Caravan Capers

Decided NOT to stay another night and laze, etc after the wind howled gustily all night (even drowned out the sound of breaking waves in the bay), the rain fell and the temperature dropped… Colin fortunately still intact and in same spot by morning. Shame, but packed up and set off for Esperance to investigate shopping for nephew’s birthday present (only 2 weeks late but nothing else on offer on the way so far), postage of postcards, exchange of books, fish and chip shop recommended by a neighbouring camper and the Great Ocean drive around the bays of Esperance (and it was a great drive). Fish and chips good too but rather full after that.
Finally left Esperance ~ 2-2.30. Made it to a little place called King Lake for the night. Pushed on past Ravensthorpe and has turned out to be a good move. The caravan park is small and hardly anyone here, the facilities are great (clean, lots of hot water, no one else around) and when we registered and paid for the night at the local pub up the road, it also turned out to be a great find. Huge rammed earth building, friendly, big log fire (still bit cold out), free drink with registration (plus we’d arrived in time for happy hour) and bonus highly affectionate cat! Cat turned out to be a stray hanging around for last couple of weeks and apparently getting very friendly with all and sundry. Would like to stay but we have to move north to meet Ally and Jeff by early November so guess not…. No dinner tonight – fish and chips proving to be elegantly sufficient…. Am also not allowed to kidnap cat!

Waking up early these days. Must be the time difference and lack of daylight saving here. Our neighbours in one of the prime spots, with a view out into the bay were moving out so we plotted to move ourselves into their spot when they’d gone. Successful move with minimal disruption and well worth while. Our other neighbours in the other penthouse position in our bay of 8, offered us their site (sunnier) if we wanted it when they left the next morning but we decided to move into the planned spot anyway. Chris needed mobile coverage so we went looking for some (eventually found it almost half way back to Esperance!) via Thistle Cove and Hellfire Bay.
Thistle Cove was another white sand beach and had dolphins frolicking up and down the shallows. Also “Whistling Rock”, a slightly wave shaped hunk of rock that amplifies the sound of the waves below when you stand in one particular position. Fascinating! Paddling in the shallows was also refreshing as the day was starting to warm up. On to Hellfire Bay and a long walk to the other end and back. Some unattended picnic stuff had been very effectively ravaged by crows – not much bread left! After getting our mobile fix went back and climbed Frenchman Peak (3 km return). Hard slog to the top but enormous caves hollowed out of the peak of the rock and fantastic 360 degree views from the top. Bit interesting with the wind starting to whistle and a very long and unalleviated drop to the ground below if blown off! There was a warning sign at the beginning of the walk about attempting the climb in wet and / or windy conditions. All up managed to get up and down in 50 min with an intervening lunch stop in the big cave near the top. Quick look at Rossiter Bay (named for Captain Rossiter of the French whaling ship Mississippi, who rescued John Edward Eyre on his trek towards the west and enabled him to complete his journey) on the way back to camp. BBQ lamb rump steaks tonight – very good. decided to stay another night and have a lazy day in the sun tomorrow.

Back to our usual schedule and almost last out of the van park at 9.50. Stopped at the Tourist information office in town and collected our “We crossed the Nullabor” certificate. Shame Jen couldn’t direct us to the visitor information centre but we found it anyway.
A lot of the road to Esperance was pretty straight as well. Quite agricultural in nature most of the way with the only alleviating feature being the very straight rail line that ran alongside the highway for most of the way. Lot of salt lakes / pans as well. Stopped in Esperance for groceries and fuel (fortunately prices back to expected levels) and were lured into the cafe near the Information Centre for lunch by the rather nice sounding menu. Also picked up our next lot of mail. Now have our WA Parks pass (quite a collection on the car now) and set off for Cape le Grand NP, hoping to find a site in the Le Grand Beach campsite (more private sites and less people) but it was full! Not even school holidays anymore. Despondently set off on the 12 km trek to the Lucky Bay campsite, thinking we might end up back in Esperance at a regular van park, but fortunately there were still some available spots. The beaches around here are truly gorgeous. White sand, turquoise (need a new adjective for blue-green) water, red granite shield rocks dotted around the landscape and snowy white dunes standing in stark contrast. Even some kangaroos (supposed to laze around on Lucky Bay beach but none in evidence). Finished off the BBQ chicken for dinner and relatively early to bed.

