Nullabor Ramble

Attendees:

Vince & Sue Bosua

Neil & Sharon West

Mike, Cath & Lauren Hurley

Evan & Marg Thomas

Paul & Maxine Burke

Wylie McGuinnes

Kate McCracken & Roy Anderson (& Millie the 4WD)

David & Lorraine Adams (guests)

Kate & I (Ando) had, at most, only spent a weekend with any of the attendees. Despite knowing people from club meetings there is a question over how living cheek by jowl for 10 days may work out. As fresh food would be quarantined at the WA border, how long could we survive on dried / tinned food and without chips?

Friday 2 Sept Some years ago we visited Lake Hindmarsh in NE Victoria; standing on the bank of the “lake” we could not see the water! So, with some time up our sleeves, our holiday started on with a detour to see if the winter’s rain had changed the situation. Sure had – the trees were green and there was no need to walk kilometres from the bank in search of water.

Weekend 3 / 4 Sept Hot 33°C as we travelled through the Clare Valley spotting famous wineries from our bottle shop. Decided the area is definitely worth a re-visit and with the bikes! Bit of a push for a single day’s journey. Pleased that Goyder’s Line is remembered. In 1866 it traced the area in SA with less than 30 cms of rain, thus marking the edge of sustainable cropping land. The validity of his work is still evident yet judging by the number of deserted homes many speculators did their dough in harsh conditions.

Massive mountain of iron ore en route to spending the night at Cowell on the east coast of Eyre Peninsula. Great seafood, we savoured our first local South Australia oysters.

Travelled down the coast and before reaching Port Lincoln we deviated across the peninsula to the west coast. Several stumpy tails snarling at the traffic as they cross the road. The accommodation is good at Streaky Bay but the pub food is ????

Monday 5 Sept Streaky Bay has 2 decent supermarkets – they’ll do a good trade when the season picks up. Discovered Evan’s Oyster Shed (really no relation?) and set ourselves up with a high class, yet inexpensive, entrée for dinner. Not daring to venture into the pub, Kate prepared some excellent King George whiting for dinner.

Tuesday 6 Sept Whilst stocking up on the essentials in downtown Ceduna we met Evan with similar ideas. Introductions to the rest of our playmates on the edge of town before setting off McKenzie’s homestead ruins – those early settlers were certainly made of stern God-fearing stuff, not even a TV in them days!

Penong (no photos) is a windmill graveyard; why do they need so many?

Set up camp at Fowlers Bay. Now I know why the upper class use camper trailers or vans; this ground is rock! Thankfully air beds have been invented and us Sandy folk are made of stout stuff (after adding beer). Dave & Neil braved the wind to dangle a line off the pier; however, the 4 huge fish take revenge, they tasted awful.

Wed 7 Sept Peeved that a permit is required to drive the old Eyre Highway! The Head of the Bight makes up for any disappointment. The locals have built a great visitor centre and viewing platform for whales. There were 6-7 cows and youngsters but a decent camera lens is required to achieve more than a dark blob on our pictures, but the memory stays long after the day fades. We could have spent hours here but the wind and hunger drove us back to Millie. There are many folk travelling the Nullarbor in many weird vehicles, but a heavily laden Patrol with its nose in the air, with adults and 4 very young children, plus bikes, trikes and kitchen sink on the roof rack looked particularly dangerous especially as the tow bar formed a V shape in pulling an obviously unbalanced caravan. Dangerous.

Discovered 2 Queensland Rail locos bound for Geraldton being transported across the Nullarbor- even the big haulage trucks pulled off the road! They had fuel tanks as big as the Westie’s Toyota! 2 trains, on the road, from Adelaide via Broken Hill then across to WA – obviously lost. Begs the question “why not use the railway?”.

Thur 8 Sept Overnight rain at our roadside camp so a wet start. Waited around between showers for the tent to dry. It was kind of folk to wait around and ensure we were OK before they moved on – we followed barely 30 minutes later under cloudy skies. Next stop was the WA Quarantine and the end of fresh food for several days. “Don’t give any wise cracks” we were warned “they’ve heard it all before. They can make your life hell, unless you enjoy emptying your vehicle onto the road in the rain.” Played it legally and with a straight bat – had to surrender our unopened honey but the Quarantine folk were fine. How Kate’ll manage without fresh garlic will be a new experience for us both.

Met everyone at the uncrowded Eucla caravan park include HUGE caravans pulled by 6+ litre GMC Yank tanks. Impressive. Some folk really do it in style.

Set up camp and perform laundry tasks (brownie points and nods of approval from a few females – sorry lads) then the rooster started up. We cheated and went to the roadhouse for a very decent snapper dinner.

Fri 9 Sept Rain and the b…… rooster woke us at 4am. Late start and everyone left their campers behind to explore the iconic Eucla Telegraph Station. The site is 3/4 sand covered today, the sand ebbs and flows with the wind so you may see just the top line of bricks one day. Must’ve been hot and cramped without air conditioning. Blokes were made of stern stuff in those days – little evidence of the fair sex!

10 minutes later we were all beachcombing and photographing washed up shells, coral and sea weed - a good place to add to your cuttlefish collection. Along the Old Telegraph Line we stopped for morning tea. Remember – it’s a good idea to use a thermos rather than boil your billy.

