NORSEMAN/BALLADONIA/MADURA/EUCLA/BORDER VILLAGE

Left Kalgoorlie early for the 400km drive to Balladonia via Norseman. Good driving day - no wind and some cloud cover.

4 February
Balladonia




Balladonia is the first stop on the Nullabor (Eyre Highway) travelling east from Western Australia to South Australia. The stretch from Balladonia to Caiguna (181 km) is reputed to be the longest stretch of straight road in the world.




Balladonia is on the edge of the desert and has very low rainfall, and was settled in the 1880s by early settlers ... the lonely Balladonia Homestead, an old stone building, is one of the reminders of the tenacity of these early settlers. The homestead is now closed up so we couldn't go there. The town has a population of 9 (it's not really a town - all there is is a roadhouse with the caravan park out the back - all dirt - and a couple of outlying properties that are so vast that you can't see any buildings)


There is a tiny museum inside the roadhouse with the highlight being a piece of NASA's satellite Skylab that came crashing to earth in 1979 nearby.



Balladonia is also the start of the longest golf course in the world. Every roadhouse across the Nullabor has a tee-off and a hole that golfers come from all over the world to play. From one tee to another can be 180-200 kms! and each one has a different name. There is a patch of green imitation grass for the tee-off and in the distance a huge board with a big red dot indicating where the hole is out in the bush.




We stayed just overnight at Balladonia, and when we got there there was just us and Mary and Michael with their A-Van. Around 4pm another caravan pulled in and who would have thought you would meet people you know out in this vastness! In came Col and Chris, the couple that gave us the lobsters way up north WA at Horrocks Beach! Of course, out came the nibblies and the drinks and we laughed and chatted our way into the night!

The next day we were all a bit weary but pack up we did and ready to take off to the next stop but ..... no starter motor. What a dilemma. Here we were 190kms from the nearest town to the west and 180kms to the nearest town to the east! Michael said that we should get under the car and hit the bottom of the starter motor with a hammer, but we said "no way"!! Anway, we had to deal with it so rang the Road Service people who told us to get under the car and tap the starter motor under the car with a hammer and if that didn't work, they would have to send a tow-truck. The hammer worked! With fingers crossed, we took off across the Nullarbor!


5 February
Madura

We had planned to drive only about 180kms to the next roadhouse, but because of the starter motor problem, we didn't want to take the chance so drove 340kms to Madura.








Across the Nullarbor:
There is absolutely nothing to see across the Nullarbor - it is so boring. The one thing that breaks the monotony are small trees along the highway that are covered in shoes or underwear or hats all signed with the owners name and date left. There's all sort of things left, even memorials to mates lost back home that couldn't make the journey.

The Nullarbor Plains have a huge cave system from the cliffs of the Great Australian Bight to the underground of the Plains, and scattered across the ground there are these holes which connect to the underground system. We stopped at one such hole and the wind draught from it was extremely strong. There isn't any water in them like the sink-holes of South Australia - just this tunnel system from the cliffs. Weird considering that the distance between the cliffs of the Great Australian Bight and the cave-holes next to the highway varied from between 9-12 kms.




Driving across the Western Australian side of the Nullarbor, each roadhouse has a different name as if they are towns. There is Caiguna, Cocklebiddy, Madura, Mundrabilla and, right on the border is Eucla.
We stopped for fuel at Caiguna (168.9), for lunch (yuk - so bought an icecream) at Cocklebiddy ($5 for a paddlepop), Mundrabilla for fuel (174.9) then an overnight stay at Madura.






At Cocklebiddy, we had to put our watches forward by half an hour (this is known as central WA time and not recognised anywhere else) and when we got to Mundrabilla, our watches had to be put forward another hour and a half. It was 2pm and all of a sudden it was 4pm!

The caravan park behind the roadhouse at Madura was really nice - no grass, but it was clean and tidy and kept nice. They even had gardens and a pool! (Only took video here - sorry, no photo.)

I did, however, take this photo from the Madura Lookout! Lots of room out here for any newcomers to this country!!

After another overnight stay, off we went to the WA/SA border.

6 - 8 February
Eucla/Border Village

Eucla is on the WA side of the border and there is a massive Quarantine Station for those travelling from the east to WA. The WA Quarantine Station isn't until Ceduna which is over 400kms away.

