We pack early just as the sun makes an impact on the horizon and by 8am our wonderful friendly host has let us out the security gate and we are on our way. The Maralinga tours has been a fantastic adventure.
First stop is the old quarry at the Watson railway siding on the transcontinental line. The quarry once provided the base material for Maralinga road construction while the Watson siding is where trains bringing supplies bought in by ships would unload their stores. The quarry today acts as a bit of a tip but the excavation has exposed many interesting fossils, gastropods, Bivalves and worms, which we take time to photograph and examine. We meet a work crew near the quarry, you forget just how many men and women work in remote locations to keep out transnational services running.
It’s then back up the road and turn south east to Ooldea siding to visit the memorial that celebrates the joining of the eastern and western sections of the transnational railway line.
A little further to the east and we stop at the Daisy Bates memorial and have breakfast, she was an interesting character and made some disagreeable comments but perhaps just a product of her time. As the area has had some rain it was great to see some water in the lakes that are usually dry.
We then stop at Yalata for fuel, a good place to visit, then onto the Head of the Bight to watch Southern right whales. We saw 6 adults each with a calf and two other adults on their way towards the cliffs there was many more in the distance.
In Australia, southern right whales have shown a preference for calving grounds along coastlines with high wave energy, such as the Head of the Bight. Here, the sound of breaking waves may mask the sound of the whales’ presence, and so protect infants and calving cows from predators such as killer whales. Deep waters alongside shallower calving grounds may serve as training grounds for calves to build up their stamina ahead of migration.[35]
Source: Wikipedia
We pass through W.A. quarantine at the border and camp at Eucla.
