Cocklebiddy - 438km east of Norseman and a population of 8. It consists of a roadhouse with a caravan park attached. When I say caravan park I mean a large gravel site with ten double power poles. Power is generated by a big (huge!) generator that is purring away in the background. There is no water here, or indeed at any of the caravan sites across the Nullarbor. Water is a very valuable commodity. However for our $30 (powered site) we are given two tokens that will give us two (2) five minute showers so that is actually pretty good value!
We woke fairly early this morning so we were in the car and heading out of Norseman before 8am. The van park we stayed in was full of mine workers and they were moving around well before 5am. I am excited to be finally heading across the Nullarbor as Philip has talked about it a lot over the years. But, as he reminds me, he was only 21 when he headed across the Nullarbor and you don't take a lot of notice of "things" at that age. However I think his memory is remarkable as he describes large open sheds with a lot of roof area to catch water that flows into tanks, that are scattered across the Nullarbor. Low and behold we came across one of these when we stopped for lunch today and it was exactly as he described. Under the shed was a large picnic table and bench stools. Somebody, with a lot of patience, had nailed bottle caps along the whole length of one of these stools (fortunately flat side up!)
We went for a little walk to stretch our legs after our toastie lunch and I spotted yet some more, you guessed it, Wildflowers! These were small but ever so pretty.
One of our stops this morning was at Balladonia Roadhouse that is better known as the place where the American Skylab space station crashed to earth in 1979. Large chunks of it were scattered all over the area so the Balladonia local council sent NASA a bill for littering (tongue in cheek) and it is said that President Jimmy Carter rang the Roadhouse and apologised for littering the local area😂. There is a little museum attached to the roadhouse that covers the history of the local area.
The scenery across this section of the Nullarbor is not at all as I expected and it looks almost exactly the same as a lot of the country in the North West of Queensland, particularly around the Cloncurry area. Admittedly there are no hills but it is still looks and feels very familiar to us.
You see some pretty funny things along the Eyre Highway. This would have to be one of the most unique "home on wheels" that we have ever laid our eyes on. It looks like something out of the Beverley Hillbillies....
And then there was this cyclist on his electric bike - pedalling in thongs! We know for a fact that you have to charge these bikes fairly often so we wondered how long he would go before he had to use just leg power.....
These signs are scattered along the highway and I actually spotted a mob of camels out to the left. I wasn't quick enough to get a photo unfortunately......
And lastly is the sign that signals to us that the highway can also be used as an airstrip in the case of an R.F.D.S. emergency. We have come across these quite a few times in Western Australia and we think that they are a fantastic idea.
Tomorrow we will drive as far as Eucla that is just inside the Western Australian/South Australian border on the Western Australian side. I will have a bit of a cook-up when we arrive, to use the last of my fruit and vegetable that will be confiscated at the border if not used.
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