The Great Treeless Plain

We stayed at Ceduna while we sorted out our inverter problem. Dan has recently bought a new, more powerful laptop, but didn't realise that it would not charge off our inverter while we were free camping. We have now bought a more powerful one which should fix the problem.

 

We stayed at Shelly Beach Tourist Park in Ceduna for a couple of days while we got ready to cross the great 'Treeless Plain' known as the Nullarbor. It's a lovely little caravan park on the sand dunes of Shelley Beach.

 

 

 

After stocking up on fuel, food and water, we headed off to cross the border into Western Australia.

Our first day on the Nullarbor was exciting. We stopped to take photos of the iconic signs along the way, stopped at the top of the 'Great Australian Bight' and saw beautiful views of the southern cliffs.

 

Dan managed to get on the wrong side of the woman at the border quarantine point. As we pulled up, she was busy checking another car, so Dan went to the office to see if someone else could help us. Apparently you are not supposed to get out of your car, so the woman got very cross with Dan and yelled at him. I managed to sweet-talk her into a better mood, and after thoroughly searching our car and caravan for fresh fruit and vegetables, she let us across the border. We felt like she was looking for smuggled drugs!

 

 

We caught up with a family, Clint and Brook and their three kids, who we had met in Ceduna. They are heading to Darwin to work. We stayed at the same caravan park in Eucla and the kids enjoyed running around together after a long day in the car.

 

Overnight the weather turned on us. It started raining and didn't stop! A thick fog settled in on us and yesterday’s tail wind, turned into today's head wind. Speaking to the locals, they believe the unusual weather is being caused by a cyclone that has hit the north west coast.

They hadn't had rain out here for months and it was very quickly soaking into the dry, cracked ground. The only place that was holding any water was the road, which was now covered in puddles. Those puddles brought out hundreds of very thirsty kangaroos. In fact, they were so thirsty that they refused to move off the road as cars and trucks tried to get past. We saw a few that had sacrificed their lives while trying to get a drink, and it made our trip a very slow and dangerous one.

 

Around midday, the rain stopped and the high winds dried the roads out. It was still very overcast so we didn't bother going to any of the coastal lookouts. 

Along the way one of our caravan windows blew out as we passed a huge road train. We pulled over to find the hinges had snapped. We patched it up with duct tape and continued on or way.

A few more kilometres down the road and we passed another huge road train roaring past us. The wind pressure was enough to blow out both front windows this time.

The caravan was starting to look like it had gone three rounds with Ali, with tape all over both front windows. Almost every time we went past a road train we had to pull over and re-tape the windows.

Then little Zaccy started to feel motion sick so we were pulling over regularly to try to help him.

Eventually we have pulled over after 10 hours on the road. Darkness has fallen, and we have made it to the rest stop where we agreed to meet up with Clint and Brook. We are exhausted and a little bit stressed out. Kids are tucked up in bed and Dan is outside enjoying a strong drink with Clint. It is well deserved after the day we have had. Today has got to be one of the worst driving days we have had in the whole time we have travelled.