Jul 21
Another day of decisions … would we leave Lucky Bay and go back to Esperance in order to make the next days looonnng drive a bit shorter. God no! This place is just too intoxicating.
The walk down to the beach ... about 6m away from the van
Kel woke me up this morning with complaints.
Jul 20
We had ummed and ahhhed over whether to leave Esperance and try our luck at Lucky bay. In the end we decided to give it a go … and that will remain one of the more ridiculous decisions that we’ve ever made.
I mean, just check out this place! The “oh my god’s!” as we came over the last rise to see the colour of the water said it all.
We arrived here and just dropped the van. There were only 2 other vans here anyway, we virtually had the place to ourselves.
I do apologize sincerely for this post. Read on and be thoroughly green with envy at your peril. There’s a lot of pictures and ya just know that they’ll be terrible …
Jul 19
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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Jul 19
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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Jul 19
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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Jul 16
Well we reluctantly left Port Lincoln. The weather really turned it on this morning and it was a bit tough to leave. Leaving was even tougher since Kel fails at setting the alarm clock … and we woke up an hour late. Then to top it off Blake woke up and had an insta-vomit. The mood was well and truly set.
The comedy of errors continued as we were hurriedly packing up and nothing was co-operating. Just one of those days…
Finally the sunrise appeared, just to rub it in that we shouldn’t actually be leaving yet. Port Lincoln is one place we’ll be coming back to down the track.
Jul 15
We were up bright and early this morning. I went and did the nearest geocache which was only a couple of hundred metres along the beachfront bike path. This path pretty much runs all the way around Port Lincoln and is a fantastic asset.
A brekky of pancakes saw us ready to attack the day.
Jul 14
Since we’d already booked Port Lincoln we didn’t feel the need to hurry there and took our time. We had a bit more of a look around Port Augusta and spent an hour or so in the Wadlata Outback Centre. This was well worth doing. The place is full of history, both Aboriginal and European.
Jul 13
Feeling like a holiday now!
Only a short drive today, 300 km plus change. We got out of Adelaide at 8am and had a fuel stop at Port Wakefield.
Not much else to stop for along the way. I had the Prado set at 90kmh and it was pretty happy at that speed. Fuel economy was around 14.5 l/100. The road is almost flat and there was no headwind to contend with … ideal. We might even be able to afford the fuel at that pace.
We got into Port Augusta at 12:30 and did a quick setup and had lunch. The park is pretty barren, but that’s to be expected. Blake and Hannah had a bit of a play at the playground and I scoped out the camp kitchen.
Today we got some of the domestics done. A bit of washing, drying and shopping.
Not far to the beach … just where that fence is. I went for a bit of a ride there this morning and grabbed the geocache of the day.