Mario and Pat's Australian drive holiday

Day 24: 27/9/2014 Eucla, WA to Ceduna, SA (still Crossing the Nullarbor) Distance travelled: 530km

Today’s drive wasn’t too long – compared to recent drives, just 5 ½ hours. We crossed into South Australia 12 km East of Eucla, but the road and terrain remained much the same for a while after that… long straight stretches of road and desert scrub all around. But, a bit further into SA, the highway comes closer to the coast and there a number of designated scenic outlook points – easily identified with a sign of a camera. They are not exaggerating – the views are amazing. It is a dramatic landscape, where the desert comes up to the coast, ending in tall sandstone cliffs down to the water.

We finished crossing the Nullarbor, and also found that it came from the latin ‘nullus-arbor’’ referring to the vast treeless plain. The Nullarbor live up to its name. I also must say that the shrubs were plentiful and very green. I made a comment to Pat that it looked like a green shag carpet. The weather has continued to be quite hot – mid-30s C – but also very windy.

When we were in Norseman, we met some travellers coming in the opposite direction and they had given us a few tips about where to stop – including the ‘Oyster Bar’ just as you come into Ceduna from the west (just after the quarantine inspection point). It was a great tip. We have learned that Ceduna is the Oyster capital of Australia. We got some oysters, cooked, for lunch, and also picked up a dozen fresh ones that we can enjoy this evening.

We are staying at the Ceduna Motor Inn, a basic but nice motel. Although I am a dedicated NRL fan, and normally don’t want to even hear about AFL, today is the grand final, and Sydney is playing, so I decided to watch the game, which was starting just as we checked into the motel. Unfortunately there was a problem with the TV satellite hoo-kup and the station kept cutting out. The staff were very helpful, trying to fix the problem and when they couldn’t do it quickly, they moved us to a room in another wing of the motel so that we didn’t miss much of the game. Unfortunately, after all that – the Swans have not been able to match the Hawks. Oh well, that’s my AFL fix for another year. i also watched the NRL Penrith vs Canterbury semi final. Canterbury won. So the grand final next Sunday is South Sydney vs Canterbury. I really hope South Sydney win.

I also did manage to get my car washed as I must have collected all the insect population along the drive.