Monday back in Port Augusta

The flight was great, just another couple, the pilot and us.The Wilpena Pound made sense seen from the air and I hope the photo's and hopefully the video do it justice.We have had a look at the video and will put it on the blog in its entirety which is about 4 mins.Unfortunately I couldn't do a commentary because we had earphones on to hear the pilot and we had a mouthpiece to speak to him so if I had tried to explain what was happening everyone on the plane would have heard.The pound itself is the enormous dish shape of rocks with a flat plain inside.There are no roads inside the pound and only the ruins of the only homestead which was built there in the early days.There appear to be sandy stretches on the floor of the Pound, these are the result of the early settlers trying to grow wheat in there.The wheat failed miserably and now nothing will grow in those areas.The Pound is part of the Flinders Ranges so you can see other rock formations and ridges. You may be able to pick out some buildings outside the Pound.These were originally sheep stations but are now all tourist accommodation.What appears to be water on the horizon is a lake but is totally dry and relies on water coming down from Qld. To fill it.It is a vast salt pan.

On the way back we stopped at an Aboriginal site to see the rock art and again I hope the video and photos are good.I promise these will be the last rock art unless we find some by the highway with a Subway near byWe are back in Port Augusta for one night to do the washing before we start the long stretch of the Nullarbor.

Weds.1/2 way across the Nullarbar

Yesterday we traveled from Port Au. to Ceduna.One of our books advised not to stay in town " because the little brown fellas are keen to help themselves "( how do they get away with printing something so blatantly racial?)but we took their advice and booked into a site 3k out of town at Shelley beach.Lovely site right on the beach with the best showers we have used yet but the flies were intolerable.We began to suspect they must be a bad when we saw a man sat outside his van wearing a fly net over his head while he prepared his tea.We donned our fly nets and had a walk on the beach. A beautiful spot but impossible to enjoy.The flies are big red things which we haven't seen before.

Today was 8hrs of mind boggling nothingness punctuated by occasional points of interest when we dashed from the car (with head nets) took a couple of pictures and 10 seconds of video and dashed back to the car which by then was covered with flies.Two varieties this time the red ones and some black midges.The black ones attached themselves to us and we spent until the next stop trying to encourage them to fly out of the windows.The red ones settled for hitchhiking on the wing mirrors and windscreen wipers but bless them it did help to pass the time watching them to see which one could hang on the longest. Good job we didn't come across yesterday it was 49 degrees.It only got to 45 today.

We are totally confused by the time zones.We kept traveling till 5.30pm but when we booked in we discovered it was only10 past 4.here.Our guide book recommended the home made food here at the roadhouse so we decided to treat ourselves.I will mention the split chair seats and the truckies dog which sat outside the window and watched us eat but Joe will not allow me to describe the truckies or the food.We didn't bother with dessert.We are locked in our van now for the night trying to decide what time to go to bed and it's only 10 to 7.The wind is very strong and is rocking the van.

Thurs. and we have knocked the Nullarbor on the head.

We are at Norseman which is the last or first place on the Nullarbor depending on which end you start.We were wakened this morning by somebody who is traveling in a converted bus setting of at 5am.We set of at 8.30 and have traveled about 640ks including the 166k section which is the longest stretch of straight road in Australia.We stopped twice at the roadhouses for fuel which costs more than gold here and we had a toast at the first one and the worst wedges we have ever eaten at the second.You eat because you are bored not because you are hungry.The only thing we saw of interest was a piece of skylab which crash landed on the Nullarbor in 1979.We also saw signs telling us to beware of kangaroos, emus, camels and wombats and didn't see one animalWe have seen roos and emus so far on this trip but I was really looking forward to spotting a wild camel or wombat.Two other bits of excitement, we had to change our watches twice.

Tomorrow we are going south to Esperance for a few days.Sorry the video hasn't been on the blog yet but my technical assistant is having problems but he is working at it.

Friday in Esperance

Not much to report.Got here at lunchtime but had odd jobs to do so haven't seen anything yet..The heat and wind have played havoc with the cover of one of the roof lights and it is now stuck on with tape.There is a caravan place here but he hasn't got our make.We are hoping it sticks on until we get to Albany on Monday night.Another stinking hot day in the 40s but we are hoping it cools down tomorrow.