May 2012

A longish drive of 407 kms today. The weather remained windy and showery.

Head of the Bight looking west

Roadsign at Penong before we start across the Nullarbor

Eastern end of the Nullarbor Plain

We drove in to the Head of the Bight to look for whales - however no whales today. We were a little early for the whale watching season which lasts from May to September with numbers peaking in August when up to 70 whales have been recorded within sight of the viewing platform. The Southern Right Whales migrate to the Head of the Bight each year to mate before returning to the Antarctic.

Sand Dunes to the East of the Head of the Bight

Head of the Bight looking west

Cliffs below the Head of the Bight Lookout

Looking east from the Head of the Bight

Cliffs at the Head of the Bight

Skull of a juvenile Hump Back Whale washed up in 2009

Head of the Bight Information Centre

The Head of the Bight Information Centre is located on aboriginal land and is operated by the Yalata aboriginal people.

A storm passing the Head of the Bight

From the Head of the Bight we continued on the the Bunda Cliffs Scenic Lookout. While the signs warned of Camels, Wombats and Kangaroos we saw no camels, only a few road kill kangaroos, but a great many dead wombats on the side of the road. No doubt being slower they are easy prey for the road trains during the night.

Watch out for the livestock

When we got to the Bunda Cliffs Scenic Lookout we set up camp for the night with 2 West Australian couples, one couple were heading east while the other were heading home to the West. It was our first night of free camping.

Camped at Bunda Ciffs Scenic Lookout

Bunda Cliffs looking west

The showers continued overnight and the wind went around to the south and eased. By mid morning the sun was out and the wind had gone back to the south-west. Not looking good for stage one across the Nullabor tomorrow as we would be pushing into a south westerly.

Di spent the afternoon tidying up the van inside and out, while I pumped up the tyres and airbags to our travelling pressures, and re-torqued the wheel nuts. Also checked the oil and coolant levels and greased the hitch. During the afternoon we visited the local Foodland Supermarket and the Celebrations Bottle Shop - now we are all stocked up for our trip across the Nullarbor.

Tonight we are heading for the Ceduna Hotel which is right next to the caravan park. The Ceduna Hotel is a community owned establishment and is a very superior pub with an up-market Bistro. Di and I both had the Filet Mignon which was excellent, companied by a Peter Lehman Shiraz, which was also excellent. The Bistro was quite crowded as a local teacher's seminar was deing held in town, as well as a bus-load of grey nomads on a tour. While we were having a pre-dinner drink we chatted to a couple of teachers from Kimba, one taught at a district school while the other taught at a primary school. They told us that the local industry was fishing, farming and mineral sands mining.

Di had done three loads of washing last night and was out early to get it on the line. About an hour later we had a pre-frontal windstorm of about 35 knots that stirred up the dust. There is no grass in this caravan park and the local council had plowed up the foreshore ready to re-plant with grass. The washing ended up covered in dust and had to be washed again - not happy Jan! The wind is still north westerly but is supposed to go around to the south during the day. We hope that the wind will settle down before Friday when we leave to start crossing the Nullarbor.

The wind and the rain continued all day, up to 30 knots, but slowly swung around to the west then the south west. Apart from a quick trip into town for diesel and to collect our mail from the Post Office we stayed inside - warm and dry.

We had rain overnight and everything was wet as we packed up for our trip to Ceduna - 407 kms. We finally got away after a visit to the local dump point. We stopped for papers and a morning coffee at the Elliston bakery. At one time Elliston was a grain port with access through a barway between to reefs. Like most of these places the jetty remains for the use of the fishers.

Elliston Jetty

Elliston Beach

Next stop was Venus Bay for lunch. Venus Bay is a small commercial fishing port with a caravan park located on the waterfront.

Venus Bay

After leaving Venus Bay we made a final stop at Murphy's Haystacks, which are pink granite inselbergs that were left standing after the surrounding area weathered.

Di at Murphy's Haystacks

Murphy's Haystacks

We arrived at the Ceduna Foreshore Caravan Park just after 4 pm and set up camp on a drive through site for 3 nights. As there was a stiff breeze off the water we decided not to set up the awning.

Ceduna's jetty at sunset

Sunset at Ceduna

Ceduna's grain handling facility at dusk

Mainly sunny today with a maximun of 19 degrees. We packed a picnic lunch and headed for the Lincoln National Park. First stop was the car park below the Stamford Hill monument where we had lunch. Our walk to the lookout was nearly aborted when David had a near encounter with a 3 foot black snake in the car park. The walk was 1.1 km return taking 25 minutes to the top and 15 minutes to come back down. The Monument was erected to commemorate the exploration of the area by Matthew Flinders in 1802. Flinders climbed to the top of hill looking for fresh water supplies and named the hill after a village in his homeland of Lincolnshire.

Stamford Hill Monument

Spalding Cove

Next stop was September Beach which has a caravan/camping area with excellent facilities for caravans and campers. Entry to the park is $10 per car with another $7 if you are camping.

September Beach camping area facilities

September Beach

We continued on to Cape Donington berfore rerurning to the caravan park to start packing up for our departure tomorrow.