Awoke early and eventually got up at about 6am! Half the vans had already left and as usual we ended up being last out. But still managed to be on the road by 7.30 (although as it turned out this was really 8.15 in the Eastern WA timezone that we hadn’t adjusted to.

Ended up driving 674km to Norseman – our longest day yet – arriving about 4.30pm. The Nullabor isn’t as flat or featureless as we expected but certainly lots of straight stretches of road, particularly the 146km between Caiguna and Balledonia (Australia’s longest straight road). Despite numerous warnings of stray camels, kangaroos, emus and wombats – not a skerrick of wildlife spotted all the way across apart from the occasional stumpy-tailed lizard. Also lost the previous day’s tailwind and had to push into a cross-on all the way – probably played havoc with our fuel consumption.

No evidence of human habitation here abart from roadhouses dotted at infrequent intervals across the plain.

Absolutely no mobile coverage between Eucla and Norseman. On further inspection of the Telstra coverage maps, the little chain of hotspots across appears to follow the rail link instead of the road.

Big push today to get a bit of distance up, so set off early (10.10 am) for Nundroo and beyond. Had to stop at Head of Bight to see if there were any whales who hadn’t migrated south already. No luck seeing any whales so far on this trip. Paid our $12 each admission fee, even though only 4 had been spotted that morning. Actually saw 6! Not doing anything dramatic. Like all our wildlife so far, lazing around (this time on the surface of the bay, with the odd flipper up in the air) seemed to be the order of the day. Perhaps too windy for them? 2 1/2 hrs later and a large salad for lunch (to get rid of as much leftover fruit/veg as possible before the WA border quarantine point) set off once again (3 pm now). Head of Bight is just beyond the start of the Nullarbor plain and it’s certainly pretty treeless. Despite this, the scenery does vary a bit and there are hillier bits with more trees scattered around. Great big sky down here and quite windy (fortunately a tail wind, which helped us along quite considerably). The ocean is an amazing teal green around the Bight and the cliffs head vertically towards the heavens from the sea. Kept heading west with a couple of stop offs to view the Bight once the road veered back to run alongside the cliffs and eventually reached the border (diesel 165.9/L!!! – no way) only to discover a half eaten lemon and two apples we had missed. Very conscientious about quarantine here – everything inspected, unlike other border crossings where you get a couple of bins if you’re lucky.
Arrived Eucla, just over the border, around 6 pm but given it was now only 3.30 pm, thought we could get a bit more mileage up, so kept on to Mundrabilla Road House. Bit bleak and windy but “cheap fuel” (159.8/L – same as Eucla!) and bit tired now so stopped. Caravan Park just out the back of the roadhouse and bit bare (no mirrors or soap dispensers in the loos) but can’t complain, as clean and only $15 for an unpowered site. Bonus bar in the roadhouse and pool table so had a few beers (temps had reached mid-30s on the road so very welcome), a bar meal and several games of pool (I won best of 7 by pure luck). Early to bed at ~8 pm (actually 10.30 SA time) ready for an earlyish start in the morning.
Good trip. Really liked the slogan we saw on one van the other day – “Adventure before dementia”. Very appropriate!

