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Day 7 – Ceduna to Madura |
Ceduna, Australia
Today’s Challenge – To abide by the mandatory Nullarbor protocol of the one finger steering wheel wave.
Depart Ceduna at 7.00am being first light. With some anticipation we are not sure what we have gotten ourselves into today.
Arrive at the first town on the Nullarbor; Penong. It is big enough to justify a 60kph speed limit, but not big enough for a Chinese restaurant. Their biggest industry seems to be windmill blowing. We pass the last shop for 1,000 km.
Getting windy. Sit up straighter as though this will balance the car better.
As we pass through Nundoo, we decide not to stay here on our return. The odometer hits 3000 km. just outside of Yalata. Deb spots a huge eagle sitting on the side of the road. We start to wonder why everybody says this is a boring trip. The road is good, the speed limit is 110 km per hour and the scenery is forever changing. We spot a kangaroo – a live one. No it wasn’t. Yes it was. Oh no it wasn’t (stamping feet) Damn! Another sign of Nullarbor madness – debating with oneself.
Rod is getting RSI from under-developed waving muscles, we notice that the Truckee’s are not returning our one finger wave and decide to conserve energy when passing the big road trains. As we progress we notice that our wave is only acknowledged by fifty percent of motorists, that being the grey nomads towing caravans. So much for the camaraderie. We continue regardless. Two hours later we lose heart and only offer the wave occasionally.
We spot a scrawny dingo not far from Nullabor and pull into the roadhouse shortly after to refuel. Rod notes that they will not switch the tanks on unless he leaves his licence with then. The cost for premium unleaded is $2.08 per litre, and there is no water to wash the windscreen.
We stop at a number of photo-opp signs and view some spectacular landscapes of the Bunda Cliffs. We are hugging the Great Australian Bight for 100 km and it is rather windy but very spectacular.
We pull into the Border Check Point where we were thoroughly searched and also gained 30 minutes due to the time zone change. We stop 20 minutes later at Eucla for a stretch, then drive down a pass and follow a long ridge line for the next 200km. The country-side is nowhere as flat as we expected. We pass the Eyre Bird Observatory. We aint seen any birds except for crows, so we don’t stop. We start to play Crow Bingo. Set up a grid with numbers between 1 and 10. Count the number of crows picking at each road kill and that’s your next Bingo number. Only problem is, the game’s over very quickly.
Feeling weary by now we are looking forward to our overnight stop at Madura. We roll in at 2.30 mid western time and hit the bar to wash down the dust with a few Crownies. We mingle with some interesting travelers and learn the correct protocol when passing a road-train. When the trucker flashes his indicator to let you know it is clear to pass, you indicate left then right as you pull in front of him, he then he flashes his headlights to acknowledge the camaraderie.
We have a nice dinner in the dining room and head to bed in our unit furnished with oh so 70’s decor.