Norseman, Caiguna, Cocklebiddy, Mandura, Eucla, Nundroo, Ceduna 10 - 14 November 2013

Ah, Norseman. Beautiful one day, it's just that no-one can remember when. The few shops still open have their windows covered in corrugated iron, and the whole main street just looks desolate. It's not that nobody's trying, but they appear to be flogging a dead camel. Speaking of camels, a more picturesque use of the ubiquitous corrugated iron is the tin camel installation in the middle of the roundabout on the main drag:

Tin Camels

Other than that, there is really nothing to report from Norseman.
Next day it was Eastward Ho and full steam ahead for the Nullarbor Plain, or at least what we thought was supposed to be the "Treeless Plain".
Given that there was only a stretch of about twenty k's without anything you would normally refer to as a tree, I think we need a referendum to change the name to "Multis Arboribus Plain", with the emphasis on the bori(ng) part. What a Tourism WA/SA/Australia con it is.
Just one boring long straight after another, with the previously mentioned longest straight in Australia of 90 miles (145.6km) between Balladonia and Caiguna just rivetingly full of suspense - when will it ever end??????



We planned to overnight at Caiguna, which likes to paint itself as the "Hub of the Universe" (they are either seriously up themselves, or are having a gigantic lend of all travelers), but since there was absolutely nothing there to entice us to stop (a recurring theme out here...) we pushed on to just before Cocklebiddy (got to love some of the names at least) and free-camped in a rest area on the side of the highway. There was one other bloke camped there with his dog, Hilux and van who had been there for a couple of days. The question "Why?" sprang instantly to mind, but we didn't really want to know. Ran into him again later on in Ceduna where he said he had come into town for his weekly shower :(=



Bidding a fond (?) farewell (well we were glad to be leaving anyway) to Cocklebiddy, we set out towards South Australia. There were actually a few interesting bits on this leg. The highway drops off the tablelands and down to the coast at Mandura, and the views from the top are quietly awesome. The photos don't really do it justice as we are still relying on the mobile for picture snapping - got to get that replacement camera!

Traditional Rock Art??

The old Telegraph station at Eucla was an interesting set of ruins. The building is slowly being overrun by sand dunes and will disappear all together if they don't actively try to save it. You've got to believe that the dunes were nowhere near the station when they decided to build there.









The last interesting bit was at Head of Bight. This particular tourist trap has been set up on the cliff tops of the Great Australian Bight at a spot where many whales spend up to three months of the year calving, resting and playing, close in to shore. Of course with our immaculate timing we missed the season by a month. Typical... Still worth the $7 entry fee just for the views. Definitely the highlight of the crossing.

The target for the night was Ceduna, but that proved a bit too far and we spent the night in the very swanky (not) caravan park/motel at Nundroo. If you've never heard of the place, don't worry. I plan to forget it as soon as possible myself.
Somewhere along the way to Nundroo we passed a big brown sign:



Now we thought we had been crossing the Nullarbor since we left Norseman - as I said, it's all a big tourism con. Not far down the highway there is another big brown sign facing east which had the word Nullarbor on it, and I'm pretty sure it was marking the Eastern end of the plain (couldn't read it all in the mirror as we sailed past, and frankly, couldn't be bothered to stop and check). A couple in the bar of the Nundroo motel (well there is nowhere else to go!) had caught the train across from Adelaide to Perth, and were driving back. They said that the landscape is very barren around the train line which is further north than the highway. So it appears that if you want to really experience the Nullarbor, the only way is by train.

After all the excitement of our plain crossing journey, we finally reached civilization in the form of Ceduna. Nothing spectacular here, but a very nice change after the last few days. Our timing is spot on as usual - the local Oyster Festival finished last week........ In case you are wondering, the biggest oyster this year weighed in at 585 grams. That's one big mollusc!

