Southern Right Whales and More on the Nullarbor

 Friday 31 July 2026 - 178641

There was frost on the car this morning after a very cold night. It was 1 degree Celsius on waking this morning – glad I bought those slippers. We had a later start this morning as the sun gets up so late this far south in winter.  We prepared a curry to cook in the thermal cooker as we travelled today. We did our gym routines followed by a billy bath and leisurely breakfast. We left camp at 9:45am.

Today was the beginning of our touristing, rather than just covering distance.

Stop 1 Bookabie School Ruins – there are ruins of schools all through here, most having closed in the 1950’s.

Stop 2 Fowlers Bay – mounds of seaweed on the beach, a long jetty and amazing sand dunes. As we drove out across the claypan, our car reported that we were below sea level.

Fowlers Bay Conservation Park

Stop 3 Yalata for a lunch break – nice big shelter with tables.

Stop 4 Head of Bight – I had high expectation as I had heard this was special, it did not disappoint! There were so many whales and in so close to the cliffs. I had thought I may need my binoculars, but we were able to watch about 10 whales at a time without any assistance. We saw about 20 different whales in the hour we watched, including one particularly active calf. The view of the Bunda Cliffs was also quite impressive.

Head of Bight

Stop 5 Nullarbor Roadhouse and Murrawijinie Caves – the three caves were all different and all spectacular in their own way. The road had puddles on it, not something I was expecting to see on the Nullarbor Plains; it would have been a quagmire in the wet.

Nullarbor Roadhouse  Murrawijinie Cave

  

We have camped for the night at the 164K Peg Area Rest Area, approximately 20km west of Nullarbor.

We are over Halfway to Perth!

 Thursday 30 July 2026 - 178016

The days are starting later as the sun gets up later here. We were up around 7am and had the best showers either of us have had in years – hot water, plenty of pressure and nice feeling water. We were packed up and on the road at 8:30am.

The Flinders Ranges are extremely green; it almost looks artificial; apparently, they have had the most rain this year in around 50 years. 

We crossed over the Heysen Trail at Horrocks Pass on our way to Port Augusta.  Heysen Trail

When we popped out the other side of the Flinders Ranges there was a large wind farm and we could see the ocean. 

We stopped in Port Augusta for groceries and fuel, as well as slippers for me. It was 2 degrees overnight and my feet froze yesterday evening and this morning.

Iron Knob is very obvious from the road.

We had lunch in Kimba.  Drew was so miserably cold that he swapped to his heavy-duty jumper.

In Poochera we looked at the external displays of the Poochera Museum, including a kerosene tin hut; and the information and model of the dinosaur ant. The dinosaur ant is believed to be the earliest, currently living, form of ant after they evolved from wasps.

We stopped briefly in Ceduna to top up our fuel. We have camped for the night at Cohen Old School Site Rest Area.  

Today brings us past the halfway point in the drive from the Sunshine Coast to Cape Naturaliste.

More miles covered

 Wednesday 29 July 2026 – 177418

We were awake at 5:45, and after gym, hot showers, breakfast and packing down we were on the road just after 8:30.  We are aiming to get to South Australia today. On the way to Broken Hill there were lakes on both sides of the road at some distance from the road. We saw an egret, a pelican and small numbers of goats. We arrived in Broken Hill just after 11:30am, which was midday in the rest of NSW as Broken Hill operates on South Australian time. 

My car key had only been working in the warmest part of the day, so we stopped into a hardware store for a new battery for it.  We had lunch in a small park in Broken Hill and then headed out about 1pm. We saw goats, a few emus and sheep, before stopping in Yunta for afternoon tea.

As we approached Peterborough, we passed through the quarantine inspection station to confirm we had no fruit or vegetables on board.  We arrived at Orroroo Caravan Park just before 5pm. It is going to be a very cold night. Orroroo Caravan Park

 

Covering the miles

 Tuesday 28 July 2026 – 176876

Awoke about 6am and could hear people already in the Artesian Bore Bath in the dark. We both went for a one hour run in the beautiful dawn light followed by a soak in the artesian water. Artesian Bore Baths

We were packed up and away at 9:30am. Along the way we saw emus, galahs, a cockatoo, budgerigars and a feral cat.  We stopped just after Warren for lunch by a small watercourse, which was very pretty.

There were a few goats East of Cobar and thousands West of Cobar. While we were stopped at the truckstop just West of Cobar three oversized vehicles went past with several pilot vehicles and a police escort – it appeared the were all carrying pieces of a single large Caterpillar machine, the largest piece of which was a water tank. 

Stopped for the night, just before 5pm, at Emmdale Roadhouse – between Cobar and Wilcannia.