The Nullarbor

I left Port Lincoln to ride up the west side of the Eyre Peninsula.  It was far more interesting than the east side with lovely beaches and picturesque little towns and bays.  Among others I diverted to Coffin Bay, Venus Bay and Eliston, and most of these landmark places appear to have been named by Royal Naval seaman as they sailed by at the time of the ‘discovery’ of Australia.

Towards the end of the afternoon, as usual, I was looking for a place to camp.  I spotted a sign for a 

camping ground off the main highway so decided to follow it.  Well, after 20 or 30 kilometres of 

unsealed road, with the sign being repeated once along the way, I reached Sceale Bay, the supposed 

location of the site, but upon enquiring of a local, it appears that the site closed down a long time ago.  So I headed for Streaky Bay where I ended up camped on a beachside site and where I enjoyed a lovely dinner of locally caught whiting.

Having checked the tyres and greased the chain I left for the Nullarbor.  I stopped in the last town to buy some steel tent pegs and Have a bite to eat. The Nullarbor lived up to expectations.  Although quite barren with little, or at least very sparse vegetation, it has a kind of beauty if no shade or shelter for the most part.  It is not often that TomTom tells me to go straight ahead for over a thousand kilometres!

I refuelled at Penong and was given a list of the fuel stations on the Nullarbor with the distance between each.  This proved to be invaluable for determining when to stop to refuel.  Although I carry an additional 5 litres in a tank attached to the rack I am conscious of the need to refuel often.  The wind was a northeasterly so it assisted my ride and with an average speed of 90kph fuel consumption was good.  The terrain gradually changed from arable land, to low trees and scrub to merely low scrub.  After being on the road for just over 7 hours, and in view of the shelterless countryside I stopped and took a room in the famous Nullarbor Roadhouse, expensive but fair given its location.

I thought the flies at Wilpena were bad but here they were considerably more plentiful,  Again I was very thankful to have my fly net.  There were several dingoes slinking around and there were a number of warning notices posted warning that they are wild animals and could be dangerous.

After leaving the roadhouse the terrain became more interesting and changeable with sand and rocks in abundance.  I saw two dead camels, roadkill victims and I contributed to it myself when a small bird bounced off my screen.  Unlike when crossing into South Australia when my panniers were searched for fresh fruit and vegetables when crossing from S.A. into Western Australia on assuring the inspector that I was carrying no fruit, vegetables or honey I was allowed through without a search.  As the afternoon progressed the sky darkened and I was subjected to very heavy rain and strong winds.  I again decided to stop at a roadhouse and half an hour later the weather worsened.  Certainly not a good time to be in a small tent on the exposed Nullarbor.  Later that evening an enormous storm 

blew through with thunder, lightning, hail, very strong winds and torrential rain.  The ground around the roadhouse was flooded and I discovered the following morning that the roof had leaked and half the establishment was without power.  

I am having trouble with the internet connection at the moment so I will post this and continue later.

TTFN.