The rest of the Nullarbor and into WA

 Leaving Nullarbor Roadhouse to continue the westward journey. We both forgot about the time differences between SA, SA/WA border (has its own time) and WA. We had a vague idea of where we wanted to get to in terms of a minimum number of kilometres covered but we had nothing booked. This was pretty novel for the kids, and possibly a little unsettling but their trust in us won out and we just drove on.

 

 Classic Nullarbor signs - we saw no living creatures and very few dead ones.

 Our view for many hours included rain showers here and there with accompanying rainbows. The Eastern end of the Nullarbor is shrubby with almost no large trees, hence the name. The kids hunkered down in the back and we got through many hours of Philip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials -Book 1'.

 After a quick quarantine check of our car at the border we were into WA and stopped in quickly at Eucla for cuppa, play and loo stop. And selfie of course. Eucla runs 45 mins behind WA time, which is 1.5 hours behind SA time, and 2 hours behind NSW time. Our phones kept changing their minds between border and Perth times which made for a bit of confusion and me thinking my watch battery was finished. I rest it twice to the time my phone was showing before Andy helped me out.

 

Night 2 on the Nullarbor was at Moodini Bluff roadside rest area. It had a loo and is free to camp and you can stay for 24 hours. It was away from the road and we were tucked in amongst some trees. We pulled in fairly early for us, about 12:30pm, but with all the time changes and the very early morning we had already done our daily km quota and we were done. We set up under some trees and had an afternoon of 'free time' - some reading, a few beers, and played some cricket with the kids. As the afternoon rolled on lots of vans pulled in for the night. I think we were all in bed before 7pm!!!! That's easy even of us. Let's call it interstate-lag.

 Dinner at the roadside rest area was suitably basic - sausage in bread made beautiful by Jemma.

 Breakfast in the trees before setting out for day 3 of the Nullarbor.

 Samantha and Bruce are rescue wedgies at Cocklebiddy Roadhouse. They were both picked up on the side of the highway after being hit by vehicles and treated and rehabilitated in various facilities over months before being sent back to Cocklebiddy to be cared for by some locals, which in turn is overseen by wildlife specialists . Their injuries were severe and neither can be released back into the wild. Their enclosure is huge but here they're looking pretty grumpy as it was cold and wet.

 Balladonia Roadhouse. No idea why they have minions but got a photo of course. Balladonia also has a small museum which covers all manner of things; geology, white settlement, extreme car trials of the 1950s and the Skylab space station crash components which landed in the area making it world famous for a few minutes. We topped up with fuel here too, just to be sure. See - we have learned from our previous near-misses! ( We have only ever run out of diesel once - that's a story for another time. When in doubt, any doubt at all, TOP UP, even when it's $2.21/L!)

 Last night on the Nullarbor was at Fraser Range Station, a couple of kms off the road. They have loads of space for kids to roam. Hot showers, a great camp kitchen and they even lit an enormous communal fire to share with other travellers. This was a really lovely stop. We set up on some grass - softest ground for ages, under some trees. There was an option to dine in their Nullabar dining room but I had mad a big batch of burrito mix before leaving Streaky which needed to be eaten, so we self catered. 

This was another recommendation by an Andy colleague but he cannot remember who it was, luckily I remembered that he had told me. If you're reading this, and you recommended it - thank you.

 Little helper.

 Enjoying some marshmallows at long last.

 Morning scenes at Fraser Range. It got pretty cold overnight and as the sun came up a fog rolled in. It made for a soggy and shambolic pack up but we got there in the end.

The grounds at Fraser Range are lovely with ancient pepper trees, Boganvillea and rusty cars everywhere. Fraser Range was the first station (sheep?) to be established on the Nullarbor. 

Fraser Range to Esperance is only 307km but jeepers the last 200km from Norseman felt hard. 4 days in the car and we pulled into Esperance in the rain (bit of a theme) in time for lunch. We headed to the bakery on the Main Street and thoroughly enjoyed our selections. Yum! As it was still a tad early to check in at the caravan park we took the opportunity to vote as we will be out of town (any town) on Saturday. It was a pretty simple process and didn't take very long at all.

 Esperance afternoon selfie. We made it!

 That water in the sunshine!

We are having 2 nights in an Esperance caravan park - have done the washing, the shopping, and topped up with water. We did some site seeing today and visited some of Esperance's beautiful beaches.

Tomorrow we head for Cape Le Grande National Park for 5 nights - one of WAs most popular national parks. No-one else I have spoken to here at the park have been able to book sites so we are feeling very lucky indeed. 

The forecast for the next few days is looking bright and beautiful and we are so excited to be heading back into some national park camping.