From: Nullarbor Road House (SA)
To: Eucla (WA)
Via: Koomooloobooka Cave (Nullarbor National Park)
Distance: 284km
Highlight: Off road in Nullarbor National Park. Stunning emptyness and shades of grey and green.
Low: Not sure if we were on the old Eyre Highway in Nullarbot National Park and had to drive back to the highway to avoid getting lost.
Statement of the day: By Isis when taking off her shoes tonight "I have more sand in my shoes than the sand dunes of Eucla"
Animals: Fox (1), Kangaroos (21), Seabirds on Eucla pier (difficult to count), Wedge Tail Eagle (1), Dingo (1)
Surroundings: Nullarbor. What more can I say.
Cars: average 27/hour except off road in the National Park (0)
Giant animal statues: Roo (at Border Village Road House), Whale (at Eucla)
Colours: Rainbows (4), Green greybushes, bright green and red plants in the dunes, yellow sandstone (telegraph station Eucla), white (sand), grey (the Great Australian Bight)
Average day temperature: 8C in the morning and cloudy, 16C in the afternoon and grey
Adventures today start in the riad house room where I spill the whole filter of filter coffee on the not so waterproof shelve and Isis locks the bathroom door for it never to be opened again.....
From there, things can only get better and they do.
We drive past numerous stops along the stunning cliffs of the Great Australian Bight. I do not even try to take good photo's of this natural phenomena. Of this the best photo's are kept in our memory. The first stop was very dangerous as there were no fences (we just took a dirt road off the highway), and with the exited children getting too close to the edge of the cliffs I was very worried about their safety. The cliffs go straight down 80 meters into the raging ocean.
In the Nullarbor National park we decide we want to see the plains a bit closer and take another dirt road, towards a cave which is mentioned on the map. It is hard work to drive through the amazing landscape. We feel lonely and small in this endless landscape of bushes, occasional trees and many stones. We found the cave, although we had to search for it. Without a detailed map we left small stone indicators with each turn we took, so we would find the way back. And yes, we did need them!
The cave was very hard to find as the landscape is completely flat. Luckily there was a smaal iron fence around it, otherwise we had missed it. It was so deep, we could not see the bottom. And we did not have much time to explore further either, as a dingo started circling around us. We had a complete Australian experience on this trip :-) and felt adrenaline flowing as we slowly found our way back to the highway. It was a bumpy ride, but very much worth it.
It is interesting to see what we find adventurous and compare that to what the children find adventurous. We loved the outback, the tracks, the wild country. The children got very exited when we passed the WA border and had to make sure we did not carry any fruit, vegetables or honey. Looking like a group of rabbits we had been eating all our carrots for morning tea, and the last mandarines were eaten just before the border. But Isis brought three leaves from Adelaide. We had to report them. To her relief they were allowed and no further inspection of the car was needed. The excitement though.....
Eucla is very small. Our motel room has not been refurbished since the early 70's, at least that's what I think. But we are not spoilt for choice and we are happy that it is clean. We dump our bags and then drive down to the old telegraph station and the beach. While we drive and walk we secretly search for the Nollarbor Nymph. From Wikipedia: The first report of her was on 26 December 1971 was by professional kangaroo shooters from Eucla in Western Australia, near the border with South Australia. They claimed to have seen a blond, white woman amongst some kangaroos, and backed their story with grainy amateur film showing a woman wearing kangaroo skins and holding a kangaroo by the tail. After further sightings were claimed, the story was reported around the world, and journalists descended upon the town of Eucla which had a population of 8 people at the time.
Anyway, we did not see her but enjoyed ourselves. By crossing the border we have now arrived in the Eucla timezone which is 45 minutes earlier than Adelaide and 1h 15minutes earlier than Melbourne. Which gives us extra time to play and explore.
It's been a long day. We feel far away from everything. We are a happy little tribe.
