Dust,Flies and Dirt
Trip Start
Jan 14, 2012
1
23
24
Trip End
Mar 13, 2012
Where I stayed
Balladonia Roadhouse
Balladonia, Western Australia, Australia
Monday, March 12, 2012
Also on the South Australian side from Nullarbor Roadhouse to the Border for 182kms is the only stretch where the road goes through the Nullarbor National Park and there are no trees, but the landscape is covered with small shrubs in every shade of green. Five hours after leaving Ceduna we were in Border Village and at the quarantine checkpoint where the officials went through the car and the caravan looking for contraband potatoes and carrots etc. After being given the all clear we drove the next few kilometres into Eucla where we once more filled the tank with diesel. Here we sat and ate our sandwich prepared the night before and had a drink. Looking at our watches and taking into account the two and a half hours time difference between South Australia and the West, we were far too early in the day to stop to set up camp for the night, so we decided to make our way to the Cocklebiddy Roadhouse where we had stopped on the journey over, two months previously. From Eucla the temperature steadily climbed. Arriving at Cocklebiddy in heat approaching 40 degrees and finding that they had just recovered from a power outage and a sand storm did nothing for our thoughts of staying there and as we were following the sun the day just didn't want to come to an end. Tank filled again and with diesel costing $1.99 a litre so for our 80 litre tank and another $160 dollars later, we hit the road again with the intention now of driving until we felt that we could go no longer. Caiguna Roadhouse is just 64 kms down the road so no point stopping as still so hot outside but next was the long 90mile straight and the sun was becoming a problem as we continued to head west. The last 50kms or so were very tiring and the next roadhouse was a welcome sight. As we drove into Balladonia we were convinced that we had had enough and paid our $28 dollars for a patch of dirt with a power point and prepared to settle in for the night. It was now 11 hours since we left Ceduna in the morning with about 1 hour taken for micro naps and fuel stops which meant we had been driving for 10 hours and had covered a distance close to 1000 kilometres! The traffic through the day had been fairly light beside quite a few motorcycles, a few oversize vehicles, numerous utes pulling trailers loaded with long canoes coming back from WA championships and two crazy cyclists struggling in the heat. The Balladonia fuel forecourt was empty as we pulled in which is something we had never seen before. The flies though were particularly bad and when it cooled down we quickly took our electric frypan out on the picnic table close to the caravan to cook our evening meal before retiring for the night very weary after the long day.
