From Ceduna we drove 300 km west to the Nullarbor Roadhouse, fuelled up then left the highway for a 100 km slow drive along the Old Eyre Highway. This track has not been maintained since the new highway was built 30 years ago and now it is a rough limestone track. We were restricted to 30-40 kph for quite long stretches so the 100 km took us 2.5 hours. We spent the night at the old Koonalda Homestead, also un-used since the 1980’s. The station owners sold petrol and ran a workshop; dozens of old car bodies reminded us of how difficult the trip would have been then. 3 other couples were there and we enjoyed an evening around the campfire.

Our destination next was to have been the Eyre Bird Observatory, on the coast about 35 km south of Cocklebiddy. A sign about 20 km along a very rough, narrow track told us that we couldn’t camp there so we went back to a spot near the highway and set up to camp for the night. We had flat batteries in the caravan – so we connected the caravan again and drove to Cocklebiddy where we hooked up to their power for the night.

After continuing across the Nullarbor with recharged batteries our next destination was to be Dundas Rocks, the site of a long disappeared township about 25 km south of Norseman. This area is heavily wooded with mallee scrub and is very attractive. We picked a nice campsite and discovered that again we had flat batteries. With headlamps and gas operated bbq, stove, heater and fridge we could survive overnight with flat batteries but the problem needed to fixed soon so we drove a little further to Salmon Gums and hooked up to power again. The caretaker of the small caravan park lit a good fire and we socialised for a couple of hours.

A little over an hour’s drive on Friday brought us to Esperance where an auto-electrician replaced a fuse and what could have cost $800 for new batteries only cost $50. Esperance is a nice town that started life as a whaling, sealing and fishing port, later becoming a grain and wool port and now is mainly an iron ore port. The huge bay is sheltered by an archipelago of over 100 islands. We spent Anzac Day at Esperance, did a bit of shopping and fuelled up, ready to head for the National Parks east of here; Cape Le Grands, Duke of Orleans and Cape Arid. We intend bush camping for about a week.

Love to all, from Ted and Jo

A little over an hour’s drive on Friday brought us to Esperance where an auto-electrician replaced a fuse and what could have cost $800 for new batteries only cost $50. Esperance is a nice town that started life as a whaling, sealing and fishing port, later becoming a grain and wool port and now is mainly an iron ore port. The huge bay is sheltered by an archipelago of over 100 islands. We spent Anzac Day at Esperance, did a bit of shopping and fuelled up, ready to head for the National Parks east of here; Cape Le Grands, Duke of Orleans and Cape Arid. We intend bush camping for about a week.

Love to all, from Ted and Jo2015