We were up at 7am ready to head off. We were driving out by 8.30am and heading for Eucla. There were the ruins of an old telegraph station on the beach there and we wanted to have a look. We ran into Geoff and Cynthia here again and had morning tea with them. They had already been down to the telegraph station.
We drove down the dirt track towards the telegraph station ruins. William was very excited to be at the beach as there was sand everywhere. The station was very much in ruins and also full of sand. You could walk up in a room and be standing in level with the top of the wall, as there was no roof. William thought it was great fun to jump over the walls into different rooms. There were the ruins of a building next door to the station but we aren’t sure what it used to be. Geoff had told us there was a jetty at the beach so we decided to walk there; it was about 1km and was all sand. We thought we’d see how far William would go and nearly turned around at one point, but he was determined to see the water (& sharkies). At one point we saw 2 emus up on a sand dune in the distance, but they were very fast and we weren’t able to get a photo. William knocked up with only a few metres to go so Neil carried him on his shoulders. The view was beautiful. The colour of the water was a lovely green, and the jetty was very old and worn down. There was a lot of seaweed washed up onto the beach also. William was disappointed to not see a shark and would’ve sat there all day watching just in case one came up, if we had let him. We started the walk back, with Will on Neil’s shoulder again and it was much faster not having to wait for him.
We filled up with petrol here before heading over the border into SA. We drove through the border and lost another 45 minutes due to the time difference. We pulled up at a lookout down the road to look at the cliffs. Once again, the view was amazing and the colour of the water was beautiful – ranging from light green, dark green and many shades of blue. When Neil got back to the car, he realised the fuel cap was missing. We aren’t’ sure whether he forgot to put it back, or if it fell off. He stuffed a rag (bright yellow) in there to get us to the next fuel stop. If Neil wasn’t cranky enough with losing a fuel cap. He was furious when the speedo decided to break while Kelley was sleeping. As it stands the only thing left on the dash that actually works in a fashion is the temperature gauge, oil light and the charge,
We pulled in at the Nullarbor hotel for more petrol and a late bite to eat. We managed to get an emergency fuel cap, which is a lovely shade of fluoro orange compared to the green car. We must look odd driving past. We wanted to keep driving and get as far as we could, and decided a rest area in Nundroo was the best bet. We pulled in there at about 5pm and set up camp for the night. There weren’t many people around and we had a lot of privacy. We started the generator for the first time and managed to charge our phones and tried to run the oven bake and grill for our taco shells, but it couldn’t quite handle it. We used the washing up tub again for our baths, but it was pretty cold so we were only quick. Neil had lit a small campfire tonight, which William loved and it was nice to have dinner next to it.
We are hoping to make it past Ceduna tomorrow.