Cape Le Grand to Port Lincoln

Our last blog was done at  Norseman, in a bit of a hurry trying to stay ahead of imminent bad weather to cross the Nullarbor, after leaving Cape Le Grand National Park, east of Esperance. Well, we crossed happily over the next four days with some sunshine, a little rain and lots of wind, mostly across or behind. We camped in rest areas, at "Baxter" camp on the 90 mile straight before Caiguna, then another near Eucla and one east of nullarbor roadhouse, before motoring into Ceduna in South Australia, the first town we had seen in four days.

We were sad to leave Western Australia at the border crossing near Eucla. It is such a big State, and we had been working our way around it since 21 July when we crossed from the Northern Territory to Kununurra, 10,000 kilometres back. There has been so much to see and experience in Western Australia and we will have so many lasting memories from there, places and people.

The trip across the Nullarbor is a very impressive experience especially for the first time (for M). The long straight road, particularly the 145 kilometres without a bend that is the longest straight stretch of road in Australia, the low shrubs on the "Treeless Plain" (it isn't desert - its really quite interesting) and the view of the Southern Ocean in The Bight from those 300ft cliffs are parts of that experience.

We restocked our fruit and vegies at Ceduna, after reducing these to zero before the quarantine station coming into there (we had to have a cook-up of the last of it for lunch that day, fried tomato and onions etc)

Our plan has been to explore the Eyre Peninsula down around to Port Lincoln and back up the eastern side, looking forward to some fishing and seafood along the way. We stopped five days at Smoky Bay, caught some fish from the jetty, Tommy Rough (Herring) and Trevally, plus 7 Blue Swimmer crabs one day and 12 the next, bought a few dozen oysters in the shell from one of the many oyster sheds in the area and it took some days to clean all that up! M had great fun especially working the dilly pots off the jetty for the crabs - she said she had never found it so easy to catch crabs.

We are now at Port Lincoln for four full days, in an elevated site looking south-east across Boston Bay, with the annex up to shelter from the cool breeze but open all along the side facing down to the bay. We are using this time to catch up with paintings for me and the baby quilt for M, for the new grandchild due in a few weeks. It is basically the last real break we will take before a succession of long days and bush camps across through Broken Hill, to be home by Sunday 18 November. Boston Bay mussels are on the menu for tomorrow - the end of our wining and dining, enjoying the local produce as we go.

There are lots of photos below, some that were not included in that rushed episode done at Norseman. The captions will take you through our travels as far back as Cape Leeuwin, in the Margaret River corner, up to here. This will probably be the last blog. It's a bit sad really, but all good things must come to an end.  We are planning other (shorter) trips already.

Some cows for the kids, Margaret River

M on the Cape Naturaliste to Cape Leeuwin Walk, Leeuwin Lighthouse to Skippy Rock section, peering out of the thick scrub back to the lighthouse

This caught my eye on the way back to the carpark in Walpole NP - I did a double-take at seeing that sort of language on a vehicle, until seeing it more clearly (next photo)

Nothing wrong with that - just me jumping to conclusions

Our campsite at Cape Le Grand - snuggled down out of the wind (very necessary)

A bit more indication of the wind - the heavy weight of the old picnic table was a bit of "insurance"

The view of Mt Le Grand from just above our campsite. We walked up the dozen steps to where this was taken from to get a mobile phone service

The track down to the beach from near our campsite - the white sand and turquoise water so striking

A paint sketch was called for

A monument plaque further east in the park

This beach nearby was totally covered by seaweed, very thick

Flowering gum in the park

Thistle Beach - we saw the people swimming and went back for our togs. It was very cold, but what a lovely spot

Frenchman Peak, one of the 3 main mountains in the park. That is daylight you can actually see through the middle of the cap. There is a path to climb this one (we didn't!)

Part of the 90 Mile Straight on the Nullarbor

Baxter camp - there were at least a dozen rigs here the same night, with storms all around us

The cliffs from a lookout on the Nullarbor

Looking the other way, same lookout

The van parked at the lookout. Yes I was on the wrong side of the fence, but well back from the edge

The overhang shows the reason for the fences. The carpark is just out of shot to the left

Say no more!

Smoky Bay oysters....

More of the good fare from Smoky Bay (we caught the crabs, but bought the oysters)

We drove in and around a 5km "clifftop drive", with the van on, near Elliston on the way down to Port Lincoln. This was at one of the view points

M into the act as well

These were at another view point. Not sure why..

And finally, our camp in the van park at Port Lincoln. From the sheltered annex we look down across Boston Bay. A very nice spot in the warm sun!