6-10th January 2017
A long, hot drive, and we lose our mattresses !
Perth
to Balladonia Rocks (Day 1).
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| The road out of Perth |
The journey back home from Perth only took
5 days because we went directly east to Kalgoorlie instead of coming round the
south coast through Albany and Esperance.
This made it a bit easier, but this time our enemy was going to be heat
rather than distance – It was now well into summer and I was keeping watch on
the projected temperatures for the next few days, and we decided that if at any
stage it got too hot for camping, we would go into a motel instead. But it would have to be a pet friendly one
because obviously if it was too hot for us to sleep in the car, it would also
be too hot for Trooper given that he wears a fur coat ! With that in mind we set off east, following
the amazing water pipeline to Kalgoorlie that was built between 1896 and 1903.
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| The water pipe line to Kalgoorlie - And a train |
Gold had been found in Kalgoorlie, 530 kms
east of Perth, late in the 1800’s, but there was no water out there, so even
trains couldn’t run out there without water, and all supplies had to be carted
in. So this amazing project to create a
dam near Perth (Mundaring) to supply the water, and then build the pipeline and
many pumping stations required along the way was a major factor in the development
of the region. It still provides some 9
million gallons per day to Kalgoorlie.
The railway line still runs beside the pipe, as it did when it was
built, although the diesel electric engines no longer require the large
quantities of water to operate.
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| Balladonia Rocks camp site |
Driving east, once you get over the
surprisingly steep hills to Northam as you leave Perth, is fairly typical of WA
– Long straight roads with the scrub bush beside the road. We had managed to squeeze everything and
everybody into the car, and Trooper quickly settled into his sleepy “travelling
mode”. You don’t actually go into
Kalgoorlie, as the road turns south at Coolgardie, some 40 kms short of
Kalgoorlie. Then it was down to
Norseman and then turn left and head towards Eucla. We made it just past Norseman, and stopped at
Balladonia Rocks, a large overnight stopping area set back from the road to
avoid truck noise. These stopping places
are dotted all the way across the Nullarbor, some better than others, but you
never have to worry about finding a suitable
parking place to sleep on this
drive ! There are usually no facilities
like toilets or water, but separate parking areas have been worn over the
years, and you just drive around through the trees until you find one that
suits. There were maybe 5 or 6 vehicles
with us at Balladonia this night. After
giving Trooper a good walk through the bush, where he finds LOTS of interesting
smells, we cooked some supper, and turned in.
Trooper was able to sleep outside in the annex, so Janet was able to have
the downstairs bed and didn’t need to try the new ladder to climb up into the
“upstairs” !! And it was quite a cold
night, as usual out here in the desert.
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| Troop having his supper at Balladonia |
Balladonia
Rocks to Yalata West (Day 2).
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| Old rusting car at Balladonia Rocks |
As we left in the morning, we passed a
rusted out old car that looked suspiciously like an old Ford Consul – If it
was, it must have been there an awfully long time !! And as we set off down the
road, there was a lot of fresh kangaroo road kill on the road from during the
night, and one had to weave between some of the larger carcasses to make sure
you didn’t hit them ! And of course the
crows and eagles were having their breakfast, and they would all take off
temporarily as we passed.
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| Being attacked from behind in the car ! |
While tackling the 90 mile straight again,
I got a bit of a fright when something brazed against my neck – An enormous
Nullarbor goanna had maybe snuck abord ?
However, it turned out to just be Trooper’s tail – He was dreaming and
swishing his tail around right behind me !!
A stop for a while and a walk for Trooper and an excellent coffee from
the Cocklebiddy Motel broke up the morning, and then we headed on through to
Eucla and the SA border. After filling
up with fuel, we headed out to the section just after Eucla where the road is
closest to the Australian Bight, so it is easy to get down to the cliffs for a
view.
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| Overlooking the GA Bight |
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| Sunset at Yalata |
To start with the ground slopes down to the
sea quite gently, but the cliffs soon start and there are some great views
along the Bight, and almost down to Antarctica.
We stopped several times to catch the view, but eventually had to keep
going or we were never going to make it back home ! Where we stopped, at Yalata West, was just an
enormous open area set well back from the road, and there was only one other
van there. We set up under an old gum
tree, and with a magnificent sunset all to the west, we cooked a delicious
steak for our supper and turned in for the night.
Yalata
West to Orroroo (Day 3).
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| Grassy Orroroo campsite |
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| Cockatoos in the trees at Orroroo |
The next day was lots more of the same, so
not very exciting, especially for me as I had just come this way 3 weeks
ago. Janet found it slightly more
interesting, but it is still not the most exciting drive. We crossed the Eyre Peninsula, drove through
Port Augusta, and by then we were starting to get weary, and in Orroroo there
was what looked like a really nice camp ground, so we turned in. Most people were in cabins, so we were given
a lovely grassy spot on the edge of a small cliff overlooking a valley. The
valley was full of gum trees, and the gum trees were absolutely full of
screeching cockatoos – Thousands of them.
