Wednesday 7/7/2010 Koonalda to near Cocklebiddy

(Koonalda to near Cocklebiddy)
Wow. Sunrise over the Nullarbor, with one lonely tree.

We were camped right next to a massive hole. The climb in was far too difficult and dangerous for the kids, I even froze momentarily in one section.

So the kids waited on the surface while Col and I went caving. Inside info is a valuable thing.

After finding the spot you can squeeze through under the caged off entry, we roughly new the direction and length of time needed (about 30 minutes) to get to the underground lakes. Wow!!! Absolutely massive caverns.

We came across old pumping equipment, then crystal clear lakes. We explored only one section of three. More time, better lighting and a rope and harness would be fantastic.
Once we found the lake I only wished Jordan and Jack were there, and my photography teacher.
Andrew and Nell were kind enough to wait around to make sure we returned safely. I got his card. I think I will have to buy his time lapse shot. It is fantastic, plus he has been so good to us. A lovely couple. I'm glad we ran into them.

We left here at 1100hrs and drove through old Koonalda homestead. It was active from 1938 to 1988 as a fuel stop on the old Ayre Highway. Now a ghost town and car grave yard. The homestead ran off the water pumped from Koonalda Caves.

Had lunch viewing the spectacular Bunda Cliffs (90m high). The weather was perfect.

The $2 shower at BorderVillage turned out to be $3 each., but worth it. Jordan and Jack bought a stuffed kangaroo each.

A man is now searching the car for fruit, vegetables or honey. We are too prepared!
Jordan and Jack had fun playing at Eucla Telegraph Station, pretending it was a fort. It is gradually being covered by the sand dunes which became unstable after rabits ate the vegetation.

We then pulled into reststop 13 near Cocklebiddy to camp instead of inland as we ended up doing that last night.
It was a lovely big parklike stop. A few other campers, but well dispersed through the trees. We again joined some other campers at their fire and had a lovely chat with an older couple from Perth.

Tuesday 6/7/2010 Salt Lake to Koonalda Cave

(Salt Lake to Koonalda Cave)
Up at 0700hrs and packed by 0840hrs. There was even time for the kids to play more, jumping off sand dunes. The coals were still hot from the previous night and we managed to have a breakfast fire.

It wasn't as cold last night but there was still ice on everything. Wow.. waking to a sunrise over the salt pan... life is too hard!!!
Another interesting day. Our first stop was at Ceduna, a small coastal town south of Woomera where soldiers went on their days off from testing nuclear bombs.
I guess we camped in radioactive fallout from the 1940s...
I've been getting the kids to read information sheets I brought on each place, prior to arriving there (historical, geographical and touristy). A very educational trip.
After a walk on the pier at Ceduna, and a chat to a friendly local fisher boy, we had some morning tea and bought some fresh bread at the bakery. There is a large Aboriginal population here.

It was quite late when we arrived at Head of Bight (1445hrs). There was noone there to pay, the office was closed. Such a perfect day. No wind, sun shining and so warm our jackets were off. There were about 8 southern right whales. So massive! They didn't do much performing but it was great to just watch them so closely, many with calves. The water so aqua. They looked like submarines surfacing.

The next stop was Nullarbor Roadhouse for some fuel and a sausage roll (too busy to make lunch), then on to Mitwijinie Caves. The hema navigator came in handy here as it helped us find the almost invisible track across a field to a better dirt road beyond. This was truly in the middle of the Nullarbor. No trees, flat, nothing for a full 360 degree turn. But sudden huge holes in the limestone ground.

The nullarbor (an ancient sea bed) is riddled with caves, tunnels and underground lakes. We were able to explore the three caverns here, but there were no lakes to be found.
It would be a good place to camp but we need to push on. Heading to camp above the Bunda cliffs, we arrived at the rest stop to find that it was little more than a gravel car park. Not very inviting so we continued on. It was already dark, so we thought we'd might as well keep going to our next sightseeing destination and get a headstart tomorow. We passed through the abandoned Koonalda homestead and petrol station (Jordan thought there were ghosts) and continued on to the Koonalda Caves. It seemed more like the Serengeti here than the Nullarbor, with strange looking trees.
Great move. We were now camping in the middle of nowhere. Fantastic starry sky, and we ran into a local here, Andrew Brooks and his French girlfriend Nell. They shared their fire with us and were lovely company. Andrew gave me a photography lesson and then I found out he was a professional photographer. (Can't do great star shot yet, I need a shutter release cable).
He also gave us caving info.
Andrew took a great photo of our camp under the stars.
Nell is a youth worker, here to work with Aboriginal children.