Driving day today. Dropped in to Smoky Bay as listed as windsurfing location in info guide. No windsurfing happening although certainly looked promising with lots of shallow water and gentle cross shore wind. After cold water experience yesterday though, decided not to pull the boards and sails out and give it a proper test. On to Ceduna for few groceries and picnic lunch by the shore. finally acquired interim cheapy watch to replace the lost one. Chris will be eternally grateful that I’ll now stop bugging him constantly for the time. Took a detour down to Cactus Beach – supposed to be world renowned for 3 great surf breaks (not that we would know). Eventually missed the turn off to the beach (god knows how!) after jolting us and Colin down the 21 km dirt road to get there but found an absolute gem of a bay out towards the Point Sinclair (Port Le Hunte). turquoise ocean, sand dunes, jetty and shark net fenced swimming beach. Hadn’t thought about the fact that the sandy road down to the bay was only one lane wide so quite a surprise to meet people coming the other way, especially when towing a caravan! they kindly pulled over and let us through. Found the beach on the way back and undoubtedly the waves looked impressive, even to our untrained eyes. The other clue was the surfers out there. Seemed to have taken us all day to get this relatively short distance so on turning down yet another dirt road to Fowlers Bay at 4.30, so if the caravan park there looked OK, we decided to stop the night and set off for the Nullarbor tomorrow. Interesting little town among the huge sand dunes and the park looked fine (our neighbouring campers in Coffin Bay had recommended it too so pretty safe bet).

Off this morning early to drive the 50 km or so to Baird Bay for an eco tour swimming with sealions and dolphins. I drove so we could be sure of making it in time. The 30 km or so of dirt road into Baird Bay was as good as a highway so could go really fast. Luckily didn’t hit any stumpy tailed lizards (part of the road looked a bit like lizard suicide alley), although have to say that have less sympathy for lizards after seeing one doing crocodile-like death rolls in the middle of the road trying to take a chunk out of his/her flattened compatriot the other day! Baird Bay is the end of the road and looks to be in the middle of nowhere. Idyllic really. Instructions were to turn right when the road ended and then left onto the beach and drive up to the big Aussie flag. Beach was like a highway. Lovely to drive on. Bit nippy but were assured water temp was at least 16 degrees….  sounded balmy (not!). Set off with the 4 other intrepid swimmers towards Jones Island where the local colony of sealions hangs out. Certainly plenty of sealions, including some pups of between 3 and 5 months age. Unfortunately didn’t seem much interested in swimming with anything, much less us, so went on to where the dolphins hang out. Several dolphins appeared after a lot of searching, but were then herded away by another dolphin (after we had all got into the rather chilly water and flailed around a bit). Back again to the sealions, and this time they eventually decided to have a go at the whole water thing. Magic once it was all happening. Very inquisitive creatures with big soulful eyes, although get the impression they are wondering what manner of creature is in there with them, failing miserably to demonstrate any evidence of agility or elegance. Spent quite a lot of time in with the sealions but eventually got out (somewhat frozen by this time, with both of us shaking and Chris nearly losing his milo involuntarily several times). Went back to the other side of the bay and found a lone dolphin for me to swim with. I was the only idiot who went back in the water at this point (apart from poor Matt, the only crew to Alan’s skippering and who has to go in the water regardless – although sounds like he enjoys the job). Dolphin quite good but lost interest pretty quickly (just as well really). On return eventually warmed up in the sun.
Quick stop at Murphy’s Haystacks on the way back into Streaky Bay. Great piles of rocks in the middle of rolling hills, formed by the action of weathering on softer rock over millions of years. Mistaken for haystacks by some Irishman called Murphy, hence the name. Rest of afternoon huge laundry afternoon so generally pretty boring.