Esperance 07 - 09 November 2013

What a beautiful part of the country this is! Yes you guessed right, it's not raining in Esperance :)
We set up camp in the late afternoon after over 400k's driving under grey skies and through intermittent showers between the down pours and opened every window and flap on the camper to speed the drying process after two wet pack ups in a row. It was bloody cold though, and the long pants were a definite fashion fixture. We ate in the camp kitchen out of the wind and then headed straight inside the camper to read and watch telly. The next morning was full of promise and blue sky, so a look around town was in order. One of the attractions here is the very long Tanker Jetty which used to be used by tanker ships for offloading fuel to the storage facility in town. There is even supposed to be a local seal (Sammy) who hangs around the jetty waiting for scraps from fishermen. Well, that may have been, but obviously the good people of Esperance heard we were coming, so the jetty has been condemned and the first 50 metres of it have been removed so there is no possibility of walking along it, fishing from it (as if...), or seeing the seal. Another must see is Pink Lake which is turned pink by the algae in the extremely salty lake water. Only problem is that it is currently basically blue - can't even rely on the algae to do their job right :(
Oh well, they do have an exceptional french bakery with all kinds of baked goodies to help overcome the dissapointment.
Headed out to Cape Le Grand National Park for a days exploring. What a fantastic place it is. Just one stunning beach/cove after another. The water is sooo blue and the sand is sooo white. The sand has a high silica content and squeaks when you walk on it (just like Squeaky Beach at Wilsons Prom). For something completely different we also walked/climbed/scrambled up to the top of Frenchman Peak which is a 262m high lump of granite which is supposed to resemble a type of cap worn by your typical French sailor back when they were naming places around here. This was a bloody steep climb which took nearly an hour from car park to summit, but the views were spectacular.

We are off to Norseman tomorrow for the start of the Nullarbor Plain which contains such highlights as Australia's longest straight stretch of highway at 146.6km - we can hardly contain our excitement ;-)

Not so Pink Lake

 

Frenchman Peak

You can just see the Patrol in the car park from the top.

Albany, Stirling Ranges National Park 06 November

It basically rained all day today. Grey sky and cold air. Bah Humbug! It was so miserable that I was forced to forgo the shorts and put on a pair of jeans for the first time since we hit the Oodnadatta Track all those weeks ago!

First port of call today was Albany for the three staples of travelers the world over - money, food and booze, all of which were running perilously low. While we were there we looked around the 1832 Patrick Taylor Cottage wattle and daub house which is the oldest existing dwelling in WA. Then it was up to the Mt Clarence lookout from where, surprisingly, you could still see the town and bay quite well.

Well not in Albany you can't!

Overnighted in Stirling Ranges National Park which is renowned for it's wild flowers and scenic views. All we could see was rain, rain clouds, and more rain.
The Ranger came around and said he would collect our camp fees later in the afternoon as he had to rush off to an emergency. He didn't make it back until the next morning when he told me he had to assist a hiker down from the mountain after breaking an ankle and then get him to medical attention - who said Rangering was boring? He was back in camp at sparrows next morning though so he could "catch all the German tourists before they bugger off without paying". He also shared the happy news that the rain was supposed to lift lat in the afternoon. He only told me this after confirming that we were moving on to Esperance - cheeky sod ;-)

See the glorious mountains in the background? Neither did we!

Walpole Tree Top Walk, Greens Pool, Denmark 05 November 2013

Definitely heading homeward now as we speed towards Denmark. On the way we did the tree top walk just outside of Walpole (Valley of the Giants) which was pretty cool. They have built a suspended walkway up to 50 metres high which takes you through the upper levels of a Red Tingle tree forest. While they may not grow as tall as a Karri tree, these things are still huge.

Note the strange flowers on the trunk :)

Awe Pretty

Then it was on to Greens Pool and Elephant Rocks which were very picturesque before finishing the day in Denmark.

Can you spot the Elephants?

 Now Denmark is one of the towns I have been hanging out to get to as they had the world's biggest barometer there which was more than 12 metres tall (yep, it's strange what some people find interesting I know). Note the past tense there. Apparently about 18 months ago the Visitor Information Centre (where the barometer was installed in a specially built tower) and it's board couldn't come to grips with the fact that the barometer could not be turned into a profit turning attraction as one of the conditions under which the maker in the Netherlands insisted on was that no admission charges could ever be levied for viewing it. After much to-ing and fro-ing, the maker took it back and expressed his dismay and disgust with the town of Denmark and in particular the lack of vision shown by the Visitor Centre board. Of course not a word of this is mentioned in the Visitor Centre. There is just this weird tower in the middle of the building with a staircase to nowhere running up the inside wall.

What it used to look like

Woke up next morning and it was raining! Everything was sodden and getting soggier by the minute. This was not part of the plan! We were supposed to chase the sun for four months and completely skip winter. Oh well, it had to happen sooner or later.