Today felt like a really loooong day even though it was only about 500kms which is the same distance as other driving days. We left Balladonia quite late, 8:30am, relative to all the other early birds who were long gone by the time we left!!

Our first stop was the Caiguna Blowhole which is actually only 50m off the road, not down the 5km of rocky, muddy, boggy dirt track that we drove!! We did have a good laugh about it in the end as G had jumped out of the car to take a photo of the sign and the blowhole was right in front of him but do you think he saw it, nope, down the track it must be. Even funnier was at the end of the dead end track, G got out to listen thinking maybe we’d be able to hear it 😀 😀 😀 we were in the middle of the bush!!!

Back on the road and we pulled into Caiguna and had terrible flashbacks – this was the place we stayed 20+ years ago on our trip across the Nullarbor. Our “budget” accommodation back then was full of mice so we upgraded to the “deluxe” which had cockroaches instead! Thank goodness all the accommodation across the Nullarbor this time has been much better.

Next stop was the Eyre Bird Observatory lookout near Cocklebiddy. Again, a long (40km round trip) gravel/rocky road but a nice view of the escarpment and surrounding area. Unfortunately we couldn’t drive the additional 12km down the scarp to the Eyre Bird Observatory itself as it is strictly high-clearance 4WD access only.

Back on the highway for a flying visit of the Madura Pass lookout which had really lovely views of the surrounding land. We stopped at Madura roadhouse to pick up some chips (that was really all that was on offer) for a late lunch.

Past Mundrabilla which, fun fact, doesn’t stock ULP but does seem to be a very popular stop for truckies and on to Eucla we went. Eucla has also run out of ULP, thankfully we didn’t need any! We visited the Military Memorial and then drove, again along a rocky, gravel road out to the Old Telegraph Station which was interesting. We started to walk to the beach but as we weren’t sure exactly how far out it was and time was getting on, we gave up and headed back to the car. Back along the 4km gravel road and we saw kangaroos starting to mill about close to the road along with the most incredible looking white dingo. This indicated to us it was time to get back onto the highway and head to our accommodation before more wildlife came out to play.

Another 10kms or so up the road, slowly past cows on the edge of the road and dodging a few oversized vehicles, and we crossed the WA/SA border and checked into our accommodation at Border Village roadhouse. The accommodation is really nice, clean and comfortable. Off to the roadhouse for dinner and oh my goodness, yummo, it was delicious. “G”, “L” and “A” all opted for the silverside with roast and steam veg while “R” opted for the chicken parmy. The meals were huge!

As we have no idea really what the time is, we think we’re on Central Western Standard Time (45mins ahead of Perth, 45mins behind Adelaide), we are going to settle in and call it a night as there is another 500km to drive tomorrow!