Day 59 - Head of Bight to Ceduna.

Got ready and travelled the 12 kms from the gate to the visitors centre of the Head of the Bight. $12 to get in but the facilities were very good and boardwalks were an engineering feat.

Walked down to the water to be greeted by a number of mother and baby Southern Right Whales flopping around in the water. 

All over the bay you could see them lolling around.

A lovely sight and as good as you would get on a boat. Being up higher gives a really good view.

Reluctantly left, although the wind was bitter, to head off to Penong for lunch and Ceduna Caravan Park for the night. This is their little lighthouse. 

Nice park across the road from the water and the pier. These photos taken from the back of Glen. 

Day 58 - Mondini Bluff to Head of Bight Gatehouse.

I stayed in bed till we got to Eucla, needed to sleep more. Had breakfast and got dressed and journeyed on to the border. Into South Australia. Goodbye WA, a wonderful state that holds beautiful places and great memories and lovely people. The SA Nullabor is as interesting as the WA Nullabor is boring. It looks more like the Nullabor should look and has wonderful lookouts because the road is closer to the sea. There are 3 lookouts along the road all have lovely views. We saw them backwards.

Lookout 3.

Lookout 2.

A whale we saw between 2&1.

Lookout 1.

Fuel still expensive but we have enough to get through to Ceduna now. Got to the Head of the Bight too late to go in and are staying at the free camp at the gate. Nothing like a desert sunset. 

It went on getting better and better for ages.

Looking forward to seeing lots of whales tomorrow - the sign says they had 43 in the bay today!

Day 57 - Frazer Range to Mondini Bluff.

After yesterday, today was as boring as they come. We drove down the longest straight stretch of road in Australia, 146.6 Kms. That was the highlight. Almost nothing to photograph, nothing to see, no phone reception and very expensive fuel - over $2 a litre. A boring, boring day.

This is the straight road sign.

This is the Caiguna Blowhole.

Day 56 - Lake Douglas to Frazer Range Rest Area.

How can a day that starts so badly end up so amazing. Woke up to 2 degrees and the memory of a horrible night. Had forgotten the diuretic properties of coffee are not removed by decaffitation. Was up 6 times through the freezing night to pee. The first time I couldn't stop shivering and hardly slept all night. This morning I woke up with a sore throat and did not want to get out of bed. I eventually crawled out, got dressed and off we went into Kalgoorlie. We took a picture of Paddy Hannon's statue, he discovered gold here. 

Then we went to the lookout.

And then the super pit lookout.

I had some lunch and decided to get some sleep while Jeff drove back to Norseman the other way. We passed Shane Crawford and his bike ride but I didn't get a picture cause I was asleep.

Woke up feeling a little better when we got back to Norseman and turned onto the Eyre Highway to begin our Nullabor trek. Little did we know what an amazing start to it we would have! Up ahead of us we could see it was raining and soon we saw a rainbow. Always a beautiful sight. The we realised we could see the bottom of it on the highway in front of us. We could see the trucks going through it and the colours on the trees up ahead.

It got bigger and brighter as we chased it in Glen but we couldn't catch it.

It became a double rainbow and got really, really bright and then disappeared! Possibly we had driven through it and could no longer see it but whatever happened it was the most spectacular thing I have seen on our trip so far.

Got to Frazer Range Rest Area (WA 25), pulled right back off the road, took 2 Panadol and had a great night's sleep.

Day 55 - Esperence to Lake Douglas Recreation Reserve

Passed some funny sounding places like Grass Patch and Salmon Gums - the discoverer didn't have a huge imagination. Arrived at Norseman where we saw the statue of the horse the town was named after.

Also the monument to the Afghan cameleers.

Had lunch and drove up to Coolgardie. Nice little town and then onto Lake Douglas Recreation Reserve (WA314) for the night. It was feeling a bit chilly so I decided to have a decaf coffee to warm me up. An idea I later regretted. More in tomorrow's post.

Day 54. - Jerramungup to Esperence

Long drive through rain and boring countryside. Finally arrived in Esperence and decided to do their Great Ocean Drive. Again visually spectacular. First stop is a lookout, while we were up their a rainbow appeared over the water. Beautiful.

 A series of  beaches followed including Twilight Beach, voted WAs most popular beach. It certainly is lovely with the big rocks out in the water.

We had noticed a lovely bird at lunchtime and then saw one again at one of the beaches. It is a New Holland Honeyeater.

We did some shopping and settled at a caravan park in Esperence.

Day 53 - Albany to Jerramungup

Forgot to mention that Jeff nearly stepped on a snake when we were visiting one of the beaches yesterday. I thought they were supposed to be asleep at this time of the year. Left Albany on a fine, sunny day and visited Two People's Bay and Little Beach. Little Beach is said to be the most beautiful beach in Australia. It would certainly come close.

A long day of travelling was in front of us. On our way back to the highway the road we took was unmade. What a mess.

 Then we decided to visit Bremer Bay as that was supposed to be very pretty. We ran into rain on the way and found Bremer Bay to be nice but nothing special.

Got to a little town called Jerramungup and Jeff decided he had had enough driving so we spent the night in their caravan park.