Conquering the 'Nullabor' and breathing in the 'Eyre'

At 1,200 km's the Nullabor is vast and long.  The word means ‘treeless plain’ but betwen the nothingness there are a few adventures to be had.  Although our cars DVD player has broken, we made it across with our sanity intact.  I spent the time passing back food, colouring pencils, food, odd toys, and more food, while listening to Sam ask yet again 'How many more minutes will we get there'.

The first adventures was to visit the 19^th century ruins at Eucla, a town buried by sand.  Remains of the sandstone telegraph station built in 1877 are still there, half buried, and the kids had a wonderful time running around pretending to rescue all the people. 

Second exciting stop off was my first roadhouse shower.  The weather was too cold to strip down outside for our camp shower, but I was surprised to find that 3 dollars buys you 15 minutes of fabulous hot running water!   It is actually the longest shower I can ever remember having. 

Crossing the South Australian Boarder was a highlight.  Although again, I said farewell to my fruit and vege’s.  Some of which needed to be farewelled.  It is an odd experience, going through your fridge and pantry with a stranger checking for signs of life.   You find a rotting carrot, a half eaten orange, and something else unidentifiable so best really to hand it over. 

Final stop off was the Great Australian Bite to see the amazing cliffs drop into the oceans.  At head of Bight there are about 20 whales that live close to shore.  It is fabulous to see them rolling around, spurting water, and singing deep songs to each other.

When finally the Nullabor was conquered at ($2 a litre of petrol)  and we retreated down the Eyre Peninsula for a week, staying in little sleepy coastal villages.  While the Nullabor was a dry outback landscape, the Eyre Peninsula is rich green farmland, with hills rolling into the sea.  Here the sheep have the best view – reminded me of New Zealand.

Streaky Bay was a little haven where you could buy a very large block of coastal land for $80,000 or less.  Lots of development in the region with mining opportunities makes it a tempting investment opportunity.   Wonder if the banks here will lend money to a couple of travelling muso’s.

Just a little further south of Streaky Bay live Australia’s largest Sea Lion colony.  They looked like giant slugs laying on the beach.  Suddenly, one of them would come to life, waddle around to play with one of his friends.  They were affectionate creatures and liked to rub their noses together and cuddle each other with their flippers.  It really was a magnificent site.

Heading down the peninsula we stopped off at Murphy’s Haystacks …. yet another magnificent rock formation, but the kids just don’t seem to get tired of climbing all over them.  We just stand in awe of the age of our earth and it’s magnificent creation. 

 

At Lipson Cove we found a fabulous camp area on the beach, sourrounded by farms, the ruins of an old jetty, lots to explore on the beach, and a conservation island about 30m offshore.  One morning I took a walk on the beach to watch the sunrise (in my dressing gown).  There were thousands of birds on the island, lining up in formation and taking off in groups, soaring over my head.  It was stunning.   In the water below a dolphin was swimming back on forth.  The glow of sunrise was three sixty, with orange over the ocean in front of me, and pink in the sky on the green hills behind.    Then I returned to the caravan for the chaos of morning breakfast with the kids.

Last four days were spent at Mt Remarkable national park at the southern end of the flinders rangers.  John is missing gorges and mountains, so we are detouring there on our way to the Barossa.   Mmmmm…. Barossa, can’t wait.

John declares this his favourite type of holiday spot.  I remind him that we are on about the same latitude as back home in Newcastle, where we also have Gum tress, mountains and rocky creeks .  All this travel and he will still love to spend his time right where we live - good to know.

We have a map on the wall of our caravan where we have marked out our route, which also has pictures of Australian landmarks.   When Joshua saw the drawing of parliament house in Canberra he asked, ‘Mummy, is that a circus’.  I guess the shape of the roof and the flag on top does look a bit like a Big Top.   The political irony of his comment has kept us laughing for days.   

Meanwhile with the kids only carrying on the trip basic toys, and Amy not having a stroller for her dolls, she is carrying them around in a roasting pan.  Looking forward when we get home, and the kids enjoy resdiscovering their entourage of toys.  Thinking about home a bit more now.  But next up looking forward to the Barossa Valley, Adeleide and the Great Ocean Road, all in the next 2 weeks.