Border Village
15 – 16 September
From our short detour to Fowler’s
Bay we returned to the Sturt Highway and headed west across the Nullarbor. We
found a nice rest area for a lunch stop and then detoured again to
The Head of the Bight. This tourist facility is built on Yalata land, and
has boardwalks and viewing platforms that allow fabulous views up and down the
coast – and the promised whales were right there in front of us. We saw at
least 6, including 2 mothers and their calves, one of which lolled and played
close to shore for most of the time we were there. This is one detour that was definitely
worth the drive – but we really needed our warmies and beanies as well as
binoculars and cameras.
From there we drove on to
Nullarbor Roadhouse where we refuelled – at $2.05 per litre, this was the most
expensive diesel of the trip so far. We decided to press on and eventually made
it to Border Village, right on the border of South Australia and Western
Australia. We stayed in the campground and decided on a meal from the roadhouse
restaurant to make it an easy camp. The meals were surprisingly good and
reasonably priced, especially given the remote location.
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| Australasian Pipits were fairly common. |
The night was, as expected,
extremely cold and in the morning my weather app informed us that it was 3° but it felt like -0.5°. Glad we had set up to
have breakfast inside the tent with the heater on. My hands nearly froze as I
collected the tea and cereal, not to mention diving into the fridge for the
milk!
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| An Australian Magpie encountered on one of our lunch stops. |
We decided to make this a big
day’s drive so set off early – we weren’t really sure what time it was as we
were on the border between two time zones, all our clocks and watches said
different times and I was totally confused. We did discover that WA uses two
time zones, and that we needed to turn our clocks back 45 minutes, but the
electronic devices didn’t recognise that time zone and had us on Perth time –
back another 45 minutes again. No wonder I was confused.
Fraser Range
16 – 17 September 2018
Our first stop for the day was
the Quarantine Inspection Station, 50 metres down the road where we surrendered
our one remaining potato and onion, as well as our honey. Travellers should be
aware of the restrictions and try to use up anything that might not be
permitted, before entering WA (or other states and fruit fly restriction
zones).
We stopped for a morning coffee
at the roadhouse at Cocklebiddy, then found the Baxter Rest Area for lunch.
Picnic tables, a toilet and lots of space made this an ideal spot, except for
the resident magpies who sat on the table and at our feet looking longingly at
our sandwiches. They weren’t cheeky enough to snatch and grab thankfully.
From there we stopped at
Balladonia Roadhouse for an afternoon coffee. We had a quick look in the museum
that houses a range of artefacts, local history and even a piece of space junk
from Skylab that fell from the sky in 1979.
We then continued on to Fraser Range.
The caravan park is located on a
sheep farm and is very well set up. After a friendly and professional welcome
we found a nice spot with lots of trees around. We went for a bit of a walk and
returned to find the local crows had helped themselves to the curry I had left
thawing out on the bench. I usually put frozen food in a plastic container to
prevent just such an occurrence, but had forgotten to this time, Bugger! Lucky
I had another one in the freezer.
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| Most people crossing the Nullabor camp at a roadhouse or free camp but this place has a little more character. |
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| Lots of travelers have left their mark on the camp kitchen table. |
After dinner we made our way to
the communal fire pit which was very well set up with a wind break and some
rustic seating. A nice way to end the day. In the morning we decided to head
for Kalgoorlie, for no other reason except we had never been there before.
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