We awoke to another glorious morning in a bush camp setting, we were surrounded by wildflowers in the Nullarbor Desert.  The multi-coloured wildflowers are certainly pretty, the small compact bushes are covered in delicate little flowers. How lovely is God’s garden!  Our drive was in overcast cloudy conditions, with a little rain shower scattered along the way. As we drove out of Madura suddenly the vista opened to some magnificent mountains. We drove for a few hundred kilometres with the limestone ridge to the left of us with layered trees climbing the ridge.  The trees were spindly with a lovely golden leaf on the top, with the sun glinting off them they looked spectacular.  We came across a few sections of highway that were set up as emergency Royal Flying Doctor airstrips.  Fortunately none were in use when we came through.  The majority of the traffic is either double road trains or grey nomads towing caravans.  It is very unusual to see a normal car.  Our first stop was at Eucla for lunch, about 12km before the South Australian border & the quarantine restrictions.  The garden out the back of the roadhouse had a pond that was full of brown frogs (lots & lots of them, hope that they are natives), the view of the Southern Ocean & the beach was also very good.  The rest area at the Eucla Roadhouse was called “Gero’s Rest Area” (I am sure that it stands for geriatric) where we had lunch to finishing off all our fresh salads (extra big ration today). Not long after we crossed the Western Australia border into South Australia & passed through the first quarantine station.  We also lost 1 ½ hours.

We stopped a little bit further down the road at the first Nullarbor Cliffs lookout.  This was a fairly sedate cliff with great views down to the beaches below to either side.  The view was magnificent.  Our next stop was a more extreme cliff where the view was extreme – straight down about 100m to the ocean.  Then back on the road again, still pushing a head wind all day, very straight roads exposed to the full force of the wind with the occasional rain shower to liven up our day.  We stopped at Nullarbor Roadhouse so that I could refuel, today was the highest fuel consumption on the trip so far, 16.1 litres per 100km.  The Nullarbor Roadhouse also marked the start of the Treeless Plain, we drove through a lot of very low scrubby bushes, with not a tree to be seen in any direction, horizon to horizon.

The Head of Bight Whale Centre was next on the agenda & we drove in 12km off the highway to the centre.  We stood out on the viewing platforms in a freezing cold southerly wind right off the Antarctic Ocean to look at the Southern Right Whales that gather in the Head of Bight (head of the Great Australian Bight) to calve & raise the calves for six months until they are big & strong enough to take them back down to Antarctica.  We saw six or seven whales in relatively close, at times they were on the surface & at other times there were none to be seen.  The photos we took don’t really illustrate how big these whales are nor how close to the shore they are.

After the whales it was on more straight roads, this time with a bit of up & down in them but really very good roads through some beautiful tree landscapes. The trip is long “are we there yet?” but it is quite beautiful, the scenery is ever changing, we are seeing it green after all the rains – it’s not boring.  At times we chat with Sue & John on the two way about where we are going or what to look out for & at times when the white line (on the road) fever would get to us we would tell jokes etc. &  have a good laugh. We chose to bush camp around 25km east of Yalata & the camp site is absolutely lovely, set off the road about 100m & in amidst a stand of trees, with birds calling from the trees.  John cooked a delicious chicken curry & vegies.  We washed it down with a Hardy’s Shiraz.  Unfortunately tonight is our last night together with John & Sue as we will be heading our different ways from Ceduna.  John & Sue will be heading up to Lake Eyre for a flight over the lake. We will head down to Port Lincoln.  It is sad as they are great company & we have enjoyed a lot of laughs, meaningful chats, adventures & reds together. We will miss their company for the week we have left before we return to Canberra.  We can’t believe how quickly the time has gone. It seems as though we have only just planned this trip & now it is almost over.