Step 43 Fowlers Bay - Nullarbor Roadhouse 222kms

Thursday 17th Feb

I was wrong - my body still hurts.

The Europeans in 1866, in particular the surveyor E. Alfred Delisser, who named this the “null arbor” - “no trees”  plain were wrong. 

And the the local Mirning people who referred to the area as "Oondiri" which is said to mean "the waterless" were wrong.

Quite a hat-trick to start the day.

Yep, my body still hurts after climbing up, and falling down the sand dunes yesterday.

As we rejoin the Eyre Highway to cross the Nullarbor, there are more than a few trees (I lost count at about a million)

And after a couple of hours on the road it’s starting to rain. 

We were worried about MM and the air conditioning coping with 50 odd degree heat that they (allegedly) regularly get at this time of year and by the time it got to 5:00pm it was struggling to top 50 degress farenheit. OK that might have been a bit of an exaggeration but E Alfred Delisser and the Mirning people started it.

Not much need of GPS out here - 990 km's to the next turn

A lttle way down the main highway we passed the dog/rabbit/vermin fence (the name depending on which travel guide you read). Apparently the longest fence in the world but quite possibly one of the least impressive - my dog Jenny would definitely have got over it. It probably would stop LuLu though, although after she sat barking at it for hours on end someone would probably drive a 100kms from the nearest town just to cut a hole in it to shut her up. Anyway it was so not impressive it was 20 km's before I reliased I hadn't taken a photo, sorry about that.

We did see some guys who took a different option to Di and I - they left their motorhome behind and piled everything on the back of their bikes

We stopped to take a shot of the famous “Camels, Kangaroos and Wombats sign next 92 km” sign. Didn’t have to stop to take a photo of camels, wombats or kangaroos though - there weren’t any. There’s a bit of a trend forming here.

I didn't have much fashion sense before I started but seriously I think I need help

I have to admit that by the time we got here E Alfred was looking a little more on the money

With the rain settling in we drove down to the whale watching platform to get a look at the cliffs. Whichever way you look at it we are here at the wrong time of the year to see whales - either 3 months too late or 3 months too early. Despite the rain we got a look at the cliffs, which are spectacular but the lack of light  did take a little away from the photo’s

Now I know I have been told to go easy on the toilet stories but today’s story is special, it involves the toilet facilities at the Whale watching centre, Di and the sign warning of snakes

Let’s just say it was a bit of a dilemma for Di, the sign increased her need to go to the toilet and decreased her desire to enter the facility, all at the same time.  I wasn’t worried at all, I just stayed a few steps behind her. You know the story I don’t have to be faster than the snake, I just have to be faster than Di.

Having survived the not so snake infested facilities it was back on the highway and all points west. We had kind of always planned to stop at the Nullarbor Roadhouse “caravan park” (we are using the term loosely now) but now  we are hoping that the stop will give the weather a chance to  clear up a bit tomorrow so we get a better look at the next part of the Bunda Cliffs. The forecast is not great though.

The roadhouse caravan park reminded me of a drive in, without the screen. It’s just an empty gravel paddock with little power poles, like the old speaker poles, laid in rows. 

The roadhouse petrol station reminded me of whatever a place is called where they steal money from you - diesel is $1.91.9 per litre.  

It was nice and cosy in MM though and we settled in for a bit of a relax. Di noticed that we had mobile phone reception for the first time in quite a while, just shortly before we noticed the 200 ft Telstra tower right next to the park. 

(The observant amongst you would notice that this was the last time the blog was updated online - although todays activities were not included.  Just to get up to date to Fowlers Bay took us through to 11:30pm)

By the morning the park resembled a lake and the Mirning people are still way off on their description

Yep that is a whale, right next to the Mobil sign. There is a lot of water here!