Day 107 Saturday 30th July
We left Kalgoorlie this morning at 8.30. The sky was clear and the wind had dropped. We headed off to Coolgardie. There seemed to be a number of small gold mines around here but it was a much quieter town than I had expected. There were however, some beautiful old buildings.
After leaving Coolgardie we went to Norseman. Just before Norseman we saw this huge lake called Lake Cowan, however, there was very little water in it.
From here we turned off onto the Eyre Highway to cross the Nullarbor Plain. The landscape was quite beautiful with forests of salmon gums. They have lovely golden pink trunks and very shiny leaves. We stopped in Balladonia and went through the museum where they had some pieces of Sky lab which fell to earth here in 1979.
The landscape has started to flatten and there are fewer trees. We have just started driving on the longest, straight stretch of road in Australia. It is 146.6 km long. We decided to camp the night in a free camp on the side of the road. Already there are at least 10 vans here. (4.00pm) It is called Woorlba.
Distance travelled today 441 kms
Total distance travelled 16378 km
Day 108 Sunday 31st July
We left our free camp at Woorlba at 8.30 this morning, after a lively evening of cards. The countryside soon became very flat as far as the eye could see with very few trees. The grass was, however, so green and lush. When we came to Madura the ridge of the Nullarbor Plain rose up and we travelled all along it to Eucla. There were more trees growing next to the ridge than previously. Unfortunately we did not see any camels, emus or kangaroos as there was too much water and grass inland for them to feed on. In fact we hardly saw any crows either. We continued on to the border between SA and WA and turned our clocks forward 1 ½ hours.
We then found a free camp at the top of the ridge with magnificent views of the Great Australian Bight. It has been so windy all the way across and is blowing a gale here.
Distance travelled today 492 kms
Total distance travelled 16870 kms