Dropped into various beaches and towns on the way up the other side of the Eyre Peninsula. Farm Beach where tractors are needed to get the boats across the beach and into the water. The movie Gallipoli was filmed in a bay just around the headland from there. Lunch in Elliston. Nearly another lost property disaster, but this time Chris left his laptop bag (containing laptop) outside the bakery cafe and only realised when we had done a bit of a backward circuit along the local cliff top drive and were heading away from Elliston for the second time. Fortunately it was still there (unlike my watch) when we went back. Picked up some wood fired bread from a little self service shack by the side of the road in Colton. Very friendly dog (Doby Gillis) greets prospective customers and great bread too! Checked out Venus Bay caravan park then decided to go back down the road to a place called Coodlie Park that offered non-powered camping, a green experience and options for stargazing and night wildlife tours. Should have stopped there on the way through in the first place – “closed for private function”. Bollocks! Choofed on further up the road to Streaky Bay Tourist Park. Looked really busy but sites were available and staff very helpful. Great meal out at Mocean Restaurant in town. Seafood their speciality so we had a tasting plate to start then a Balinese style snapper curry and a mollusc hot pot and laksa to fill up on…. groan.

Up relatively early to make it out of the NP (without hitting any wildlife) in time to make the departure of the Coffin Bay Explorer at 9.30 am. Not as easy as it sounds! Around 15 km from campground into town and speed limit in the park limited to 40. Fortunately arrived in time and looked like our expectations of a gentle cruise around the bay in the sun might be met. Change expected later with a front moving in, but likely to be well after our cruise had finished….. or not….! Wind and chop and increased almost before we left the dock and the rest of the ride was more like “Coffin Bay Adventurer” than “Coffin Bay Explorer”. Or skipper, Dazza, mentioned as we were disembarking that “this was probably about the worst it’s ever been”. Only one broken coffee mug though, and the urn of hot water didn’t fall over (especially once it was placed on the floor). Good fun though and got a great talk on oyster farming (plus as many as you could eat fresh oysters straight off the lease), a wild ride, lots of bird life, one lazing sealion and a fur seal cooling off with its flippers in the air. Decided oyster farming was not my vocation of choice.
Weather seemed to be moderating by the time we got back so after a pub fish & chip lunch we took a drive to Point Avoid. These white sand beaches and turquoise waters just seem to go on forever down here. Frontal weather continued to drift in though with black clouds highlighting the white of the beaches and blue of the sky in the sunlight.
Hair washing with the solar shower in the shower tent successful tonight and water reasonably warm (not as hot as I like it though). Even managed to take the tent down and put it away, albeit with much gnashing of teeth and twisting of limbs.

One night enough…. Off to have a look around for the next port of call, first calling in to the Visitor Information Centre – very helpful, then on a search to find a new battery for the remote for the car (not having much luck generally with equipment, although might start a new list for the blog – “Items we have found useful”). Drove down to Lincoln NP. Another amazing outlook! Turquoise shallows, abutting darker deeper water further off the coast, ringing a scrubby sandy coastline. More emus! This time dad and his 11 chicks. All very cute. Campsite at Surfleet Bay almost deserted (one motorhome only) and looked very well set up. No showers but we were resolved to try more hard-core (haha) bush camping and forgo the showers as an experiment. Picnicked next to another shell sand beach and paddled in the shallows. Idyllic except for the horse flies!
Back toward Port Augusta to pick up some fresh fish for the barbie. Few prawns and some nice looking local blue fin tuna will do nicely! Then off to Coffin Bay NP and Yangie campground – will take caravans but no showers. Lot of suicidal lizards on the roads in the this part of the world – guess they like the warm tarmac. Few other people already at the campground but way less crowded than a van park. Set up then opened the next bottle of vino in preparation for the tuna. Plus cheese and crackers of course. Perfect opportunity to try out the solar showers and the pop up shower tent. Needed to supplement the bags with hot water from the kettle (not enough time to heat up properly) and managed to get the shower tent set up after trying a few times to work out how to pack it away again! Pop up tent and requires lot of tricky manoeuvering to get it back into a neat package. Had practiced in the store when I bought it but we haven’t used it until now! All went remarkably well (no hair washing at this attempt) but quite labour intensive and a two person operation to turn the tap on the bag on and off. Sorry, no photos available for public viewing!