Brisbane Trip Day 24: Armidale

This was definitely the coldest night we've had on the trip so far, and a bit of a shock after such warm nights in Brisbane. We used all the blankets and it wasn't too uncomfortable. I was up early and there was a fog covering the show grounds, with the sun shining through and silhouetting all the show buildings, it was very pretty.

I had a cup of tea and breakfast and the kids joined me as they woke up. Once I'd eaten I started work on my car window - being a Sunday I figured there'd be no one around to fix it, and also I didn't want to pay someone again, I was sure I could figure it out. It took me a while to get the door panel off, there were a couple of screws I didn't find until I looked up a diagram online. With the panel off I could see what the problem was - the window had jumped the rails and was jammed between the window column and the door frame. I tried to shift it out but it wasn't budging at all. I thought I just needed more strength, so asked the guy in the camper trailer next to us if he could help. He was a young guy, and a mechanic, and happy to help out. He'd also had a similar problem with his own window. My window though was well and truly jammed and he couldn't shift it with strength. He tried a few things and eventually found a screw that loosened the window enough to move it back and out of the jam, then put it into it's rail. He put everything back together for me and the window worked perfectly. I was very grateful.

By now it was nearly 11am so we quickly got ready and headed off to explore. We drove around Armidale and I showed the kids places that I remembered. Amelie was impressed with all the churches. I wanted to show them the 3 houses I'd lived in, on the first pass I couldn't find any of them - everything looked so different. We got petrol and drove up Elm Avenue to the uni, I was pleased to show them this beautiful road that I walked up so many times. There were a few yellow leaves here and there, but it was mainly showing it's summer glory. Driving back through town I found 2 of my houses and I think the driveway of the third.

We set off along the Waterfall Way to the east. I love this countryside - with the elevation so high the sky seems to go forever and the clouds sit differently to what we are used to. The land is pretty dry, with beautiful dead trees in all the paddocks, and lots of large rocks strewn everywhere. It's pretty tough land, very beautiful. We saw 3 eagles on our drive out to Wollomombi Falls.

At the falls we wandered around the picnic area a bit, got a glimpse of Chandler Falls, looked at the gorge, used the toilets then checked the maps and decided to do the walk that goes towards the tops of the falls. The walk was quite pretty, through wooded hills with a mix of living and dead trees and interesting undergrowth. The first lookout gave us a good view of the gorge - it was deep and immense looking - lots of places where we could see that rockfalls had happened, huge slabs of rock lining the walls where there hadn't been falls, and the river way way down below. The day was hot and at one point the kids were thinking about heading back. We could see a cool looking metal bridge up ahead though so kept walking towards that. The bridge crossed the river, above (and a few hundred metres back from) the top of the falls. It was gorgeous, the river trickling between lots of big rocks, and the river banks sloping up to grass and then trees and the blue sky above. We had a play around on the rocks and saw some rock skinks (one swam across the river to get away from us). We found a spot in the shade and sat and ate some lunch (tuna, avocado, ritz and saladas). After eating we explored a bit more above and below the bridge, then kept walking to the lookout at the top of the falls. It was pretty as well, we could see several arms of the falls coming from a rock pool at the top, and had a great view right along the gorge. We couldn't see the bottom of the falls though, they were way below us. After resting a little and admiring the view, we continued on to the lookout for Chandler Falls (two rivers meet at the bottom of the gorge, and they both have massive waterfalls dropping into the gorge just before the meeting place. Wollomombi Falls are the tallest in Australia, over 200m). These falls were also impressive. Not a lot of water in them at the moment, but we could see it falling in steps all the way to the bottom. The gorge here was similar although had different things to look at - a slightly less recent rockfall, different trees, more farmland at the top. We could also see the top of the ridge between the 2 rivers.

The walk back was pretty again although we were all quite tired. The views of the gorge from the lookouts, and even the river at the bridge, looked different because the sun had moved and the shadows were very different. Back at the car we had a big drink of water and a snack and felt a bit refreshed. We drove down to look at the camping ground (which I hadn't realised was there) - it looked pretty and was quite cheap, although the sites looked pretty hard and possibly were all gravel, so it might be tricky for us to set up there.

