Day 9

Sunday 15th March 2015

Penong to Nullarbor Road House

Green parrots chatter on our roof and I’m convinced that they’re tugging at cables. But Woody is engrossed in his book The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo so he just mutters “yeah”. I leap naked about the bathroom banging on the ceiling to no avail. Hmm I wonder what will happen when next the TV doesn’t work?

We leave early to visit Fowlers Bay just 20kms away. Veewee is about 20 mins ahead of us. The road is marked as bitumen but suddenly turns to badly corrugated dirt. We turn around after a few kilometres but communications are so bad that we can only leave Veewee a text. We meet the Ollies up the road at Nundroo and make coffee while we wait for Veewee. Mick & Wendy in the other Grant Tourer rock up as well. It is fascinating watching the road trains thundering by. Eventually Veewee arrives and declares ‘that road’ to be the worst she’s EVER driven on (and she’s done the Birdsville Track). The table and one drawer have come adrift on her new ‘off road’ van but Woody is ecstatic that the pole carrier is still securely in place.

Veewee goes on ahead to the Nullarbor Road House while we visit Head of Bight.

Head of Bight is nature’s beauty at its best. The ocean is many shades of blue and calm. To our left pure white sand stretches in an arc to high dunes. On our right, high crumbling cliffs stretch as far as we can see.

On arrival at Nullarbor we get word that Veewee’s house has been robbed. We check into the iconic road house camp ground for the night as it has phone reception for Veewee and power. It is now 40 degrees and insufferably hot, the air conditioning works flat out. The Ollies head off to the nearby Bunda Cliffs in the hope of a cool breeze. Veewee repairs the table and drawers and we all mull over her options. In desperation I cook a huge stir fry to get rid of vegetables before the next border crossing. We all have a restless teary night.

Travelling Kms: 209Kms

Note: Upon reading this I’ve just realised that Veewee doesn’t eat pork and there was pork in that stir fry! Sorry V! Also a year or so later in north Qld when the Prado’s accidently locked Elle in the van I once again hit the pots and cooked up a nice curry for them, a bit of an arse burner of course…and found out later that El Prado doesn’t like hot curry! Anyone who is contemplating travelling with us please take that as a warning.