Not A Mid Life Crisis, Just An Extended Tour (Part XXVIII) - The West Coast Exploration

 DAY 40

40 days on the road! 40 amazing days of riding since I first left home, heading southbound waaaay back in early February! N.S.W., Victoria, Tasmania and now South Australia, here I was on the eastern edge of the Nullarbor Plain!

 It had rained on and off during the night and I really didn't want to be wet all day..... Thankfully, this being the driest state in the driest continent, the rain was only very light and despite it being overcast, looked fairly unlikely to actually rain again for a while. So, I loaded up and hit the road westward again.

Please note - my speedo is out due to gearing change. That is 110km/h actual speed.

 

The countryside soon changed from the open wheat fields of the last few days to low scrubby bush. A little way up the road I turned over a milestone distance with the bike which necessitated a photo stop. 

Yeah, there wasn't much traffic out here....

I buzzed along on my own with hardly a car or truck for company for a few hours. I passed the Yalata aboriginal community turnoff, which was closed off to the public for Covid reasons. I had really wanted to head north through there and go check out Maralinga, the site of the atomic bomb tests in the 1950s but that was sadly off limits for me today. 😞

I soon came to this famous sign.

The trees certainly did end and "Nullus Arbor" seems to have been turned to the modern Nullarbor - not an aboriginal word but the latin for No Trees.

Not too far past the sign was the turn of for The Head of The Bight. This was what I wanted to see!

The Head of The Bight is literally just that. It is the most northerly bit of the Southern Ocean on the Australian mainland.

It is also a sheltered spot where Southern Right whales come to mate and give birth. I wasn't sure what to expect here (again because I didn't bother researching it 😜) but was pleasantly surprised to find a visitors centre with toilet blocks and BBQ shelter. Of course, all of this necessitated an entry fee.....

But I figured I had come a long way for this and they had put in a bit of effort building infrastructure waaay out here...... and to top it off, there WERE whales!!

Of course, I couldn't get a decent photo with only a phone camera but you get the gist. 😁

There were about eight cows with calves just floating around. Occasionally coming up for air, it was the calves that were a bit more frisky, splashing around and climbing up onto their mother's backs. I stood around for far longer than I thought I might, even putting up with the light rain that was falling now. Yeah, this was pretty cool and worth the effort to get here. 😎 

Back on the bike and I needed to head further west for fuel. Nullarbor Roadhouse is about 25 kilometres away and was going to be my turn around point.

I had considered for a while now whether I would keep this ride going and turn it into a lap of the country. Taking the bike to Western Australia would introduce a new level of complexity as far as getting to and from the bike on my days off. South Oz was ok as there were several flights a day and I wasted less than half a day doing the commute. W.A. would waste a full day each way and there weren't many flights per day so my chances of becoming stuck at the far end were drastically increased.

Then there was the whole moral dilemma of me not wanting to spend a cent of my money in Western Australia after the way we were treated when we had to fly in during the Covid lockdowns. A group of professional workers, who were only getting one day of work per month, being forced to sit around on the floor and barked at by W.A. police like a bunch of illegal immigrants, all for just carrying out our rostered duties and following all established health protocols..... nah, fcuk Western Australia. 

I hope they secede.

I had been surprised at the relatively cheap fuel throughout South Australia, even on the relatively remote Eyre Peninsula it was 40 to 50 cents per litre cheaper than in Brisbane. I was therefore happy to see a hefty price put on fuel here at the Nullarbor Roadhouse. Now I felt like I was in the outback!!

I pushed the bike under the awning as it was still spitting with rain and proceeded inside for some food and a coffee. And to plan the rest of the day. Where to now? Back east, yeah, sure. But to where? 🤔

Leaving the roadhouse a friendly "grey nomad" offered to take a photo for me. I asked him for a specific angle, explaining that I'm a bit particular about my photos. He took this for me...

Which wasn't bad but it also wasn't this angle which I had shown him....

I really wanted the whole whale in the shot. Oh well, beggers can't be choosers as they say.

Thirty metres away were a couple of "standard" road trains, so of course I needed a picture of those for the collection.

Now, I had seen the wildlife warning signs but honestly, I hadn't seen any live animals and there wasn't more than one dead animal on the side of the road for every 100 kilometres and that animal (all 3 of them) appeared to be wombats.

I had decided that I would head back to Streaky Bay tonight. A mere 406 kilometres back along that straight highway. At least it started raining to keep things interesting! Riding in the rain is the only time I really appreciate the tall screen that is fitted to the AT. At least I can hide from it and it greatly reduces the wind chill factor. 

Back in Ceduna for fuel and I was starting to feel sorry for myself. Well, until I went in to pay for my fuel and the same lady that was giving me cheek yesterday was there! She remembered me from yesterday and asked about the ride out to T.H.O.T.B. then proceeded to flirt a bit. Lol. That cheered me up!😄

It was only 103 kilometres to Streaky Bay now and the rain was getting heavier. I was going to do some dirt roads but decided to give them a miss in the wet. I just wanted to get off the bike and into a warm pub now. There was virtually no traffic and I really wicked the Twin up. This saw me in a deserted Streaky Bay in no time at all.

I checked in and was pleasantly surprised with the room. It was a lot newer than most and had the most unusual "drop in" bathroom that seemed to be made out of one huge plastic mould. Never seen that outside of a caravan before...

Rather than hit the bar right away I went for a wander down the street to pick up some nibbles and some breakfast items for tomorrow. The architecture along the main street was interesting and probably in better nick than most small country towns.

Back at the pub I grabbed a glass of red and retired to my room to edit GoPro footage and upload photos to SmugMug. It was nice to be warm and dry!

Wandering downstairs at 6pm for a drink and dinner I was pleasantly surprised by the cosiness of the bar. It was pretty quiet but again, soon filled up after I snapped this photo.

I enjoyed another delicious round of King George Whiting washed down with a pale ale. I got chatting to another solo traveller. He was recently retired, recently divorced and pretty much cleaned out so had moved from Sydney to Coffin Bay to start over again. He was quite philosophical about it all but it helped me remember how lucky I am to be doing this trip (and all of the stuff I have done over the last ten or so years) with a fair degree of financial stability and spousal approval.

Yep, I'm a lucky bloke.

Another 650 (mostly wet) kilometres under the wheels today. Still, it beats working....😉

Cheers.