I'd planned to keep heading east and see Ebor Falls, Dorrigo and maybe even Bellingen, but we'd spent quite a bit of time here and got started later than I'd thought we would, and we were all feeling tired. So instead we went back towards Armidale, then went out to Gara Gorge. The last several kilometres of the road were gravel, and parts of it were the most heavily corrugated I think I've driven on. I had to drive at about 10km/hr in one bit so that the car didn't feel like it was going to fall apart. It seemed to take a long time to get to the gorge, through some very pretty countryside - then suddenly we were on paved roads again as we entered the National Park. We stopped at the Blue Hole and got out to have a look. I remembered people swimming here, and while it was attractive to look at, it didn't look inviting to swim in. No one else was there and there were no obvious paths down to the water either. We found a path through the grass that led to a big rock so we stood there and watched the birds and the skinks and enjoyed the peaceful surrounds.

I'd seen people coming out along the road who had been swimming, and several cars came past from further into the park, so we went down there. There were a lot more cars at the next carpark. We walked down to the river and saw kids in the water, and people walking back up the path in wet clothes, so I popped back to the car and got the kids swimmers. The other kids had said there was a better spot to swim further down the river. Liam and Caitlin clambered over the rocks to explore, which was fun (although Liam scratched his shoulder quite badly on a tree). They came back up and the 4 of us walked down the path a way until we found another place to reach the river. The rocks rose up quite steeply either side of the water, and the valley was narrower and more full of trees than the valley we'd had lunch in. This was beautiful as well, in a darker way. The water was reflecting in shimmery patterns on the overhanging rocks, it was very cool. The kids sat on the edge of a rock with their feet in the water and the fish nibbled on their skin, and I found a beachy area where I could wade into the water. It was cold, though bearable. The kids joined me (we had to duck under a tree branch to get to the beach) and Caitlin made her way over a rock to sit on a submerged (slippery) rock. I'd walked in to about my waist and Liam came with me, then swam out to a rock in the middle of the river. Caitlin made her way out there as well, then when she came back in I went out. There were lots of big rocks under the water and while the water was clear it was in the shade and hard to see, so we didn't swim around a lot. It was lovely though, being in the water and looking up at the rocks and the trees (and the extra reflections that the ripples we were making created on the rocks). Amelie played in the water near where we came in, it sloped down quite quickly there so it was easy to get right in to the water.

We got out and talked to a couple who were making their way up the river going from rock to rock - just where we were there wasn't an easy way to get across or around so they walked through the water. I sat with my feet in the river for a while and enjoyed the fish nibbling on my dry skin. We got dressed and walked back to the car. Amelie read the history of the water flume that used to be here - there was hydro power here once. It was interesting too to look at the debris stuck in the trees and see how high the flood level is here when there's been a lot of rain.

The drive out was a lot easier - the sun was low in the sky and was highlighting the corrugations in the road so I could avoid them as much as possible. We called in at Coles when we were back in town to grab milk and eggs and a 6-pack of beer for the guy who fixed my window. We drove around a little more so the kids could see the attractive main street and the fountain in the mall.

Back to camp and we all went and had hot showers, then had egg and cabana sandwiches for dinner. We tidied up (and I did the dishes so they weren't slowing us down in the morning) and once again were all in bed between 9 and 9.30.

Half-lap Day 109: Naracoorte -> Camperdown

The beds were so comfortable and the temperature of the house just right, and we all slept really well. I got up and had a shower then worked on the computer for a while, the others gradually woke up and played on the iPad then went out to have breakfast with our hosts. We had a relaxed morning, watching the Olympics and chatting some more, and I finished the 8^th Harry Potter book. We packed the car quite easily as we’d taken very little out, then spent quite a while saying goodbye to the dogs. We were ready to leave around 10am.

We drove straight to Naracoorte Caves and bought tickets for the Bat Cave tour (how could we resist!?), then we had an hour to wander through the fossil centre and look at all the animals that have been discovered in this cave system, and learn about how old the caves were and how paleontologists figure this stuff out. Seeing the megafauna that used to live in this area was pretty cool and exciting. The fossil centre had a cave in it, with a tunnel to crawl through – we all had a go and it was just slightly claustrophobic for some of us. Caitlin loved it, and is keen to come back here to do some adventure caving one day (in the real caves, not the manmade one in the fossil centre). We had a sandwich and the kids bought commemorative coins of the fossil centre.

