Crossing the Nullarbor and into South Australia!

Driving out of Cape Le Grand National Park, we passed back through Esperance and then up to Norseman along the Coolgardie-Esperance Highway.  We stopped at the lovely, little town of Ravensthorpe for some lunch in their town park and took a photo with the van in front of the beautiful painted silos, depicting the flowering cycle of a banksia – very striking. There wasn’t much to Norseman, with the visitor’s centre closed for lunch hour when we arrived, so after a top up of groceries at the local IGA, it was onto the Eyre Highway to commence the 1,200km journey across the Nullarbor Plain.

We managed to travel 500km on Day One, pulling into the Woorlba Rest Area just past Balladonia. There were a few vans already set up for the night, so we parked in a secluded spot, set up the chairs, put on the fly nets and sat looking out across the plains as the sun set. Very relaxing.

Day Two and we were excited to cross the South Australian border and reach the Bunda Cliffs. Recently many of the free camp spots along this section of the Eyre Highway had ‘No Entry’ signs erected, claiming conservation issues. We are unsure if this is due to safety concerns, as there are many fractures now appearing along the cliff lines. As the sun got lower in the sky we were getting concerned that we might miss our opportunity to camp along the cliffs, but thankfully we saw a few vans set up for the night at the Bunda Cliffs Lookout. We don’t think you are supposed to camp there, but 4 other vans had made the call to stop for the night (in silent protest to all the free camps being blocked off) so we were happy to join them after travelling 591km. We got a great view of the cliffs, with excellent light for photographs being thrown onto the surfaces in the setting sun. It was lovely to go to sleep that night listening to the pounded waves upon the cliff faces.

The next morning only a few kilometres further on the Eyre Highway, we took the dirt road turnoff into Bunda Cliffs 1. The posts for the ‘No Entry’ sign were in place, but luckily no sign had been attached as of yet. This area afforded a spectacular view of the cliffs facing west, so up went the drone and Sippy captured some great footage of the BT on the edge of the cliff. We were really lucky with the calm, warm weather as I don’t think you would risk putting up the drone in the normal blustery conditions along this coastline.

It was then onto the Head of Bight, a marine protected area, where we were lucky enough to view three Southern Right Whale cow’s and their calves meandering around the bay. It also provided more fantastic views of the Bunda Cliffs and out to the Great Australian Bight. Female Southern Right Whales travel between May and October to give birth and nurse their calves in the shallow, protected waters in the Head of Bight. Other adults travel to these areas to mate.

After travelling 281km we pulled into Cohen Rest Area to free camp for the night.