Thursday 27th July 2006
Today saw us move out of the caravan park at about 8 a.m. onto the Eyre highway again with a view of reaching Eucla, some 510 kilometres further east. this was a journey to reach the end of the Eyre Highway and once again, there was no real intention to do very much in the way of sight seeing on the way.
About 40 km out from Balladonia, we took a bend on the highway that lead to the longest straight section of road in Australia. It was a further 144.6 km later before we were required to turn the steering wheel again to travel around another bend as we reached Caiguna. As we left Caiguna we were required to wind our clocks forward 45 minutes to match Central West time
From here we had an uneventful drive to Cocklebiddy and about 40 km before we stopped and put 100 ltres of fuel in the Patrol from the jerry cans we carry on the roof rack. We then continued on to Madura, where we pulled in to the lookout at the top of Madura Pass.
After a few photographs from the lookout, we set off down the pass and onto the flats that we would remain on until we reached Mundrabilla and Eucla.
We stopped at Mundrabilla to top up the fuel tank again, collecting 44.2 litres of fuel at 158.0 cents per litre. This is one of the cheapest locations to buy fuel on the Eyre Highway between Norsman and Ceduna, although on this trip Eucla was only 157.7 cents per litre and we expect Penong to also provide some relief from the very inflated prices on the Eyre Highway.
We arrived in Eucla at about 3.45pm and settled in at the Eucla Caravan Park, with a view over the plains below to the old Telegraph Station and the ocean beyond.
Once settled, we disconnected the Patrol from the caravan and drove down to the Old Telegraph Station where we had a wander around it and took a few more photographs of the remains of the building covered in sand.
On our way back to the caravan park we stopped off at Eyres Monument for a few more photos before settling down in the park with a beer and a wine at Beer O'Clock.
The evening was spent enjoying the sunset, then BBQ lamb chops and the last of our salad items as we are not permitted to convey any fresh salads or vegetables into South Australia.
It was then time to get organised for the night and prepared for a reasonable start in the morning as we head out with the intention of reaching Ceduna as our next overnight stop. |