Fortunately as the sun went down, they settled down for the night and
went quiet ! We enjoyed a hot shower,
our first for a couple of days, and relaxed in a formal camp site for a change.
Orroroo
to Nyngan (Day 4).
We knew from the weather forecast that
today was going to be difficult, as temperatures of up to 48 deg C were
forecast for inland NSW. Not difficult
when we are driving as the a/c is excellent, but when we stop at night, we have
no a/c, so the thought of trying to camp in 40 deg heat was not attractive in
the slightest. We drove on across NSW in
the heat, finally reaching Cobar at about 4 pm. Janet went into the information centre to
see if there was any dog friendly and air conditioned motel or accommodation
around, while I got half the bed cushions out, put them on the roof, and got
Trooper out for a quick walk. Janet came
back to say the motel was full, but there was a possibly house up the road that
had some units. So we got Trooper in the
car quickly, and drove off up the road.
Unfortunately the “cabins” were really rather sad, and additionally they
wanted over $200 for the night ! So I
said no, and we headed down the road, checking at the motel just to make
sure. Unfortunately everyone else who
had dogs or was camping had the same idea, and although they all had pet
friendly rooms, people had stopped early to ensure they got one, and they were
all taken. So we decided to head on down
the road and hope it either cooled down, or we found somewhere with air conditioning.
We reached Nyngan where we saw a camp site,
and checked to see if they had any air conditioned cabins, but again, they were
all taken, so we moved on. Suddenly,
about 40 kms past Nyngan, I looked in the rear view mirror and realized
something was wrong – mattresses which normally partially blocked the back
window weren’t there !! Thinking they
had slipped down, I quickly stopped to check, and 3 of them were missing
!!! I realized that when we went to
look at the accommodation in Cobar, I had put Trooper in the car but had left
these 3 cushions on the roof, and driven off.
No one would want 3 old and odd shaped mattress type things, so I
decided in my anger to drive all the way back to Cobar where I was convinced we
would find them in the car park of the information centre. 1 ½ hours later we
got back to Cobar as the sun set, and no cushions. We spent 30 minutes driving around, but no
sign of them – Someone must have picked them up. The trouble was two of them were the
mattresses for the upped bed, and the third one was part of the mattress set up
for the bottom bed ! Now it was not
only hot but also we had no bed to sleep on !!
Thoroughly dejected, we headed east again from Cobar, but by now it was
dark and lots of kangaroos were on the prowl – Not a good time to drive. We final got back to Nyngan where it had
cooled off slightly, and by now it was about 11 pm, so we pulled in to a vacant
lot and tried to find a way to use what mattresses we had left to make up one
usable bed upstairs, while Trooper slept downstairs on his own mattress. It wasn’t a very pleasant night in the heat,
but we did get some sleep. What a
day. In hindsight I should have just
forgotten the mattresses and kept going – But then hindsight is always easier,
isn’t it ?
Nyngan
to Gold Coast (Day 5).
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| Emus beside us... |
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| And emus in front of us |
Our last (and 5th) day on the
road home from Perth was not much cooler than yesterday, but we were OK inside
the car. We soon turned north on the
Newell Highway, and while once again it is not the most exciting road in the
world, at least the scenery was gradually getting a little more interesting as
we headed north. We saw a few emus on
our route, one bunch of 6 were definitely in suicide-mode ! From their size it looked like 2 parents, 2
chicks from last year, and then 2 more recent chicks. They ran along beside the road for a while as
we caught up with them, and fortunately this gave me the chance to almost come
to a standstill, which was fortunate because they suddenly veered across the
road right in front of me. A perfect
case of (for once !) me doing the right thing meant that what could have been a
nasty incident turned out to instead be a very pleasant few moments of
interaction with the wildlife, enjoyed by us, and hopefully by them too !!
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| A lunch time break on a hot Queensland afternoon |
We stopped for a break at a roadside café
not far from Warwick, but it was too hot to sit around, and obviously everyone
else felt the same as no one else had stopped.
We quickly continued on our way and finally arrived home in the early
evening. It’s a long way, but we had a
great Christmas break with Damien and Nick and Hannah and Poppie and Tanja, so
definitely worthwhile. I do enjoy the
drive across the Nullarbor (I seem to enjoy any drive !), but that is about my
11th time by car (and once by train !), and I don’t think there will
be a 12th crossing by car by me !
That 5 hour plane ride is starting to look much more attractive !! Now I
need to go and get some new mattresses made up ! In fact they were starting to look pretty
well worn, having been in the vehicle as a rental for 5 years, and then having
been used by mean everyday for 2 ½ years, so now I had an excuse to go and get
them all recovered (instead of just a couple of them) and get some extra foam
to replace the missing ones that got left in Cobar !
Rest of the photos are here :- https://goo.gl/photos/13NaH7Qc5UPw2sYa6
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