We started off on the tour and went into a room set up with TVs that display the footage from infrared cameras in the bat cave. We could see little bats on the wall of the cave, and then found an area where lots of them were flying around. It was cool to be able to see them without disturbing them at all. We also got to look at pictures of bats and at a couple of real bats that have been preserved. Nice to be able to see the actual size of them (these guys are Southern Bent-Wing Bats).

From there we went into Blanche Cave. The guide had offered the kids one of the torches to carry, so there was fierce negotiation about who would hold it when and for how long, which resolved itself fairly well. Blanche cave started as a large open chamber, with entries at both ends. It was quite light and airy inside, it was more like a massive open room. There were lots of columns, and holes up in the ceiling (caused by carbon dioxide bubbles when the cave was full of water in ancient times), and interesting patterns on the walls – there were places where we could still see shells and coral and tubeworms making up part of the limestone. There were also a coulple of preserved animals who had died down here, a possum and a turtle, adding to the depth of knowledge that the animal remains are providing to the scientists around here.

We went further into the cave, through a little garden area and into another chamber that only had the one entrance, so it was quickly much darker. The temperature dropped significantly as we walked in. There was another preserved possum here, probably 150 years since it died, and it still had a full pelt of skin, the cold dry air and darkness helping it decompose very very slowly. There were areas of the ground here littered with tiny little bat bones, which will eventually turn into fossils. I was impressed with the way we were allowed access to safe areas of the cave, and they had cordoned off any areas where people walking would harm the history or heritage of the cave. We went off the main path, with the guide, into the Bat Chamber – no Batman here, and we only saw one little bat, hiding in a crevice. Cool formations on the walls and floors though, and some very old graffiti – burned into the ceiling with candle smoke, or carved into a column in the middle of the chamber – dates as old as 1885!

Leaving that chamber we went further into the cave and found where most of the bats were hanging out (the Bat Cave is their breeding cave, the one we were looking at through the infrared cameras, and no one goes in there. This cave is one of the places they hang out during the winter when they are in torpor and not going out to feed much. We were allowed to shine shuttered light at them unless they started chirping then we needed to leave them alone. We found 4 clumps of bats up on the ceiling, all huddled together. They were cute, just moving around a little bit and checking us out then deciding we were no threat. (I think LiAM and I, and maybe the girls, were the only ones who thought they were cute. We loved them.)

We walked back out, chatting to the guide, then did a quick toilet stop and got on our way. Today we drove through the Coonawarra wine region, very prettyy again and quiite different from home or the Barossa that we saw yesterday. The vineyards still stretched as far as the eye could see, but they seemed to be owned by more wineries, lots of small allotments of vines rather than just a few big ones owned by few companies.

We turnd left at Penola and were soon back in Victoria. After most of our border crossings on the trip – either quarantine stations or at least big signs and rest stops and a bit of fanfare, this one was very tame. Just a blue sign along a winding country road saying ‘Welcome to Victoria’. Everyone felt quite comforted to be back, and home is seeming ever closer.

The drive was beautiful once again. The land was very green, at this end of winter. Areas of massive gum trees throughout the fields (and low lying areas full of water, there’s obviously been a lot of rain here this season) soon gave way to rolling hills, with few trees, covered in green grass. We saw lots of cattle, and sheep, and windmills. The road was much windier than most of the roads we’ve driven on in this trip, as well as hillier, and Caitlin felt a little carsick.

We drove through Casterton and Coleraine which were beautiful little towns. We stopped for petrol in Hamilton and Tony and I remembered it from when we were here before Caitlin was born. The last bit of the drive to Camperdown went fairly quickly – Tony was in familiar territory now and we all felt a bit like we were nearly home when we reached Camperdown.

We went to Tony’s Nanna’s first. She had just popped out to see the nurse so we chatted to Tony’s uncle until she got back, comparing travel stories and catching up on family news from home.  Nanna came back and we had a cup of tea with her and Tony’s aunt, and ate some of Nanna’s sausage rolls. It was great to see her and she was thrilled to see the kids again, it’s been a couple of years. The kids played with her dog and her cat and it felt so cosy and comfortable to be there.

