Sunday 30th September - Day off on the Nullabor

Sunday 30^th September

Sunrise at the Nullabor Roadhouse

Roadtrain in early light

Wombats create a lot of mess with their burrows. 

You wouldn't want them in your garden!

The Nullabor plain to the north is large but the section crossed by the Eyre Highway is quite small.

After leaving the plain this is the first tree I see.

The Southern Ocean at the Head of Bight

Southern Right Whale mother and this year's calf.

Tha' she blows

Mother and baby both have rather unlovable faces!

“Day off” at Nullabor

Get up early to drive north on the fence track to area about 7 km north where book reports the bird we want. Spend 3 and half hours with hardly a sound of any birds but eventually we see 3 male and 2 female Nullabor Quailthrushes. Coming to the Nullabore we really wanted to see the bird named after it. It is really windy again today but it is warm (23 C most of the time) and is coming from the East North East. After setting the bird I decide to get some kilometers cycled to reduce what I have to do the next day. The wind is so strong it is almost pointless but having seen the bird I have renewed enthusiasm and it is easier in shorter doses. It is a new low distance travelled and a new low average speed! – 11.5 mph but it felt like 40mph on a downhill run. The all-day wind noise is like described in Ice Station Zebra the Alistair McLean book I read when young.  I put paper in my ears yesterday when exposed to the noise of rushing wind all day.

After the ride we go ack a bit and go down to the Head of Bight viewing platform to see Southern Right Wales. It is the end of the season but the trip was timed to get here before the last depart in October. Females come close in shore bellow the cliffs to give berth and nurse their young calves. We say about 4 adults each with young. One was very close in and showed interactions with the offspring well. The mothers dive for longer than the youngsters that spend most time on the surface. Don’t know what they do on their dives as they do not eat whilst they are here. Both mother and young have warty, knobly faces but I suppose they love each other! It was cloudy and nearly raining at points but the ocean remained blue.

After enjoying that we go back to the fence track to a place where there were fresh droppings by burrows of the Southern Hairy Nosed Wombats and wait for dark for a spotlighting drive. Unfortunately we do not see any. It is a shame to miss an animal with such a great name!

Back to the roadhouse to do some laundry and for another big pasta meal to stoke up for tomorrow. Fill up in this remote location with fuel at the very high price (by Aussie standards) of £1.23 a litre. In Perth it was more like 85p a litre. It is still very windy outside.

30.68 km today in 1 hours 39 minutes – an average of 18.4 kph. Total so far 1863.66 km. The day after tomorrow should see us halfway through the distance.