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Location Date Western Australia 
1394928000 Northern Territory 1377990000 South Australia 1353196800 Queensland 1349391600 New South Wales 1338073200 Victoria 1335481200 Australian Capital Territory -
Location Date Coral Bay 1394928000 Hamelin Pool 1394841600 Kelmscott 1379804400 Exmouth 1379458800 Onslow 1379372400 Karratha 1379026800 Eighty Mile Beach 1378767600 Derby 1378681200 Halls Creek 1378335600 Kununurra 1378249200 Wyndham 1376262000 Purnululu 1376089200 Fitzroy Crossing 1375657200 Broome 1375570800 Port Hedland 1375138800 Marble Bar 1374879600 Karijini 1374620400 Newman 1374447600 Meekatharra 1374274800 Mount Magnet 1373929200 Laverton 1373842800 Leonora 1373756400 Menzies 1373670000 Kalgoorlie 1373583600 Southern Cross 1373324400 Esperance 1353628800 Hopetoun Perth Balladonia
Riding Through a Furnace: The Nullarbor. Mon 19 Nov 2012
Dave and I rode out of Streaky Bay at 7am, temperature 14 degrees. Nice and cool motorbiking weather through Ceduna, to Nundroo Roadhouse. Then as we got further into the big treeless Nullarbor Plain the temperature started climbing, as we had expected. Even though we could see the Great Australian Bight to the left of us it was still steaming hot, and got up to 43 degrees with no sea breeze from the tantalising looking blue Southern Ocean views. I had taken the liner out of my riding jacket, and we both wore our water filled "neckies" which keep us cool in hot conditions.
We had a bit of a giggle at Nullarbor Roadhouse (by now 43 deg) where there were several travellers on their mobile phones loudly telling loved ones far away how hot it was. These poor darlings were sitting in an air conditioned roadhouse eating area, having just stepped out of their air conditioned cars….wusses! The dash from their vehicles to the building must have been too tough.
Moving forward for the Mighty Intrepids: by now it felt like we were riding through a hot wind-blasted furnace. We were both so relieved to finally arrive at Border Village Roadhouse/motel, falling into our pre-booked air conditioned room, rather worn out. We each tried having a cold shower but the cold water was hot as Hades, as the water tanks were in the hot desert sun.
We sat on our cabin veranda and watched a spectacular evening summer thunderstorm, with forked lightning and a few fat drops of rain. Several travellers in rooms near us came over for a chat about our motorbikes and travel style. Then it was off to have a cooked meal at the local "restaurant". As expected, very expensive prices, but my steak sandwich with the lot was delicious. Lucky we had our own wine supply in our room, as the bar prices were too high for us cheapskates.
Tomorrow is going to be a cool change, as we ride to Balladonia Roadhouse. Finally we will be back in WA.
In WA at Last: To Balladonia Roadhouse. Tues 20 Nov 2012
We research our travel weather on our trusty laptop before moving on, and sure enough, a lovely cool change has happened over the Nullarbor Plain overnight. I was getting confused about what time it was, as the time zones are all over the place in these parts. And South Australia has daylight saving, so is 2 ½ hours in front of WA time-wise.
We were thoroughly searched at the SA/WA border Quarantine station; Dave was wondering if we'd get a cavity search ha ha! He had to take my strapped on top box from the top of the esky to show innocent looking wine casks and some toilet paper. Also had to open up the trailer to show our homely home away from home gear. I had to open up one of my panniers. All good; we are not naughty smugglers!
The rest of the ride day went smoothly. We stopped for fuel at Madura, sitting on some ripped and torn chairs to have a juice drink….why don't the managers here see what a poor impression these sad chairs made? Then next stop was at Caiguna for fuel and a nice little lunch. Much cleaner and more organised facilities here, and a lot of travellers passing through.
We had to watch out for some wedgetail eagles hanging around road kill, and there were plenty of crows to toot at to get them to move out of our way. Crows are cunning birds, looking affronted if they have to be shooed away from their road kill. We also saw a group of kangaroos and some emus. We don't ride our motorbikes at dawn, dusk or night time in the bush because of animals, and we still have to watch out for creatures in the middle of the day.
Some people say the Nullarbor is boring but I find it changes all the way, sometimes low dry spinifex, sometimes small trees and then moving onto taller trees. You notice so much more on a motorbike: the Nullarbor Plain is awesome on our trusty metal steeds.
We arrived at our pre-booked room at Balladonia, very nice with all mod-cons. I enjoyed a good informative browse around their museum collection at the roadhouse. Much to our surprise we found there is mobile phone and internet connection here.
Tomorrow we are on to Esperance for a few days. Hope it's not too windy when we put up our tent!
- comments
John B Good to see you are still in there with your sense of humour in tact after all those mediocre van parks....we found Karumba overrun with smug Victorians but locved Venus Bay even in winter. Our daughter raved about Esperence when she lived in Kalgoolie for 4 years (their local beach) - unfortunately we booked into a Caravan Park adjacent to a railway shunting yard - not good....very windy...now don;t forget that Valley of the Giants around Pemberton A Good read which has fleshed out the essence of many a spot....not enough rude photos in exotic locales!!
Dave & Trish John - Guess which park we are in at Esperance? When the first train blew it's horn in the middle of the night we both jumped and almost filled our pants :) Not only that but they are sinking the railway line so during the day there are beeping reversing trucks and to top it all off it is wheat harvesting time so plenty of trucks engine braking down to the corner. We are m,ore protected from the winds in this park and stil enjoying ourselves despite the above comments. Will work on the rude photos - thought about streaking in Streaky bay but never got around to it. Good to hear from you and hope all is well.