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Hi all,
My last report ended with us just leaving Penong, (the Windmill town) driving further westward.
The weather was turning, bringing along with it some wonderful cloud formations. We were now at the Nullarbor Roadhouse smack dang in the middle of nowhere, but WOW.
There were so many things of interest to us, at one point we didn’t know which way to go first. The original roadhouse was first opened in 1957 (would have been pretty quiet out there then), today it is on display to show travellers what it was like in the early days.
Most would be glad that things have changed, if you look closely at the menu board you can see that Wombat Stew and Camel Pie were all the rage back then!!!!
On the walls of another shed nearby were these murals, a few depicted the sort of repairs that may have been carried out here in times gone bye, and then one of Cola who assured that all who drove past stopped, whether they needed to or not!!!!!!
On the sides of a shelter shed in the camping area there were a number of murals depicting caravaners in various scenes.
Not sure how they would get inside in that last one!
This sign I took umbrage with, it says that in 1897 Henri Gilbert was the first non indigenous person to walk across the Nullarbor, well what about the absolutely amazing effort of the one, Edward John Eyre who strolled through the area nearly 60 years before that. The sign mentions this as its first point!!!!
Eyre is just about my favourite Aussie explorer ever, what a brilliant man he was in all respects!!
As we strolled across to the new (relatively) Roadhouse, we noticed this young Dingo looking for handouts.
Fake news or advertising has even made its way right out here in the sticks.
Or is there more to Cola, than meets the eye!!!!!
Inside the main cafe/shop was something that I really wanted to see, and boy I wasn’t disappointed, on the eastern wall was this mural.
And opposite that was this one; absolutely brilliant. ( for my UK friends, these are all Aussie rock legends)
I’d be pretty sure that none of those depicted have ever played at the Nullarbor Roadhouse or even heard of it, but how good was that mural??
Right out the front of the Roadhouse was this old dray, it fitted in with all the history, the feeling of being right in the middle of nowhere (which we were) and how about that sky, an approaching storm we wanted to get ahead of.
On the opposite side of the road as you leave, is this much photographed sign
A very short distance further on was this cairn, one that I was keen to see.
William Henry Gray arrived in South Australia a month before Colonel Light completed his survey of Adelaide in 1837. He in time became a very successful businessman and land owner. (it is well worth reading more about this man and his life in Wikipedia, very interesting).
In 1868 Gray bought two properties of 260 sq km near where the roadhouse stands today, it was a speculative purchase and he hoped to make a fortune, if he could find water.
He sent men led by William Marks, to dig a well, after six months digging and chipping away at the extremely hard rock, he realised it was a waste of time and money so called a halt to any further work. The shallow dry shaft we see today are the remains of all that work, all those years ago.
I was concerned that the approaching storm would not be favourable for taking pics along the cliff line of the Bight, so to take advantage of the cloud formations that preceded it, we took a longish track down to the coast.
Not the best views there though.
On the way back we passed these burrows, those of the Southern Hairy Nosed Wombat. They dig a number of tunnels which are connected to a central warren. Around this are more burrows that young wombats use after they are displaced from the main warren by the Big Boss Wombat!!
The weather held off so were able to access another viewing point.
It shouldn’t amaze me any more but it still does, why do some people (knuckleheads) have to do this!!!!
We called into the Telegraph Station Ruins at Eucla, first built in 1877 they were abandoned in 1927 when approaching sand dunes caused it to no longer be useable.
Now.
And a pic I took on my last visit.
Now.
At the time there I didn’t see a great deal of change, but looking back at my earlier pics when I got home taken in late 2017, half of the wall here has collapsed and the rubble from that covered in sand!!
This internal doorway arch shows how the sand has built up and in places covered so much.
We pushed on towards Cocklebiddy where we intended taking a room for the night, pitching the tent with possible rain about was not something we wanted to do especially when there was another option.
The weather front had been coming towards us and we were doing 110 ks in the other direction, this meant we avoided most of it, just getting a couple of spits on the windscreen as it came through.
Jen took this pic of the sky as we drove westward.
After booking in and with the weather now improving, we decided to go out to Cocklebiddy Cave. There are no signposts to it but Big Col doesn’t need that, located up the highway a bit and then about 12 ks into the scrub, this cave system is arguably the Nullarbor’s most famous, with over 6 kilometres of underwater passages.
In fact, in a list of the worlds top ten dive sites published by Lonely Planet, only one Australian site gets a mention, and that is Cocklebiddy Cave which came in at no. nine!!
Looking back to where the good weather is coming from and then to where the crappy weather was going.
The only access to the cave is beyond this barrier, once you climb over it!!!! I rushed back to get my underwater go pro and snorkel gear.
It was once thought that these immense waters could enable agriculture to take off in this region, but it is only a thin top layer that is fresh and all the rest is quite salty (saline)
You can see why Cocklebiddy is so highly thought of as diving site with scenes like these!!
Any penetration is only possible by long ladders or ropes as it is a near vertical drop to an area outside the main cave entrance. You could jump but the only way out then would be in a body bag!!
Those underwater pics I downloaded from the net, to show you what it is like for the few lucky and experienced people who have had the appropriate skills to access it.
The walking track back to our car.
The flies around the caves weren’t too bad, well relatively speaking that is, They were slightly less annoying here than other places we had visited over the past couple of days!!!!!!!!
The road/track back to the highway.
Cocklebiddy is just a roadhouse with some basic accommodation, the origins of the name are not known, but it is thought to come from the local Aboriginal people that once lived in the area and who were later housed in a mission established there, the foundations of those buildings are all that is left to remind us of that period.
It had been another reasonably full day since we had left Ceduna in the morning.
A nice sky started to develop so I made a made dash off into the distance to find something to shoot through (with the camera).
Later on the sky was again worth capturing, but I was fatiguing so that shed was my siloughet, couldn’t be stuffed running off into the scrub this time Ha!!!!
That’s the end of this report, plenty to look forward to in the next one.
Col and Jen.
PS. Our neighbours in the room next door that night, were a couple of ageing bikers travelling on Harleys, they were pretty stuffed after riding from Norseman that day. (Remember them)
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The worst day above ground, is a whole lot better than the best one under it. Live life to the fullest while you can.
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Topic: Pre Carona Trip, Across Oz & Back (Pt 3)
