She notes she is a regulatory affairs person and playing by the “rules” is her job.

We are more than one hundred kilometres from our starting point and still the thermometer has not moved upwards, in fact it has hovered around that 18-degree mark alarmingly. Even when we get to the third look out, it has not moved. We are all sufficiently rugged up now and can sustain a short time in the cold taking pictures.

All the lookouts done it’s the Nullarbor Roadhouse, for fuel and a leg stretch. For the first time we find fuel at more than $2. Here it is $2.10 per litre, and thankfully we all need only half a tank or so, so the damage is not too much. Hopefully the next time we need to fill up, the temperature might have gone up but the fuel price has come down.

The Roadhouse is an enigma. On a treeless plain, with nothing else to see other than the continual majesty of the shrubbery (I won’t be drawn into an analogy to Monty Python and the Holy Grail here), broken by this man made blemish. Walking around the structure, there are murals and signs, all of which deserve to be photographed. One in particular suggests there are topless waitresses at the bar, then self-confesses false advertising. The staff here are jovial and friendly just like they were on our first times here. It would be easy to lose focus on reality, in a place like this, I suspect. But they seem well centred and focussed on their customer service.

Silver Leader and Rosalie have decided without discussion with the rest of us to luncheon now, which Forbsy, Robyn and I find fascinating. We have been on the road less than three hours, and although the adjusted time might suggest luncheon is due, there are plenty of other nice places to have it, like the Head of the Bight, which is our next point of call.

So lunch it is.

The Head of the Bight and whale watching station, are on Aboriginal land owned by the Yalata people. Like most national parks we have been into, it will cost us to visit here, but because we are “out of season” it will be half price. The difference between “in season” and “out of season” apparently is the presence of whales, who, up until three days ago, were resting in the bay below the lookout. Whilst seeing whales would have been our preferred option, there is no reason not to check out the vista.

As we get to the viewing platforms it starts to rain. I catch Rosalie, commenting on our trip and how this is the first real rain we have experienced. The sound of the rain on the tin roof of the little shed is not comforting. I pan the camera around the corner of the shed, and this makes us all hurry to get viewing in before the storm catches us.  Some head to the “boardwalk” and others to the sightseeing platform. Both get great shots of the vista. From the viewing platform you can see the sand being blown off the dunes in the distance, moving them with the wind.

Back at the shop, Robyn and Rosalie are busily telling the ranger they had seen a whale and he enquires, by asking about fins and forms, what type it was. He explains that the whales that were in the bay recently, may have just moved to deeper water in the heat of the 42 degree days they had been having, and now are starting to move back, given the present temperature. He is a jovial soul, and we leave buoyant for having met him.

Back at the Cruiser, Robyn is apologising for letting the wind catch the door and scrape along the chain fence, taking off some paint. The old adage, if you can’t afford to write it off once it is off the lot, then you shouldn’t have purchased it, keeps me calm, in any event, it can be fixed. WE head back towards the highway but not before Forbsy has gotten us to stop in a suitable place so he can take a representative 360-degree picture of the Nullarbor Plain. As well as that shot there are plenty of other “interesting” shots taken, including the almost obligatory picture of someone taking a picture of the person also taking the picture – two idiots taking pictures of each other.

Now it is time to start putting in some hard yards. We have a long way to go, and the weather is worsening. As leader I have set the cruise control to 100kph, but we are getting buffeted significantly by the cross wind, after it had started behind us early. It gets to the point where we have to slow down for safety reasons.

The wind becomes so bad we slow down even further. As we come up on Nundroo, we decide to pull in and have a leg stretch, such is the force of the wind, and decide on the rest of the day. We are still more than 200 kilometres for our intended destination, but the wind as it is, is outright dangerous.

Pulling into Nundroo, the dust is enveloping. There have been times when large pan tech type trucks have passed us, their wind has wiped up to 5kph off our speed. It is so bad in fact the front door of the shop here at the roadhouse has a sign saying words to the effect you need to push harder if it is windy. Robyn more than struggles with the door, and I video her attempts and Forbsy’s valiant assistance to her and the next two customers.

It is decided to head to Penong, another 75 kilometres and see how we go. The road will turn a little more with the wind for a while so it should assist us.

Assist? At 80kph, we are using next to no fuel now we have a tail wind. I push it up 5kph and then another 5kph and you would not know now there was any wind at all. It is almost like it is directly behind us, until that is, we change direction again, and I need to back off to arrest the swaying van.

Other than the camels, there has been very little roadkill on the sides of the road today, much less in fact than when we were here in 2014. All of a sudden, this changes with wombats littering the road in quick succession. Not all from last night, but at regular intervals, as many as fifteen in a 10-kilometre stretch. The road is turning more across the wind, and although seemingly abating, once across our bows, making control of the vans more and more difficult.

Over the radio it is decided to call it for the night at the next town, Penong, the home of Australia’s largest windmill, and sanctuary for us tonight. Finding the caravan park is easy, it is near the windmill park. We all feel we need the pub after today, and it is only a four-minute walk away. After setting up the vans, in record time I might add, we redress to what you might suggest were significantly warmer clothes, shorts and tee shirts become jeans and jumpers, even coats for the ladies, and its off to the pub.

Dinner here, whilst not the standard of Halls Creek, which it should be noted would be the highlight of the trip as far as food goes, is far better than having to cook and clean up for ourselves, even though we have significant amounts of cooked leftovers from last night.

Not sure what tomorrow will bring, now we have broken the plan again. There is a pink lake close by, the time zones will allow a sleep in, and we cannot get into Streaky Bay until after 11.00, plus the weather is not slated to be much better than today.

We will see what the day brings us.

We had been across the Nullarbor now from west to east in two days. We had not played the Nullarbor Golf Course, although we had viewed a couple of holes during our stops. We had driven almost 1,000-kilometres in two days and the one thing we could say, that it was not boring. There were sights to see, and things to do. We had the experience of one day being hot and one being cold. We viewed an amazing sunset and took pictures of stars you can only wonder at, in the light polluted cities. We saw very few animals, save roadkill, but did see the majestic wedge tailed eagle, not in flight, but simply sitting in a tree next to the road and the obligatory Wagga Wagga (crows), cleaning up roadkill by the roads (and sometimes on it).

Fraser Ranger Station was an event in itself and could very well have been a multi day stay, given they have tours of the station from the park. Each of the little towns or roadhouses have not only people, just like you but stories as well. We have stayed at Norseman, Balladonia, Nullarbor Roadhouse and Ceduna on our previous trips, the motels in these areas are more than comfortable.

Then there are the sights, the photo opportunities, that can be different from one day to the next. One day the sun gives you azure water contrasting the yellow cliffs, or a sunset through clouds built up like giant wool packs, heaped up in picturesque disorder (to quote Rick Wakeman again), and the next mother nature can turn on you and you are taking shots in the dullness of the overcast, being buffeted by the ghastly wind and the sand it picks up and tries to pierce you.

Its an amazing place, this country, Australia, and even more so the Nullarbor Plain.

Nullarbor may mean “no trees”, but the deficiency of trees is only a small aspect of a vastly huger experience.