Destination today is Eucla. More of the Nullarbor. Our friend in the plane was good enough to awaken me at 5 past 4 am. To top things of these places from Cocklebiddy through to the SA border choose to invent their own time zone. Apparently its 40 minutes ahead of Perth. This stuffs us up a bit and we constantly are trying to work out what time it is. My GPS has one time. My bike dash shows Perth time and my PC shows Vic time. The alarm setting takes some sorting out.

So we set off from Cocklebiddy and its nice and cool. We seem to be the last to leave and even the vintage car club which had been staying were long gone. The Nullarbor does not change much over a few hundred ks so there is not much to talk about in regards to that. Maybe a few dead snakes and lizards on the road but that's about it. It's funny when you are on these trips that you keep meeting the same people at different locations. We pulled into Madura where some guy come up to me and said "Gees you've been doing some riding. I saw you about a week ago on the west coast." Plus we also end up passing the same cars and vans on the road as we leapfrog our way towards home.

Madura is a typical roadhouse and soon we have left it and crank up some ks again. The bike is heavy with all its gear on and the only time it's an issue is when you are stopping on the gravel roadways in these stops. You fear your feet will skip out from under you. Apart from that it is fine.

There is a huge wall to our left as we ride towards Eucla. I guess it was the original coastline from a million years ago as it surges up from the ground and ends up around a hundred metres from the flat ground we are riding on. We are about 10 metres above sea level so over time the coast line has changed. Just hope no tsunami hits or we are pretty stuffed. Mundrabilla is the next stop but it's short and sweet. The riding is the best part. Today I feel I could do a thousand ks. Pity it's such a short section.

I get a text from Joe who was leaving the border village who states he was pulled over by the Eucla cops yesterday and as a result has lost his wallet. Luckily he has a credit card he stored separately. He has made it to Streaky Bay so I guess we won't see him again.

Finally we arrive in Eucla and familiar fibreglass whale greets us at the entrance to the caravan/motel park. I suggest I will camp for the night whilst John and Shirl get a room. I speak to this frumpy woman at the Caravan park office and ask for a camping site. She says they are 15 bucks unpowered. I ask if they are on grass. She just stares at me like I just asked her for a kidney. On top of that she maintains an irritating grin which needed to be smacked into South Australia. She says. "You've got to be kidding." Now I understand that there is a water shortage around the area. I also understand these places have burrowed into the ground and are using artesian water constantly. Particularly in these parks. So most of the places did have grass. If not they provided a green matting to set up a tent on. So from her reply I gathered that grass was only something they smoked around here and not to be located on the ground. So I asked if there is any green matting to set up a tent on. Guess I tried to score her other kidney now. That was flatly rebutted also. So I said that I guess it's just gravel out there. She seemed pleased that my ignorance of interpreting her stupid look was diminishing and stated it was only gravel.

My options were heading to another costly room stay. But rather than give her the satisfaction of believing I was camping on the surface of the moon I decided to ask the question in the motel section. Now my belief is that there is a limited availability to send every kid in Eucla to a school. Fortunately the girl in the motel was one of the select few.

She instantly set me up in a cheap but satisfactory lodging for 45 bucks. No air, no power but a bed. No gravel. All is good with the world.

John and Shirl decide to visit the old telegraph Office down towards the coastline whilst I decide to catch up on an hours sleep. Been there before.

We meet up later at 5.30 as the restaurant closes at 7.00 Eucla time which is around 7.23 am in Istanbul. So we have to get in early otherwise we miss out.

The meals were Ok but its funny when they ask how you want your steak and you say "medium" and it comes out as hard as a radial tyre. Shirl's parma looked a bit like a hockey puck. Johns gone the pasta and no apparent complaints.

So here I am at the end of another day typing this blog in the laundry so I can access power. Tomorrow we head to Ceduna around 500 ks. I have set my alarm for some time i9n the morning that may be a complete surprise.