Towards the border the landscape changes. To the south of the road the cliffs give way to rugged sloping hills down to sand dunes then the sea. We stopped at a truck stop to look down and saw that there was a four wheel drive track following the coast near the sea. It looked enticing, but we had no way to get down to it to explore, as the road had started some way to the east of us. A trip for another day perhaps? Down by the sea was the route that Edward John Eyre took with his Aboriginal guide Wilie, on the first crossing from east to west in 1841. The Eyre highway, the road we were dragging ourselves down, takes it’s name from him. It took him 5 months, and his companion John Baxter died on the way. Our trip would take 3 days and no deaths were expected, but it still felt like a long time.
The first part of our trip today was quite exciting. Just before the border is the checkpoint for the fruit fly exclusion zone. This means travellers are not allowed to have any fresh vegetables or fruit with them. I had been aware of this for days now, and had managed the food in a count down to this point – ending with a meal of 7 vegetables the night before. We were clean apart from one onion that meekly we handed over. The chap wasn’t very jolly or friendly, though we tried to engage him in chat. He made us put up the caravan so he could check in it all the cupboards and the fridge (which we use as a cupboard). The he had a good rummage in our fridge in the car, and with a nod he left us to fold down the caravan and be on our way.
Next stop Eucla, and massive 13Kms from the border. We hoped to be able to buy a few vegetable provisions there, but they didn’t have any at all, the shop selling tinned and packeted goods, and operating as a café. This had been described as a township, but that seemed exaggerated.
Also at Eucla is the Eucla National Park which stretches down to the sea and has wonderful sand dunes. Partly engulfed in the dunes is the ruins of the old 1877 Telegraph repeater and weather station, so we took the 4km detour down to the plain below Eucla and across to the dunes. Due to the change in time from SA to WA (1 ½ hours?) we were there very early and there were few people about as we wandered around the limestone ruin buried in the sand.
Then we hopped back in the car for another 260Kms to the Cocklebiddy Motel for lunch.
We had been told that 30Km off the highway, south of the Cocklebiddy Motel is Twilight Cove, a stunning place to stop and camp by the sea. We had been debating the stop all the way to the Motel, but arrived to find it overcast and both of us keen to get on, we left it for another day. By the evening it had cleared to a beautiful fine sunset which had us kicking ourselves for an opportunity missed. We will return!
At the Motel I was able to have a shower for $2, money very well spent, and with clean hair and feeling extremely refreshed I took up the driving. 80 Km from the motel the road runs dead straight for 146Km, and is the longest straight stretch of road in Australia. Darren felt that even I would be able to manage that, so in the pouring rain – yes, RAIN, people – we headed west.
To keep myself occupied while Darren slept I invented a new game – the ipod game being not very successful. I would peer into the horizon where the road disappeared into a haze straight ahead and wait to spot a car coming towards me. As soon as I saw one I would then count the seconds it would take to reach me. Interesting stuff eh? I was travelling at about 88kms an hour (otherwise if I hit 90 Darren had set an alarm to go off in the car), and it generally took the car coming to me about 115 seconds to reach me. Now if the car coming towards me was averaging 110 kms an hour, how far away was the car when I saw it?
…Answers on a postcard please. There must be a way to work it out, but it is too hot to get my brain going to that extent. It looks like some dreadful O’level / GCSE/ HSC question.
After 120Km of the straight road we decided to call it a day. By now there were trees growing around us, and the landscape was a lot more friendly. We stayed at the Woorlba Homestead Rest Area (basically free parking in the trees off the highway). We ventured quite far into the trees as there were many camp spots, and halted far away enough from the road to not hear it too badly. It was a beautiful clear evening with a stunning sunset through the trees, so I wandered about taking photos, till the sun sank, we cooked, watched a DVD and went to bed. Dear me, this is hard travelling!
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