The End of the Year is Near

After leaving Lucky Bay we took our time in Esperence to do some washing and have lunch and then head to Norseman, about 15km east of Norseman we found a roadside rest area with some tracks through the bush that we ventured along to get further away from the road.  Now we have to wait for the sun to go down and the flies to disappear.  I get sick of these flies but I do love the solitude.  Its 6pm and Steve cracks his first beer and then polishes off a few reds...still plenty of light so I put on my fly net till I can cook dinner.
When the flies died down a few mozzies snuck out of the bushes so it was time to jump in the kitchen and cook steak sandwiches.  More mozzies as the sun was setting...the dinner/wash up marathon begins...

Dinner cooked and eaten, boil water, wash and wipe up, pack up, clean teeth and in the van in 40 minutes...yes!!!
Take that mozzies!!!  ha ha
Sunday 29 December and we are on the road by 8.30am, no brekky (just juice and an apple) the flies are always up before we are.
It's all bitumen from now on and we make our way to Balladonia Roadhouse and then the 90 Mile Straight (or 145.6km for the younger readers)

and onto the Nullarbor.  Stopped to look at the Caiguna Blowhole on the side of the Eyre Hwy...its one of the many cave openings here in the limestone...and standing over the opening we could feel the cool air coming out, like an air con.

It would have been nice to sit in there but the opening was only half a metre high.  Todays temp is 36C.
Caiguna RH is at the end of the 90 Mile and we stopped for all the essentials:  toilet, lunch and fuel ($2.08/lt) and now its time to advance our clocks 45mins as we head to the WA/SA border.
We contemplated the drive to Baxter Cliffs but 5 hours return, extreme 4WD and no towing and there is no camping in the Nuytsland Reserve so we decide its a no go...on to Cocklebiddy where there is only a roadhouse with a caravan park and hotel.
We came to a lookout called Madura Pass

and the road follows down a hill of the escarpment and it is a lot cooler down here with a breeze and we stopped at the rest area 26km east of Madura at Moodini Bluff.  This is a big rest area with a toilet but we were advised buy Elsie and Rod the toilets are a bit feral along this part of the world, and they were right....yucky yucky, the bush is a better option by far, I'm glad we are carrying a porta loo.  I always let Steve do the toilet tour first, hahaha.
There are not so many flies here, it is cooler with a breeze this arvo and we didn't have to rush dinner.
Our days are starting later now with the add on time, until we get used to it  and we are the last to leave the rest area (not unusual).  Soon we spot our first Wedge tail eagle on some road kill, beautiful bird.
Some of this info is for our friends travelling soon to the east:  Mundabilla roadhouse diesel $1.94/lt...cheap!!!  We did not stop we will start using our jerry cans we filled back in Albany.
Eucla fuel was $1.94/lt too and we have 12km to the border.  Our fruit/vegie check is not until Ceduna so we will keep eating and cooking extra at dinner time to save having to throw food away. We have peeled and cut all our onions up and put them in the freezer and now the whole car smells like onions.
We have a strong head wind crossing the Nullarbor,

there are lots of lookouts on the cliffs and out to sea.  We stopped at a couple to break up the 'Nullarboring' drive.

We had some raindrops on the windscreens but not many about 20, that's how boring the drive is...I'm counting raindrops.

Next stop the Nullarbor RH (forgot to check the fuel price) we refuelled with our jerrys and I bought a couple of drumstick ice creams and inside I see their clock says 4.40pm and my watch says 2.40pm, where has the day gone? Time flies when your having fun.
Do we set up at the roadhouse where it is hot with a hot dry dusty wind, book a room (looks like Alan Bates hotel with a petrol station)

the weather is starting to look like rain???  We decide to drive on and see what we find.  Half an hour along the road the temp gauge has jumped from mid twentys to 32C...when the temp starts to rise again...the only place we want to be is in the car with the air con full blast.  We found a park at Colona Rest area where 2 others campers were, safety in numbers (we are just east of Yalata Community).  Day light saving time now and the day light hours are long and that means ... flies for longer...arghhhhhhh. So I took some pics while I was waiting for the sun to set.

New years eve...(Nundroo RH fuel $1.699/lt) no brekky again, you can probably guess why by now.  10am and it is 34C, passing through grain farms now and we are going to look at Fowlers Bay for a stop over...the road turns to gravel and it is fowl at Fowlers Bay today, hot and windy; we hit that brick wall when we got out of the car. I took some pics and got back in the car.

Can you believe it is more comfortable in the car without the air con on!
Fowlers Bay has lots of old buildings with history and lined on one side with huge sand dunes ready to engulf the town.
'Steve get the car started and lets blow this joint' I say, 'I need air con, and lots of it'.
We hand over some fruit and vege aat the quarantine gate and OMG 2pm in Ceduna and 46C and we decide to get some visitors info and keep driving and head to Streaky Bay.  We poked along pulling off the hwy looking at different parts of the coast line, Smokey Bay and Perlubie Beach and they are all filled with campers.
'Lets stay at Streaky Bay and get an air con room' we decide.
I have no idea why we thought we would get accommodation in Streaky Bay on NYE; the heat is affecting our brains...it is a beach holiday destination with the road closed off for celebrations and fireworks and everyone buying up big in the bottle shop...Oooops...no room at the Inn here.  We run into a family I met at Lucky Bay they are from the Sunny coast and heading in the same direction as we are, they have no where to stay as well.  We decide to just drive the loop road to Cape Bauer and do the tourist thing.  Got out and walked the boardwalk to look at the blowholes and the whistling rock

and OMG it is so hot I pulled my singlet shirt up over my shoulders took pics and got back to the car as fast as I could, drank a gallon of water and kept driving, next to 'Westall Way' another scenic drive and found Tractor Beach and one camp spot left, $5 for the night in the honesty box.  These are all council camps on gravel roads but good roads. We set up and it is still hot, damn hot, everything is hot even the water in the water tanks are hot and I realised Steve had disappeared; I found him on the beach standing in ankle deep water drinking a beer, hahaha.  We go for a walk, pass our neighbours who were fishing and we find the water is cool but inviting so back to camp change and back to the beach to sit in the water ahhhhhhh, finally relief from the heat.  It is 8pm the sun is going down and we are walking up the beach in our swimmers.

We finished dinner a little after 10pm have a rinse off and get into bed about 11pm and 28C in the van, yuk. 2 hours later we are woken by violent gusty winds, lightning and then the rain starts pelting down, bugger jump outside to close the canvas windows and as soon as we are back in bed the rain stops...that would be right...the bad weather stops and we are hot again, double bugger, so we laid in bed with the fan on till we fell asleep.
What a memorable start to 2014 for us!
Happy New Year to you all