Eventually we said goodbye and went to Tony’s uncle’s house (a different uncle). We met their dogs and had a drink and settled down to chat while dinner finished cooking. We watched some Olympics and caught up on everyone’s news. We had a delicious roast lamb for dinner, then Tony got out the computer and showed his uncle some of the old photos we’d copied over from his cousin in Perth, he really enjoyed seeing them and they reminisced for a good while.

Millie was tired so w the kids and I went to the bedroom and we read the last chapter of Inheritance, so fitting that we finished it on the last night of her trip. I stayed with her until she went to sleep, then went to bed myself. The kids stayed up a while longer, LiAM did some drawing in Paintbrush and made an awesome picture of a horse, Caitlin played on her iPad and showed Tony’s uncle how to make videos. Eventually everyone headed to bed for our very last night away.

Half-lap Day 108: Port Parham -> Naracoorte

There was very little rain overnight, and when we woke up some of the puddles had started to recede, so it was a bit easier to get to the car. I went for a walk over to the beach and the tide had gone out – the water was out further than I could see, and the beach was a long expanse of wet, flat sand and seaweed. In the far distance I could see the darker blue of the deeper water of the gulf.

We had breakfast and the kids played, then Caitlin went out on her bike again and rode with the guy from last night for a while. Tony and Millie played a game where she was like a Hobbit and he had to find her. We packed up, wanting to move things around a bit as we weren’t sure if we’d be setting up the tent tonight or not – we were staying with friends and hadn’t decided whether we’d be staying inside or camping in their yard – so I set things up so that they things we’d need would be accessible either way. There were shells and bits of mud everywhere so there was lots of sweeping and shaking out to do as well. The kids explored the beach a bit and then LiAM and Millie played with their new Skylanders in the car.

We left around 11 and headed back out to the highway the way we’d come in – realising later that there was an easier, sealed road that we could have taken. Looking at the map, there were 2 ways we could go to get to Naracoorte, one through the centre of Adelaide and one through Gawler and Mt Pleasant. We’d never been to Mt Pleasant so decided to go that way even though it was a bit windier. The countryside we drove through was beautiful. Mainly farmland, and hilly, and so so green. We saw great big gum trees, the biggest trees we’ve seen in a long time. Lots of horses, and sheep farms and some cows and even a deer farm. There were vineyards as well. After a while there were less trees and the hills were covered in many rocks. It was a very pleasant drive.

After winding through the hills for quite a while we eventually came to a point where we could see the plains spreading out below us, and drove down a steep hill between the rocky slopes. We got to Murray Bridge and got petrol, then continued along the main highway, the road we drove towards Adelaide on when we started the trip.

We turned off the highway just before Keith and headed towards Naracoorte. More green farmland and big trees, which after a while gave way to vineyards. The bare vines and poles looked so beautiful and symmetrical, which felt exciting when I remembered that that’s what our place will look like! The vineyards each seemed really huge, partly I think because the land was quite flat and I’m used to the full size of the vineyards being obscured by hills. It was another great place to drive through.

We stopped in Naracoorte to get some beer and were impressed with the stone buildings and houses. It looks like a very pretty town. Our friends live a bit out of town so we headed out there – we are staying with the parents of one of Tony’s workmates. The kids were excited to get there – they had met one of our host’s dogs when he was 8 weeks old and really loved him, he’s now 6 months old and they couldn’t wait to see him again. He’s much bigger now, still fluffy and playful like a puppy but big enough to jump up and nearly knock Millie over. We stood outside and met our hosts and played with the dogs, before going inside to have a drink.

They had made up beds for us in their spare rooms so we agreed to stay inside. It was a beautiful house and there was a room for the girls, one for Tony and I and a sofa bed for LiAM in a room with a TV. The kids watched TV for a while and Tony and I chatted with the other adults. LiAM played cards and the girls watched him and talked to us. They cooked us a magnificent dinner, lasagne and then Lemon Meringue Pie – great food and a really easy atmosphere to eat in. After dinner we watched some Olympics (including the horse jumping, Caitlin was thrilled) and chatted some more. It was warm in the house and we’d eaten so much food – I was feeling really sleepy. Caitlin had a shower and then we went in to the girls’ room to read the second last chapter of Inheritance – looks like we’ll finish it before we get home! The girls went to sleep and I went and sat with LiAM for a while until he was comfortable, then we went to bed in an extremely comfortable and warm bed.

