We left Collie on a cool and rainy morning on Sunday 5th May for a planned six-month trip to the eastern states. Stage one was to cross the Nullarbor via Esperance to Penong in South Australia a trip of around 2,000klm.
First day saw us heading out through the wheat belt to a free camp just south of Lake King (an old Grain Silo storage area). It’s been a quiet a few years since we had been out this way and we were surprised on how green the country was. Farmers were very busy either preparing to seed or seeding. The silo art at Dumbleyung and Newdegate was worth a stop and photo session. We were the only ones at the free camp so a quiet night with a fire, dinner and TV.
Day two was more of the same - meandering our way down thru Ravensthorpe, across to Esperance and then north to our camp at Bromus Dam just south of Norseman. Once again, the country was flourishing, and farmers were out in force doing what farmers do (during the daytime anyway?). The highway from Ravensthorpe to Esperance is finally in good shape and an easy drive especially with a 20klm tail wind. Bromus Dam is a great free camp with clean toilets, bins and lots of level private sites.
Third day – into Norseman to top up the water tanks for the Nullarbour crossing, squeeze in as much fuel as we could before we hit the expensive roadhouses on the Nullarbour and point the Pajero east. Great free camp at Nuytsland Reserve (just west of Cocklebiddy) – with large private areas with a view over the plain. Yep – fire, dinner and TV again.
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Where is the Kangaroo? |
Next day saw us camping near the beach at the Old Telegraph Station Eucla. Nice spot amongst the sand dunes. The Station was established in 1877 as part of the SA-WA telegraph line. As I said to a mate “I wonder what the Postmaster in 1877 would have thought of me sitting 50 metres from his humble adobe, sending emails, surfing the web and updating data in the “cloud” via Starlink using 7,221 low earth orbit satellites?” Reckon he would have been pretty impressed!
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Having a whale of a time |
Give me a minute to get on my soapbox.
After leaving Eucla we headed across the WA/SA border into the South Australian section of the transition.
We all know what SA stands for - “SHIT AMENATIES” or “STUPID AUTHORITIES”. From the SA border to Penong:
• Not one roadside stopover with a long drop toilet, or dump point
• Every roadside stopover littered with overflowing bins, toilet paper, and human excrement (due to the point above).
• Some Einstein in the Roads Department has now decided to barricade access to areas out the back of the roadside stops where you used to be able to camp away from the road noise with a little privacy amongst the trees. So now you can only camp in the asphalt covered roadside stop area with all the appeal for a parking lot (which is exactly what it looks like!)
• The scenic burnt-out car bodies littering the highway verges and some of the roadside areas are a highlight.
We were intending to stay a night at a free camp before arriving at Penong but gave it a miss and travelled straight through to Penong (a very nice little town and caravan park).
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World's biggest Windmill |
Only highlights were the cheap fuel at Yalata ($1.86/ltr vs. $2.75/ltr at Nullarbor Roadhouse and Bordertown) and arriving in Penong.
Enough of my ranting and raving – now looking forward to overdosing on Smokey Bay oysters.
Check out my slideshow HERE (out of sequence a little but you will get the idea)