Norseman to Ceduna - Now the Holiday Bit Starts!

From Norseman we put in a reasonably big effort. There are things to see out here but they are a long way apart, so our plan was to try to get to Fowler's bay in two days. Along the way you have to go down Madura Pass. The view from the top of the Pass is quite spectacular and we will photograph it on the way back (hopefully with better light.) From Madura you drive along the southern side of the cliff face that makes the Pass necessary. It certainly breaks the monotony of the scenery prior to the Pass.

We travel at around 80 KPH - 85 KPH when the weather is hot, to reduce the load on the car. It's bad enough that the van weighs 3.5 Tonnes and that we've had howling headwinds for the entire trip so far, without adding 40 degree temps to the mix.  We managed to get to a roadside rest stop about 7 Km short of Mundrabilla at around 4:00 PM. It was spacious and we got a good spot with plenty of shade. The only drawback was the rubbish. Poo tickets everywhere, along with overflowing rubbish bins, yuck!

At the campsite we met a couple from Austria who have shipped their customised Land Rover Defender over to Australia because it was $11,000.00 cheaper to do that than it was to hire a 4WD vehicle in Australia. They had everything but the kitchen sink hanging off the bloody car, but obviously didn't carry a lot of water because the girl was a bit on the nose. They told us that they were going to have a crack at the Canning Stock Route, but seemed to have changed their minds after we first picked our jaws up off the ground, told them that they were bloody crazy and informed them that they would be the only vehicle out there. They had rung the Capricorn roadhouse to arrange a fuel drop and weren't fazed when told that the servo didn't do fuel drops during the summer.

Next day we took off at 5:30 AM and headed for the Border. We went right past the servo at Eucla, after hearing that the fuel was cheaper just over ther Border in South Oz. Wrong! It was 5.5 cents per litre dearer, but rather than drive the 24 Km round trip to Eucla, I just put enough fuel in to get us to Ceduna. For a while it looked like I'd stuffed up the fuel calculations because the strong headwinds were giving us a hammering. While in phone range at Eucla we rang ahead to Fowler's Bay and were told that they didn't have any caravan park bays large enough to accommodate our van. Fowler's Bay is about two-thirds of the journey from Eucla to Ceduna and would have broken the trip up nicely, but alas, not to  be. So it was onward, ever onward.

We made the mandatory stop at a rest area on the Great Australian Bight and took some photos and some video footage of the coastline. Talk about windy! Here's a short video clip to give you an idea of the bloody wind.

We punched on into the wind and after about 200 Km I was getting indications from the fuel computer that we weren't going to make Ceduna on the fuel we had left. No big deal, just another stop required. We stopped at another roadside bay close to Nundroo to have lunch and were beset upon by March flies. It was 40 Degrees outside (and about the same in the van) so we knocked up some snacky stuff and ate it on the run in the car.

After a while the wind eased and the fuel computer was a lot happier and in the end we rolled into Ceduna about mid afternoon (having lost an hour and three quarters in time-zone changes.) First stop was the Quarantine Inspection Service, where we had to chuck out all of our remaining fruit and vegies (except for our solitary carrot - go figure?) Next stop was the Visitor Centre where the Lady running the show was very helpful.

She directed us to a nice caravan park down on the waterfront and from the door of the van we have pretty good views of the beach and water. We are going to stay here for a few days and have already contibuted to the local economy with the purchase of some wire and fittings for a clothes line, a pair of diving boots (for reef-walking), a cycle helmet (How I hate those bloody things, but we were warned that the Coppers here are very strict on the wearing of them - and mine was stuffed anyway), some morning tea (coffee was absolutely dreadful) and a light jumper for Sue. She's been feeling the cold in the evenings.

Ceduna is actually a very pretty, clean, smallish town. It is quite likeable and it won't be hard to spend some time here looking around. Photos in the next Blog.