Half-lap Day 103: The Nullarbor

I got up just after sunrise and it was cold and beautiful outside the tent, the early morning sun shining on the few trees and over the low bushes surrounding the campsite. I went for a bit of a walk to find more firewood, there were a couple of dead trees not far from us and I was able to find plenty of branches around them that would get the fire going again for the morning.

I sat near the fire for a while and then as people woke up, got breakfast ready and we started to pack up. Everyone was cold and wanted to sit near the fire, which helped us feel warmer and may have slowed down our packing a bit. We were ready to go around 10.30, the last (by a few minutes) people to leave the campground.

We continued eastward along the longest straight stretch of road in Australia. There was a slight slope to parts of it, so we could only see 5 or 10km ahead, and when it was flat, the road shimmered out of sight in the distance, so we didn’t ever feel like we got a strong visual sense of how long it was – but it did take a long time to drive, without a bend. It wasn’t boring though, the scenery was fascinating, sometimes low, sparsely scattered trees, sometimes plains of low bushes, all very dry and inhospitable looking, but always quite pretty. It was exciting to get to the end and have the road bend a little. There weren’t a lot of bends over the course of the day – mainly the road was straight with the occasional meander to one side or the other. Therre wasn’t a lot of traffic either,  some road trains and caravans coming the other way, and occasionally another truck or van going our way, often we were the only vehicle we could see.

Part of the longest straight stretch of road

Not long after we started driving we saw a dead camel by the side of the road – our first wild camel sighting and we all felt it was a sad way to start. About 2 hours later we saw live camels, four of them to the right of the road,  in an area with no trees. We pulled over and watched them for a while, very excited to tick another desired animal off our list. Later on I saw a pair of emus – the kids didn’t see them though so we hoped that we would see more as we kept driving.

Camels

Around 2pm we were approaching Madura, and saw a sign to a lookout. I think this is the place someone told me about, way back in Hahndorf, so I suggested we pull over. It was a fairly bumpy road in to the lookout, and then the view was incredible. The road sloped down quite steeply just after the turn off to the lookout, and below us was the Nullarbor Plain – flat land for as far as we could see, with low, silvery green bushes and grass, and the occasional tree scattered all the way across. From where we stood the trees looked like emus – rounded green tops with thin trunks. To the north of the plain, looking straight ahead in the direction of the road, was a large escarpment – I had no idea that it even existed. From the lookout we could hear, and then see as they came past, the road trains and the caravans laboring up the hill as they headed west.

View from Madura lookout

We had lunch while we were stopped, then drove down the hill ourselves, onto the plain. The road followed the escarpment for the rest of the day. The terrain was similar all the way, with the occasional stand of taller gum trees (not tall, but not the tiny trees that were over most of the plain. Many of the rest stops had these taller trees. 

Once again the sun was setting fast as we drove away from it. We had hoped to get to the border, or at least close to it, today – however there was a strong vote for stopping at a rest stop with a toilet, and the last toilet was at Jilah Rockhole, about 70km before the border. We arrived there about 4pm and found a nice clearing between trees and set up the tent – the sun was close to setting by the time the tent was up so it was good timing. We wandered through the trees to find wood for a fire, finding a pile left by someone at one of the spots near the back (again, it was a very large camping area, with lots of relatively private spots because of the trees) and Tony found some wood he could cut with his axe. Caitlin had a bit of a scare as we loaded wood onto her bike – 2 wolf spiders were nestled together in a hollow in one piece of wood, and it took a while before we found them on the ground (after we flung the wood away) to make sure that neither of them were still on her bike.

We got the fire going and I made a cup of tea, while Tony cooked dinner. I hung some washing so it could start to dry in the morning, and Caitlin went for a ride to see if she could find anyone heading west so that she could give them our leftover onions – we can’t take fruit and veg into South Australia and we’d used all the onions we could manage. We also had carrots and apples left and felt confident we could eat them in the morning.

Caitlin had finished reading the 8^th Harry Potter book in the morning, and I got it out to start reading. While I did the washing LiAM started to read it and made his way through most of the first scene – that’s all 3 kids who have started to read by reading a Harry Potter book.

