You don’t have to travel too far down Eyre Highway from Border Village before there are numerous pull over areas to view the Bunda Cliffs on the Great Australian Bite.  We didn’t stop until close to the last opportunity before the Head of the Bite.  It was a hazy morning, so visibility wasn’t as good as it could be and the morning sun didn’t help.  It would be better to be looking west.  Blogging this so we remember next time.  It would be a fantastic view in the afternoon.  The wooden posts with the chains linking them together on the walkway make for a very attractive look and keep the tourists where they are supposed to be.  

We were lucky to have a young chatty female pull up behind us and she obliged with the photo.  She was travelling on her own towing a reasonably old caravan, en route to Dunsborough WA.  She has been waiting two years for the border to open, so she could go back and empty a storage unit in the town!  She had stayed the night at the Nullarbor Roadhouse and told us the story of another lone female traveller who was travelling east with a caravan.  The engine of her car had caught fire west of the roadhouse. Fortunately she had been able to get the fire out, maybe with the help of fellow travellers.  One had towed her caravan to the roadhouse and later in the night someone else had offered to go west and tow her car back. She was worried the car would be stripped before morning, even after two way conversations with truckies had not convinced her it normally takes two weeks before that happens.  We were told the full story.  The insurance company had sent a tow truck from Kalgoorlie, who had slept at Madura and would be at the roadhouse by lunchtime.  He passed us before the NR and was talking with the young woman when we got there.  If it was her van in the caravan park, it was a nice one and a reasonable size.  Our entertainment and Nullarbor Story for Sunday 3rd April 2022.  One final fact.  Her mother and stepfather were coming from Melbourne to tow the caravan to her destination.  I did say we talked with a chatty young woman!

We paid the top price of $2.75 a litre for diesel at the Nullarbor Roadhouse and our chatty friend warned us of that too.  We had cooked up our potatoes and apples at Eucla, so after lunch we disposed of our lettuce and tomatoes.  Although Peter’s printout of what we could take into SA said brocolli, they took that at the Ceduna check point.  Sweet potato was fine as was the processed honey.

We ended up in the small town of Wirrulla about 90 kms further across Eyre Highway.  We were more than happy with our resting place.  We paid $15 at the hotel and could have joined the whole community who were  enjoying the Sunday session, but for Covid.  We have been very careful so far and not used CP ablution blocks or roadhouse facilities.  The CP was across the road and the music was a rockin until 10pm.  Not that it worried us.  We watched the Eagles Dockers match and the Final of Dancing with the Stars.  Grant Denyer was amazing and a worthy winner.  Charlotte was good too, but I was pleased the public voted as they did.

Back to our little overnight stay at Wirrulla.  We were parked near the Viterra Silos, which are all along the Eyre Highway through to Kimba.  There is a small farming town about every 40 kilometres through to Wudinna.  More about the farming land in tomorrow’s blog.  We did a little walk down Chapman Terrace to the Memorial Hall which we don’t think has been used for a while.  We think the decorative stone work is probably from the Gawler Range.  There were lots of pieces of the stone around in the CP, making tables and seats if you wished to use them that way.  There was a washing machine in the camp kitchen and an ablution block.  You got a key from the hotel or the general store.

Peter talked to the children waiting for the bus on Monday morning.  He had seen a little yellow bus and the kids informed him that had gone out Station Road to pick up children before coming back fir them. There hasn’t been a school in Wirrulla for many years.  The kids couldn’t remember a school being there. So a long time!  They are transported to an Area School halfway between Wirrulla and Smoky Bay at Carawa.  “There’s no town there“ the kids said.  “Just a school”!