We stayed at Border Village Caravan Park which was quite nice but still in the dirt. They had a nice tavern with a restaurant and the menu was quite extensive considering where we were.

The roadtrains all stop off here on their way to Norseman in the west or Ceduna in the east, so I suppose the meals have to be ok. One thing I noticed was that they were huge meals. The caravan park here was $26 a night plus $2 for a hot shower (they had a coin machine in the shower recess). The door to the showers had this sign on it!!
There was a beautiful pool and, as it was 38-40 degrees each day, we spent most afternoons in it.

Eucla started life in 1877 as a manual repeater station for the Overland Telegraph. The old Telegraph Station is famous and has been seen on lots of explorer type television shows over the years. There's not much left of it now. I cannot possibly imagine what it would have been like living out here in these conditions at that time! It must have been absolutely dreadful! I've never known flies and dust like it!



A jetty and 1km tram line was constructed for offloading supplies to this remote area. We were unable to get to the sea because of the huge sand dunes but, given the condition of the Telegraph Station, I would imagine there's nothing left of the jetty either. Both the South and Western Australian colonial administrations operated out of Eucla's telegraph station, and they each used their own system of communication. This rivalry continues today between the 2 states and, as we found on this trip, also exists between WA and the east of Australia, Queensland and "the southerners", NSW and "the Mexicans".


Travelling across the Nullarbor, we heard stories of the "Nullarbor Nymph" who is supposed to be a young blonde woman who roams the Nullarbor naked. This story is passed around by the drivers of the roadtrains as a bit of a joke and they have a bit of a laugh in the middle of the night by telling other drivers over the CB radios of supposed sightings. It looks like the Eucla Golf Course has joined the myth! or, is she real!!


While we were staying at Border Village, we met a young man called Cam from Geelong. Cam had ridden his bicycle all the way from Geelong and the plan was to ride all the way to Perth. It was a dream of his much to his parents' apprehensiveness. He slept in a swag either in the bush by the side of the road or at the back of roadhouses.

Cam told us his story. On the way to Ceduna, a wheel on his bike broke so he called into the bike shop in Ceduna and bought a new wheel. Unfortunately, it too broke as he neared the SA/WA Border, so he limped into Border Village while he waited for his Dad back in Geelong to send him a new wheel from Geelong. He figured that the wheels he left home with were more superior to the one he purchased in Ceduna .... hey, it lasted him from Geelong to almost Ceduna! The one he bought in Ceduna only lasted half the distance. All he could do was sit in the roadhouse at Border Village and read, have a swim in the pool, or sleep. Anyway, we felt so sorry for him. He had no transport so we took him for a drive with Mary and Michael in the back out to the Telegraph Station, to the Bureau of Meteorology at Eucla (closed)
and the airport (just a graded strip in the middle of nowhere and no buildings or tower).
Lots of stuff to see out here (not). When we got back to the caravan park, Cam decided that he would hitch a ride with a roadtrain that night to Norseman where he would wait for the post office to open in the morning and where his Dad sent the new wheel.
It was a Sunday and he figured if he could get a ride, he would be in Norseman by around 2am and he would wait for the post office to open, get another ride with a roadtrain back to Border Village, and ride his bike west again for Perth. In the meantime, he gave us his broken wheel purchased in Ceduna, so that we could return it to the shop when we got there and hopefully organise a refund for him. Cam said that he could have just put the bike on the back of a roadtrain and hitched a lift all the way to Perth, but he said that he had left home for the challenge of riding all the way to Perth and he owed it to his Mum and Dad, and himself, to do it. He is a gorgeous, disciplined guy and I have no doubt will go far in this world. He is only 20 years old. We have since heard from Cam and he made it to Perth .... a further 10 days of riding after he left us. He said that he camped in the bush only 2 nights out of the 10 and the rest of the time he made it to roadhouses. He is now back in Geelong, much to his Mum and Dad's relief, but is due for a knee reconstruction. Well done, Cam. We only met you for a day and a half but we are so proud of you!!

Leaving Border Village for the next leg of the Nullarbor on 8th February. The views from the cliffs on the Sth Australia side of the border are breathtaking! This end of the Nullarbor proves to be much more interesting.

We'll be back to the Blog soon.

Ta ta for now xo