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Archive for July 19th, 2011

Day 11 – Esperance

Jul 19

Posted by Anthony in Big Lap 2011, Caravanning, Geocaching | 5 Comments

The day started out just as it had ended with drizzly rain and freezing cold.  Overnight, fog had also been added to the mix.

Since the rain had turned the red dirt into red mud I was a little worried that we might not get out since we had a bit of a climb up a dirt track to contend with on the way out.  It was no trouble at all though and we were soon back at the highway pointed at Norseman about 160km away.

We stopped briefly and took some photos of the tin camels.  We then headed up to the Beacon lookout but were unsuccessful in taking any photo’s as it was too cloudy.  There’s not much else to do in Norseman.  It’s a gold mining town, not a tourist town.
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Day 10 – Balladonia

Jul 19

Posted by Anthony in Big Lap 2011, Caravanning, Geocaching | Comments off

Sunrise saw us up and on the move again.

An uneventful, but chilly night was had.  Road trains come past roughly every 20 minutes.  I’m guessing that it takes about that long to get each one through the border checkpoint.

Today was a pretty long driving day with even less than yesterday to see.  The Nullarbor was in full flight today with absolutely no trees and not much of anything else to see.  The few small roadhouses along the way are gone in an instant and there’s nothing missed if you don’t stop.

We did stop at Caiguna to see the cave blowhole there … but it wasn’t blowing.  Seemed like a nice enough spot for lunch though.
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Day 9 – Eucla…ish

Jul 19

Posted by Anthony in Big Lap 2011, Caravanning | Comments off


Well we got out of Ceduna bright and early and headed off towards the SA/WA border.  There’s not a lot to see along the way, but there’s plenty of expectation.

We saw the famous signs warning of camels, wombats, kangaroos, etc for the next bajillion kms, but we saw nothing.  Not even a dead roo.  The only birds around seem to be crows and some parrots that won’t sit still long enough to be identified.  A bit eerie really.

The clear highlight of the day was reaching Head of Bight which coincided nicely with lunch.  Clear skies and little wind made for good whale watching weather.  There’s boardwalks along the cliffs and down fairly close to the water too.  We saw about 15 Southern Right whales all up.  Mothers, calves and bulls all acting as whales do.

I took about 250 photos and some video and will need to pick some highlights for the gallery here.
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