Well, it’s been an adventure. We travelled eastward across the dirt road from Hyden to Norseman through the Great Western Woodlands, and the fuel filter light came on indicating bad fuel had got into the system. It’s lucky we have a secondary fuel filter as dirty fuel and fuel contamination is always a potential risk on long haul and remote travelling. Given it was 8° and blowing like a bastard (close to gale force wind) we needed a clean workshop so we persevered until Norseman. Thanks to the friendly staff and mechanic at Highway Tilt Towing and Services at Norseman we used their workshop, a spare filter that we carry and the mechanics time to change the contaminated filter and get us on our way. We had plenty of time and there was no rooms available in Norseman so we made for Balladonia for the night.
Next day we continue east. The wind is very strong but thankfully its a tail wind. We are passing through showers of light rain, it’s fabulous to experience this as we cross the Nullarbor. The big birds out though and we see 5 Wedgetail Eagles throughout the day they are magnificent on the wing. We go looking for caves on the Nullarbor, no luck today. A brief lunch stop on the top of the Madura Pass what a great view.
Our camp is on the Bunda Cliffs. We set up camp and the wind promptly dismantles the swag, threatening to take it to Ceduna 200km away. We enjoy a warm dinner inside the cabin (of the car) courtesy of the onboard Travel Buddy oven and Jetboil. An almost full moon is rising through the showery sky. We escape the swirling showers of sand and rain. The swag is comfortable and warm though we are occasionally woken by an extreme gust of wind roaring up the cliff into camp. There must be some huge waves rolling in, we can hear them way before they smash into the cliffs.
Next morning we are greeted by the sun and we are up and on the move, a quick stop at Nullarbor Roadhouse for fuel and time for us to make coffee. A dingo is metres away hoping to score a morsel from the travelling public. There is plenty of truck movement on the road some with pretty wide loads.
We then head off to the Top of the Bight to look for a Southern Right Whale. There is one resting in the bay on its way north, it’s a wonderful sight.
We continue on to the coast to explore Wungunyah Conservation Park and Fowlers Bay Conservation Park. These are relatively remote parks we have them to ourselves. The coastline varies between rugged jagged limestone to dune systems, its a landscape that is close to pristine and wild us one could find. We take time to do repairs to the truck rear draw and swag while light lasts. Twilight and full moon is wonderful and the lunar eclipse in such a location is magnificent, lending itself to some pretty good time lapse photographs. We go to sleep with the sound of the surf and a sky full of stars.
