Cape Le Grand National Park to Sceale bay

Day 249

Up to another beautiful clear and sunny day and time to head back Into Esperance to restock the larder. So after a leisurely start we finally get going and drive the 60 (odd) km’s back into town and hit the supermarket. We are pretty well prepared with a list and everything and so we are pretty much in and back out again in a matter of minutes (it may have been slightly longer than that). Call in to get a few other bits (oil for Polly and some new batteries) and chores complete decide to head back to the peace and quiet of the National Park.

Back at the campground and as the sun is still shining so we decide to head down to the beach for a swim, the wind is still blowing so we aren’t there for long  and when we get back Skippy is sniffing around the van again (still looking for something to eat!).

After shooing him off we settle in for some dinner and an early night.

Day 250

Our final day in the park and probably our last chance for the beach for a while (a few days at least) so up in the morning and back to Hellfire bay for another swim in the beautiful water. The school holidays finish this weekend (thank god) and lots of people have already packed up and headed home and so when we get to the beach it is all but deserted and we pretty much have the place to ourselves.

 Have a swim and a lay in the sun for a bit and eventually head off to climb Frenchman’s peak a 300 metre mountain (?) in the middle of the park.

Park Polly at base camp (the car park), put our walkers on and we are off.

First thing we come across is a sign warning of bee’s in the area and so tread carefully as we begin to ascend.

The first part of the climb is pretty steep (more like a cliff face Carmen says) and after a few minutes of this Carmen has had enough and decides to turn around and return to the safety of the van. What with my army training (and having just read Andy McNabb’s excellent book on SAS training) I continue upwards, stopping a few times to catch my breath and take in the view on the way.

Once you arrive at the peak the view is breath taking (lucky I stopped to get it back on the way up then), most of the land around is pretty flat and so you are afforded and amazing view over the whole of the park and beyond (I even spot Carmen arriving back at the van).

As an added bonus there are a few small caves at the top which frame the view and seem to make it even more impressive. Well worth the climb!

After clambering back down (avoiding the bees again) and regaling Carmen with tales of the spectacular view we decide it’s high time we headed off for another swim to round off the day.

We head just down the road (I could see it from the top) to Thistle bay and after parking in the empty car park we stroll down to yet another beautiful beach.

Even though we are sort of getting used to them by now the sand is still a perfect squeaky white and the clarity of the water yet again blows us away. A couple of swims and lies in the sun and we are done for the day and head back to start packing up for our onward journey tomorrow.

Day 251

Wake up and it’s a cold and grey start to the day (luckily we are leaving) so with the ever present threat of rain we hastily eat breakfast and pack up and before you can say “she sells sea shells on the sea shore” we are on the road and heading back into Esperance. Of course it’s Sunday again and so the town is closed and after almost checking into a campsite (only to hear trains thundering past on the adjacent railway line) we eventually settle for exactly the same campsite we were in a week ago!

Spend the rest of the day catching up on washing and sorting Polly out for tomorrows trek across the Nullarbor.

Day 252

Up and away early for the first of a few long days of driving. After a couple of hours we pass through Norseman we do a right turn and start heading East across the Nullarbor towards the next proper town which is Ceduna, over 1100 km’s away!

As expected the drive is very straight and very boring and we pass the time listening to Stephen Fry reading Harry Potter, which turns out to be very good and helps the kilometres tick by. By late afternoon we have both had enough and stop for the night at the (infamous) Balladonia road house.

Near here is where the American Skylab crashed back to Earth in the late 70’s and for a while was overrun with media and souvenir hunters alike and there is a little museum telling you the story and showing all the newspaper clippings of the day.

After browsing through the museum (small and only mildly interesting) we cook ourselves some dinner and collapse into bed for a well-earned sleep.

Day 253

More of the same today. A lot more…

After filling up (at nearly $2 a litre!) we have the pleasure of hitting the ‘90 mile straight’, the longest straight stretch of road in Australia!

Needless to say it is very long and very straight and takes us over and hour and a half of just going in a straight line until we come to the other end and we have never been so happy to see a bend in the road!

Also along the way we find ourselves driving along a number of Royal Flying Doctors (R.F.D.S) Emergency Airstrips where, should an emergency arise they can land a plane on the highway and pick up their patients! Slightly unnerving driving along an airstrip knowing that at any minute a plane could come into land but luckily there were no such emergencies today.

Even though ‘Nullarbor’ means ‘treeless plain’ (Interestingly not an aboriginal word but from the Latin) it is far from it and there are lots of trees and bushes along the side of the road but not a lot else, in fact nothing else for as far as you can see in all directions, just a single black strip of tarmac in a vast empty nothingness.

As we are travelling east have also been loosing time as we go, after the huge straight we had to put our clocks forward by ¾ of an hour and by the time we stop at the end of the day in Eucla we are only 12km away from losing another hour and ¾.

The campsite is pretty nice and is perched atop the Hampton tablelands offering great views back across the plain where we have come from and you can begin to appreciate the vastness of the whole thing with literally nothing to look at for what must be hundreds and hundreds of kilometres.

We decide to compound our losses and change our clocks as soon as we arrive in the hope that by the morning we will already be half adjusted to the new time.  All of a sudden it’s nearly 9 o’clock (or is that 8.15 or is it in fact still only 6.30!!?) and we haven’t had our dinner yet! We hastily do so and hit the hay before we lose any more time!

Day 254

Up at a reasonable time but because of the clocks it still feels like the middle of the night. A refreshing shower later and there is nothing much else to do but hit the road again and continue driving.

After about 20 minutes we stop for the first photo opportunity of the day as we cross the border and are in South Australia.

Now there are quarantine restrictions passing from Western to Southern Australia but strangely the quarantine post is not for another 500 odd km’s (kind of gives you an idea of the distances involved here)!

We are pretty close to the ocean here and take a short turn off from the highway to have a look at the cliffs being battered by the waves of the Great Australian Bight and stretching off into the distance as far as you can see and it is a welcome break for the eyes to look at something different for 5 minutes.

Back on the road and we finally cross the Treeless plain bit, the true ‘Nullarbor’ It is actually pretty short (in relative terms) and soon enough we are back to the low scrubby stuff that has typified the past three days.

Also pass what to the untrained eye may just look like a fence but is in fact part of Australia’s vermin proof fence and is the longest fence in the world (Exciting when you have been driving for three days)!

Finally make it to Ceduna in the late afternoon and stop at the quarantine station. They are trying to stop the spread of fruitfly so no fruit or vegetables are allowed through and after our previous quarantine experience where the man was in looking through the cupboards we were well prepared this time. I duly opened the back and started moving stuff out of the way so he could get in but he took one look at the cramped space he was going to have to get in and simply waved us through, saying “as long as you are sure you haven’t got anything in there”!

Most people would have stopped there for the night but not us, we continue another 40km down the road to Smoky bay where after a quick walk along the beach to blow out the cobwebs and a quick bit to eat and we both fall into a light coma.

We had made it, travelling over 1500km in three long days and spending about $300 on petrol and Polly hadn’t put a toe wrong the whole time.

Day 255

Still getting used to the time difference we are up seemingly incredibly early again this morning and so after breakfast and packing up we head off just down the coast to the little town of Streaky bay. After a walking lap of the town and seeing that there is not much going on here so we decide to go a bit further (along a gravel road) to Sceale bay and a bush camp near the beach.

The beach is nice enough but after the past few days all we want to do is set up and relax and so we do just that for the rest of the day, sweet Fanny Adams.