Sat 10 Sept No time to investigate reports of a stranded whale on the beach, damn; refilled before departing Eucla. Fuel is no problem, food is easy to obtain and the black top is better than most Victorian roads (better than all in NSW), so why so very few folk take this trip is hard to understand. Bali for $99 is not the same.

Lorraine & Dave’s turn to lead the convoy. We all missed the Noonaera Rockhole turn off. Lesson: be careful, roads close, conditions change and turn offs are frequently hard to find, sign posts are difficult to maintain. GPS will help but there are only so many times you can pass by an overgrown road before it tests the patience of Job. Be flexible when planning your stops and sightseeing. On the side road and just after Cocklebiddy we find great camping at the old repeater tower.

Sun 11 Sept Coldest night of the trip. Split into 2 groups for the trip into Eyre Bird observatory. Air down as the road is a mix of sand and rock, no trailers – not bad but certainly not suitable for 2WD. Observatory is manned by volunteers and they gladly show folk around. Another of nature’s highlights of the trip; heaps of birds migrate through the old Cocklebiddy Telegraph Station. Trees are so green and the sand so white. Advised that it would be good if we volunteered for a month! Camp fires always provide a centre for conservation, laughter and sharing. Thanks to Cath & Mike for collecting firewood and providing cooking entertainment.

Mon 12 Sept Stopped at Caiguna Roadhouse for provisions and ask of the track conditions to Baxter memorial. “Easy – even with a trailer. May be a little narrower if you want to follow the Telegraph Line”, the owner lead us through the scrub to get onto the track and kindly provided a mud map. Expected ~20+ km before deciding whether we’d set up camp. After 2 kms we decided the pioneers didn’t use camper trailers and the track required pruning.

Set up camp then ventured to Baxter’s memorial across sand, rocks and soil - expected giraffes when crossing the savannah. Beautiful country but slow travelling. Wreck of an old VW Kombi indicated some game spirits has passed this way. Takes 2-3 hrs get to where Baxter was murdered, flies everywhere but everyone is in good humour.

Tues 13 Sept Thank chap at Caiguna Roadhouse then all line up for the obligatory photo at the sign for the “90 Mile Straight” – easier to say than the “146.6 Kilometre Straight”. Another telegraph station just before Balladonia provides opportunity for the shutter bugs. Pleased to meet Wylie and the Burkes and the showers at Balladonia. Why on earth didn’t we ask Wylie to bring fresh fruit & veg?? Beer is a welcome addition to the diet – price matters not.

Wed 14 Sept Hawk-eyed Kate finds the only Sturt Desert Pea of the trip. Beautiful colours. We provide evidence that GPS can be beaten by traditional paper maps as we miss the turn off for Israelite Bay, not an easy track to find but isn’t that what technology is supposed to prevent?

Another photo opportunity at Deralinya Homestead provides rest and time to reflect once again on the sturdy folk of yesteryear. The cottage is well kept by volunteers and is a welcome stopping point in poor weather.

The best laid plans of sticking together were disrupted as the convoy split into 2 with the front 4 vehicles zooming ahead without maintaining contact. This inadvertent exercise showed just how limited the range our UHF radios proved to be; our radio is barely 2 years old and properly mounted but, at best, we could hear 3-4 kilometres, so in the wild don’t rely on these in an emergency. Fortunately there were no side roads and Vince paused the leaders at the first junction allowing us to re-group.

Not far after restarting there came a mighty crack, the oil dripping from the front wheel indicated something awry. We could drive and steer and stop, so continued to Condingup where Vince diagnosed a likely split inner oil seal (later proved 100% correct, looked just like poor coffee to me).

Whilst the others continued to Israelite Bay we limped on to Esperance with Cath & Mike and phoned several places for a quick fix - one promised a solution in 3 weeks! Whilst cursing the lack of Nissan mechanics Mike spotted a Repco mechanic directly over the road. Millie was properly fixed and better than my “specialist” in Melb. without costing the earth (pity it’s such a long way to get a decent job).

A big thanks to Cath & Mike for helping in our hour of need.

Thurs & Fri 15 / 16 Sept The menus of past several day were restricted by quarantine restrictions, there’s only so much dried food that can be re-constituted before rebellion. We had dreamt of fresh fruit and vegetables so at the first opportunity we gorged ourselves on these rare novelties! Time to perform some much needed washing and discover if the credit card has any space. Esperance is a wonderful place and worthy of another trip just to relax (though we’ll select a camp site far from the train and the road used by big trucks).

Picked up Millie and met the team at Cape Le Grande. This is a must see location but probably best in mid-week as the locals were leaving town early on Friday to get the pick of camp sites.

Sat 17 Sept Time to head for South Australia and feast on oysters and wine on the homeward journey.

So what’s it like travelling with folk you have only encountered at CFA meetings and weekend camps? Everyone is most welcoming, cheerful and mucks in. Support is readily offered when required. Experiences are readily shared and tips offered to help newbies.

A special “Thank You” to Sue and Vince for planning the event and distributing information, maps etc to simplify our planning and help minimise the surprises. We could not have travelled with a better group of caring and sharing friends. Thanks to everyone, you succeeded in making an outstanding holiday.

Report by Roy S Anderson