Caitlin hadn’t come back when our sausage and egg burgers were ready, so LiAM and I went to find her. She was talking to couple from the Central Coast, who were travelling west and had taken our onions gratefully, and as usual we shared tips on places we’d been and things to do. We walked back over and had our dinner and enjoyed sitting around the fire.

The toilet was interesting – a drop toilet, not surprisingly, but with a very narrow hole leading from the bowl down into the pit underneath. Normally with the narrow hole, the toilet has a water pump that lets a small amount of water be run down the bowl after use, or a bucket of water with disinfectant in it and a toilet brush that can be used to clean the bowl. This one had neither – just a stick (an old broom handle) that could be used to poke down anything that hadn’t made it through the narrow hole. It was pretty gross, and seemed to get worse every time we went in there. I’ve recommended to my friends who are following us across the Nullarbor in the next week or so that they don’t bother stopping here just because it has a toilet…

We heated up our hot water bottles on the fire and snuggled into bed, with beanies and socks and neck warmers, to read Inheritance, which is getting extremely exciting.

Half-lap Day 102: Esperance ->The Nullarbor

LiAM woke up feeling extremely cold around 4.30am and came up to our bed. Millie was already there too so it was a little crowded. I waited until everyone else had settled back down to sleep then extricated myself and got up into the cold morning at around 5.30. I put on as many clothes as I could find and went and sat in the car to use the computer. Once the camp kitchen was open at 6.30 I moved over there to have a cup of tea and charge the computer and my camera battery.

Everyone was a bit reluctant to get up because it was so cold. As the sun got higher though the day started to warm a little and I gradually shed my layers as I started to pack everything up. We had breakfast while we packed and kept an eye on what was happening in the Olympics, particularly the swimming. We all stopped to watch the semi-final of the womens 100m freestyle on Tony’s phone, which an Australian won (Cate Campbell).

We were ready to go before 10, and headed slightly out of town to the Esperance Bird and Animal Park (we pulled over to the side of the road to watch the mens 100m Freestyle Final, also won by an Australian, very exciting to see another gold medal). Tony dropped us off at the Bird and Animal Park, unhitched the trailer, and went back into town to get groceries, petrol etc.

As we had driven up the driveway to the park we’d seen Scottish Highland Cows on one side, and horses and ponies on the other, so everyone was excited even before we got through the door. In the café area there were tanks with turtles, lizards, fish and frogs, and once I’d paid and the kids had finished looking at those we moved outside. The first several cages were of birds – lots of Australian birds and also more exotic species, the coolest of which was probably a golden pheasant – I’ve never seen a bird with such varied colouring, and he had a gloriously long tail. We moved past more cages of birds and up a hill, then through a shipping container that is a bridge across the path below (very clever) and then down past more birds and almost back to the start. The path from there went around under the shipping container past more cages of birds – this time the highlight was a Major Mitchell Cockatoo who appeared to be digging himself an escape tunnel – he had made quite a hole in under the wall and was working hard at it. We were amused though that if he got through he’d end up in a tiny little ‘air lock’ cage in the entrance of the cage next door.

Around the corner we came to the mammals, which we were allowed to feed (the kids had each been given a bag of food). The lady at the café had said we’d know who we could feed because they’d ask for it, and she was certainly right! We walked around the corner and suddenly 2 goat’s head were thrust through the fence, trying to get to our food. We fed and patted the goats, then some kangaroos, several pens of sheep, some more goats, 3 emus (who got incredible range with their long necks as they poked them through the fence – I was standing back so they didn’t peck me, and a sheep from the pen across the path stuck its head through the fence and started nibbling on my shoes).  At the end of that path were 2 miniature horses who we stopped and patted for a while, then back past the other side of the sheep to a pen with 3 alpacas in it. We tried to fee the smallest of the 3, but he was very shy, and the other 2 kept getting the food first no matter how we tried to distract them and give some to the little guy.

