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| Trip Complete! |
After leaving Esperance we set off on
the final part of our adventure.
And, an adventure it was!
On our first stop at a free campsite
heading east (Ten Mile Rocks), we got up in the night and moved the van about
20 metres to be away from overhanging branches due to sudden wind gusts that
started around midnight. From then on we had very strong, cold winds
(thankfully tailwinds) with some very strong sideways gusts and lot of rain.
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| Beautiful bark on the Salmon Gums at Ten Mile Rocks |
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| The sign says it all. |
We made a couple of stops along the
Great Australian Bight to have a view of the raging seas and the massive cliffs
that run along the southern coast. Each stop was a quick ‘What’s here?’, a
couple of photos and quickly back to the car before we froze or drowned!
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| Great Australian Bight viewing spot Number 4 |
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| Great Australian Bight viewing spot number 1 |
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| Mural at Nullarbor Road Station |
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| A bit of wash at the Head of the Bight |
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| Bunda Bunda Cliffs at the Head of the Bight |
We
stopped at the Head of the Bight (part of the Great Australian Bight Marine
Park) in the hope of seeing some whales (spoke to people who had seen 30+ there
just recently, and someone who had seen a couple there the day before).
However, due to the strong gusts and fairly violent seas, there were no whales.
We were allowed to walk down for a viewing without charge, but on the
understanding that any problems that occurred due to the weather were on our
own heads and they took no responsibility. Sonja clung on to David to stop each
of them from being blown away and over the cliffs. She would also only let
David go to a couple of the viewing shelters and NOT on the boardwalks closer
to the sea! The waves were battering the cliff faces and spraying up and over parts
of the cliffs, onto the lower viewing platforms. We didn’t stay long!
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| Cocklebiddy - a place of significance for us (you'll have to ask)! |
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| Just some of the dangers on the Nullabor |
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| Storm approaching from behind at Nullarbor |
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| Storm in front leaving Nullarbor |
Fortunately for us, we were travelling
in between storm fronts and missed the devastating storms that hit Adelaide and
surrounds. We did strike the after effects though – the whole state lost power,
floods everywhere, trees down, roads closed. So, no power meant no fuel
available (unless the service station had its own generator), many shops were
shut, no phone communication (as towers were blacked out/damaged) and all
transactions had to be in cash (no atms/eftpos).
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| Camping at Wirrulla |
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| More wildflowers |
The strength of, and constancy of, the
wind caused us some problems. When we were camping (at the roadhouses) and,
even with the van still attached to the car, the top and all four legs down on
the van, and being surrounded by others, our van still rocked with the power of
the wind.
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| Windmill Museum at Penong - Includes Australia's largest windmill |
Apart from a number of very large
puddles and having to slow down a couple of times because of it’s heaviness,
the rain didn’t really bother us too much until we had passed Port Augusta.
Originally (Plan A) we were going take our time and follow the coast around
from Ceduna to Port Lincoln. On looking at the sea at Ceduna, and because we had
to lean well into the wind to walk without falling over, we decided that part of
the coast can wait for another time. Just as well, as Port Lincoln seemed to
have copped the worst of everything – both prior to us arriving and also after
we had moved on!
Plan B was to travel east via Orroroo,
Peterborough, Burra Burra and on into Victoria. This would have avoided all
‘wet’ areas.
We had decided to stay at Orroroo, east
of Port Augusta, and managed to drive within 3 kilometres of there before we
had to turn back because the road was flooded - the Pekina River was too deep for our caravan and was flowing far too fast to attempt - a couple of 4x4s drove through - all vans did a u-turn. That added an extra 100
kilometres to that day’s trip and put us in a bit later than we usually arrive
at a campsite.
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| 3 Km out of Orroroo - U-Turn required |
(Plan C) That night we ended up in a
caravan park beside a flooded creek in Melrose, a place that had been hit a
couple of days before by tornadoes that took out the powerlines, the giant
pylons (some bent right to the ground – we didn’t see them) and uprooted a
number of trees as well as causing major flooding and other damage. On leaving
Melrose we had to make another detour because of flooded roads and still had to
drive out through a couple of hundred metres of water on the highway – the road
still had the road closed sign on it, but the roadworker said we would get
through without problems (and so we took his word, and made it…slowly).
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| Just out of Melrose |
We made a lunch stop at Burra Burra and
bought ourselves another Tiddy Oggie (½ vegetable / ½ apple pastie) that we had
enjoyed on our way through 3 months ago.
As this Saturday was AFL Grand Final
day, we listened to the radio all afternoon and cheered as ‘our’ team won the
Premiership – for the first time in 62 YEARS!
That night, our final night, in
Mildura, it was pointed out that Daylight Saving was due to start on Sunday
morning. That had us thinking a bit about the time zone changes we had just
experienced – 1 1/2hrs between Western Australia and South Australia, 1/2hr
between South Australia and Victoria AND THEN an hour for daylight saving – We
had ‘lost’ 3 hours in the past few days. No wonder we were getting tired!
We arrived home mid-afternoon to be
greeted by Claire, who was spending a long weekend at our place. We also had a
thunderstorm and noted the height of the Goulburn River not far from our place
(no troubles yet, but we will need to keep a watch).
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| A rising Goulburn River (up several metres) met us in Shepparton |
We’ve spent a couple of
days emptying the van, Sonja off to the Laundromat, cleaning up as much of the
red dust out of the van as possible (car to be detailed soon). Some things will
have to wait until we come back from our next trip as we firstly head down south
to catch up with our now 8 month old grandson (and his parents, of course),
down to Gippsland to catch up with Sonja’s Mum, and back to Claire’s before we
fly up to Queensland for our week on a luxury catamaran with Sonja’s sister and
brother-in-law and another couple before we come back home a couple of weeks
later.
Life’s busy when you’ve retired!
Just out of interest, I’ve combined
both of our last two major Australian trips onto one map. Whilst this doesn’t
cover all of the areas we have camped in Australia - it will enable you to see the
distances we have travelled and the sights we have seen. There are still a few
bits we have to visit!
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| 2012 / 2016 combined trips |
