day 8 WA baby!

On our way to the border, we meandered along the Bunda Cliffs, stopping at the various lookouts to take it all in. Close to WA the cliffs disappeared into a much more gradual slope up from the rock shelf to the escarpment. 

We crossed the border into WA around 12 pm with little fuss and handed over the honey we hadn’t used. There was nothing else to declare as we’d used up all fruit and veg. 

Stopping at Eucla roadhouse, we asked about a gas refill (no luck) and ate a delicious, home-made sausage roll. We also visited the telegraph station museum which was very informative about the building of the telegraph across the Nullarbor, from it first opening in 1877 until it closed in 1927. 

We gained a couple of hours. This made for a much longer driving in uncomfortable heat, the temperature hitting 40 degrees. 

We were supposed to head down to Bilbunya Dunes but the more Jeremy researched the access tracks and trails, the more we realised that it would not be feasible. It is a mission to get there, with rough tracks and lots of sand driving, and such an adventure should be completed with a couple of cars for safety. This gave us a couple of extra days before our Kalgoorlie Super Pit tour on Monday. We consulted the map and decided to head west of Norseman and explore the goldfields region. On we drove. 

The western end of the Eyre Highway has the 90 mile straight (146.6 km), Australia’s longest straight road. Surprisingly, I found it an engaging part of the drive. I was behind the wheel for this section and while it took almost two hours to drive, I found it strangely amusing, not to turn the wheel left or right at all for such a long time.

That night we camped just beyond Balladonia at Hazza’s campground, after stopping to check if they refilled gas at the roadhouse there. They didn’t. The night didn’t cool down until well after 9pm with only a few bugs but no chalky dust. We finished off the lamb ragù with pasta. Still delicious!