Tues 5 Nov 2013 - Nullarbor again then surf!

We woke early and so we were on the road at 8.00am, but stopped fairly quickly, as we saw a rain water tank - like gold dust out here! It has to be boiled for drinking, but we can use it for cooking, tea and washing up. 

We also had to stop for petrol at the Mundrabilla Roadhouse. There are plenty of roadhouses, at least every 200kms, selling fuel and offering motel accommodation and caravan parks.

Today's overcast and we could see rain coming down in the distance. It's quite windy too, the upside is that there are less flies, but the downside is that it's a head wind from the East, so we'll use more fuel. To our left, there's a long hill, running parallel to the road and there are more little trees again.

To combat the boredom of the long drive, there's a hole of golf to play at every small town (basically roadhouse) along the way, making it the longest golf course in the world. 

As we're not golfers, we found more musical (?) ways to relieve the tedium of the long, straight road. When Rodger was driving, he played harmonica along to a Blues CD. When it was my turn to drive, I sang Solidarity songs, with the practise CD while Rodger played guitar in the back - It's fortunate we don't have any passengers!

At 9.50am we crossed the Border into SA, where there's a hospital and a police station. We don't have to go through quarantine until we get to Ceduna, probably tomorrow, so we have to eat lots of fruit today!

 Almost as soon as we'd entered SA, we came to the Bight, just 200m from the road? At this point there's a beach but we stopped again about 50 Kms later and there  was an impressive view of sheer limestone cliffs.

Then we came to the Head of the Bight.

When we stopped for lunch, at the Nullarbor Roadhouse, the temp was 39.5C and the wind was so hot, it dried out our sandwiches before we could eat them! Whilst speaking to the staff here, we found that we're now on Adelaide time and have to go forward another 45 mins - only 1.5hrs behind Sydney now.

We were expecting to be in the Outback until we at least got to Ceduna tomorrow but when we were approaching Nundroo, we suddenly found ourselves driving through vast wheat fields first on one side and then on both sides of the road!

There's a surf beach on the Bight, called Cactus, and we are aiming to spend the night there. We reached the turnoff about 5.00pm and then travelled down 21kms of dirt track, past pink salt lakes and tall, white sand dunes until we finally reached the beach and yes! finally there was good swell and several other guys out, enjoying it. We were pleased to find that there's also a basic camping ground here.

 When we got out of the car, we saw that the wind had been so strong, it had moved Rodger's surf board from one side of the roof to the other!

It was now 6.00pm and I was worried about shark feeding time, but the camping ground manager said it doesn't get dark here until after the sun goes down at 8.00pm! Such a nice change from the long, dark evenings in WA.

Rodger enjoyed his surf, catching lots of waves and being included and helped by the other guys. I just longed to get wet after such a long hot day. The surf was too fierce for me but I found a little sand hole in the reef, just big enough for me to float in, so I was happy. When I came out, I found that there's a cold bore water shower but with a wall around it so I could strip off and soap up - what bliss!

The Loo - beautifully maintained

BBQ and wood provided too!

It's a really beautiful evening, the wind has dropped and there are few flies and no mozzies, so we're able to sit outside and enjoy a cold drink from our fridge.