We moved on to some ducks and chickens, then there was a pen where we could go in with lambs and kids, the kids enjoyed that until the kid nibbled Millie’s ear when she was leaning over to pat a lamb (who was lying on the ground with a coat on and didn’t look very well – he got up and tottered around for a while and looked very unsteady). From there we went into the rabbit pen and the kids could have stayed all day. There were big rabbits and baby rabbits, plenty for everyone to cuddle. Eventually we also discovered some guinea pigs. There was a 5^th birthday party happening at the park and a lot of the kids were in the rabbit pen when we arrived, they moved on to have their party food and our kids got to pat and hold rabbits as much as they liked. Eventually they came out of the pen and we saw a wedge-tailed eagle called Willow – she had a broken shoulder and can’t be released into the wild. She was magnificent looking, so impressive to see – we felt quite sad though because she was up on the highest perch in the cage and kept trying to fly out of the top corner, she didn’t look very happy at all.

We did a quick circuit back around past all the mammals and the emus so that LiAM could use up the rest of his food and we could pat everyone again. We ended up back in with the rabbits and stayed there until Tony said he was back and hitched up and ready to go. We washed our hands and went to the toilet and chatted to the lady in the café then headed back to the car and on our way around midday.

Tony had bought cheese and bacon rolls, and doughnuts, so we were able to eat lunch in the car as we drove north towards Norseman. The countryside here was largely treed, good sized gum trees that reminded us a bit of home. There were more of the low lying areas that fill with water at times, as well as some sizable lake type areas with lots of water in them. We did see one billabong that was pink, exciting to actually see a pink lake after missing all the others  (there were some up along the west coast that we didn’t go to see).  We stopped at a rest stop once to get LiAM a drink of milk, then kept going to Norseman where we filled up with petrol. Norseman looked like an old town, all the houses were made of fibro and it seemed pretty sleepy. We listened to Harry Potter on and off, playing alphabet or word association games in between.

From Norseman we headed out on the Eyre Highway to the east – really heading towards home now and excited to be about to cross the Nullarbor. The highway was initially between trees again, not quite as tall here but still fairly thick. The gum trees were thinner than we had been seeing, and their trunks were a shiny coppery colour. Their leaves were a very glossy green, it was like the whole trees were a bit sparkly. We stopped at a rest stop to fill up our water bottles from our bigger containers in the back – it was hot in the car (22 degrees outside which is the warmest day in the last week or so, and the sun was shining and making us all quite warm) and we’d drunk all our water in our little water bottles. We wandered areound the rest area a bit, it felt pretty remote and dry. There were still trees but they were getting shorter. We drove a bit further and stopped athte Belladonia Roadhouse for more petrol (we didn’t need much but wanted to hit the Nullarbor with a full tank, especially as the price is likely to get more expensive as we go across). The sun was low in the sky but we were keen to get to a rest stop with toilets – there are 24 hour rest areas quite frequently on this highway, but few of them have toilets.

As we drove further east the landscape changed a bit and there was mainly low, silvery bush, very few trees at all. We passed the 90 mile sign – the start of the longest straight stretch of road in Australia – 90 miles, or 146 km. We’d seen plenty of long straight stretches of road on our drive so far today, and when we measured them on the odometer they were only 5-10km long, so this stretch is going to be beyond our imagination. We drove a short way then pulled into Woorla Homestead Rest Area and found a place to put the tent – at first it looked like every cleared area was a road, then we found a spot between several clumps of bushes and trees, and we settled ourselves in there.

The sun had nearly set but we had plenty of time to get the tent up in the light. Tony started cooking tea and I organised the beds and the chargers for our devices. Caitlin rode her bike around and explored the site. LiAM really wanted a fire so he and I went exploring for firewood, it was easy to find small sticks but bigger ones were more difficult. It was quite enjoyable walking together in the dark, with a half-moon and lots of stars. We found a little bit of wood, and discovered that the rest area went WAY back, it was huge, so many spots for people to camp.

We came back and got the fire going and had our dinner (lamb and mashed potato). Caitlin was exhausted and went straight to bed to keep reading the new Harry Potter book. LiAM and Millie roasted the last few marshmallows, then we heated the water for the hot water bottles on the fire. Tony found some more wood across the road and got the fire nice and hot. He also cooked up the rest of our potatoes so that we won’t have to throw them out if we get to the border today.

It was cold but not as much as the last few nights, it wasn’t too uncomfortable in the tent. I read Inheritance while Tony did the dishes (so he could hear the story as well) then we all snuggled in to go to sleep.