Big day today! We have travelled 500kms, played 4 holes of golf, visited the 'Head of the Bight' and gone into spots for great views of the 'Bunda Cliffs'. But what a horrible day it has been weather wise!To start with, in the early hours of this morning the wind came up and there were a few spits of rain. There was plenty of activity in the park as lots got up to roll their awnings in! When we got up at 6.30am Peter had already been on the BOM site to see what was happening with the storms. It was very black to the south, but there was nothing forecast for the north and west. So we were on the road by 7.45am.  Later in the day we found out that it was 42 degrees in Ceduna by mid morning! Glad we weren't there! We had finished playing the Par 4 'Windmills' hole at Penong by 9.15am and were on the road again. Peter had a 5 and I had a 7. I kept giving the ball a headache. Wally and Clara came for a look as well. In fact they have been with us all day playing golf, but I bet they wished we had left them in the car at Nundroo and the Nullarbor Roadhouses! There are 26 Windmills in the paddock as you come into Penong.   One does take more notice of them as you come into the town from the east.  Penong is 71 kms west of Ceduna on the Eyre Highway.  The 26 windmills on the eastern outskirts of town were sunk from 1868 to 1884 to provide water for the area.  Each windmill is privately owned and supplies water for domestic use.  Salt and Gypsum industries compliment this predominantly farming district.By the time we got to 'Nundroo' an hour later, the temperature was 35 degrees and there was a howling westerly, blowing dirt everywhere. Just lovely!  When we saw the hole, it was "My goodness"!  We had a cross wind when we were playing the hole and it was blowing at about 65kms. "The hole was totally unplayable" Pete reckoned and he did question "What we were actually doing"! The fairway was also covered in rocks. The green was near the caravan park, so we had to walk down over all this rubbish to the tee. Then come back up the hill. We reckon there has to be some 'raffety rules', when people are playing the course. And there is no reason really, why it shouldn't be that way, if that is your choice. You have paid your money and it is your own personal challenge.   When we got back to the car it took us 10 minutes to get the cork screws out of our shoes and socks. Maybe 5 minutes is a bit more accurate!   Peter's drive was with a nasty slice and with that wind, his ball took a bit of finding!There was a caravan that came through while we were finishing morning tea and they were parked near the green when we got down there. There was no way, they could have had their card stamped, got their sticks from the car, walked down to the tee and been up near the green, where we came across them, in that timeframe!  We reckon they took one look at the fairway and dropped a couple of balls! I have to say after scrambling an 8 with a little bending of the rules, I was starting to think "We should be getting payed to play the course, not paying"! Nundroo is a Par 5 and named the 'Wombat' hole. Very apt! Peter had a 7.The golf didn't get any better on the next hole. 'Nullarbor' is also a Par 5 and it is called the 'Dingo's Den'. The information sheet we were given said that you should spray your golf ball with something to stop the crows taking it. The wind was horrendous and there was no way crows would have been able to fly, let alone worry about swooping on golf balls. Over a very hard salt bush fairway, we walked down to the tee. Peter cursing all the way. I told him "To go back and wait in the car"!  But he didn't take the advice. We were hitting directly into the gale and this was longer than the last hole. I had a mongrel 12 and Peter a 9. Just as well I had a one putt, but the trouble was I had 4 chips!  The first one hit a rock and came back to me, next chip hit something else and stopped dead and then the third attempt hit the front of the green and came back to me again!  I don't think you necessarily have to enjoy this golf course. The idea is to get you out of the car and not keeping on driving. Well it is certainly doing that and it keeps you talking for a while after!  For us on this terrible day, it has been about the wind, how bad the hole was and the person using the stick of course!We are at Border Village tonight. So we have played the 'Rooey' Par 3. Bit of a challenge down through the trees. Once again I gave the ball a headache and fluffed around. Peter had a 4 and I had a 7. It can only get better and the challenge is definitely on to crack 150!  We have actually met up with Margaret and Eric, who are doing the maintenance on the course. So we have had a chat with Marg. They only do maintenance a couple of times a year. They don't get paid, only get their expenses covered. They are members of the Kambalda Golf Club. I asked her about the $70.00 for the card. She said "They don't make much out of it all. The organisation has about $10,000 in the bank. The course was put here through grants. The 'Visitor Centres' keep $5.00 of every card they sell and $1.00 goes to each of the clubs or roadhouses, for each hole. So that accounts for $23.00 and then there is printing etc and the maintenance. We went into the 'Head of the Bight', just in case there were some late whales. But the last of them was seen three weeks ago. We still paid our $5.00 each and walked down. The temperature down on the edge of the ocean was quite cool and the car was telling us it was 10 degrees cooler here than Nundroo. We were surprised how many people pulled up and when the guy told them there were no whales, they left.  Just before we turned into the 'Head of the Bight', we came across a sign saying we were at the eatern end of the Nullarbor Plain.  The 'Treeless Plain'.  We hadn't noticed a 'Western End' when we came across and we did look for it during the rest of the day, but didn't find one.The Nullarbor Plain stretches 720 kilometres from east to west and 320 kilometres from the coast to the Great Victoria Desert in the north.  The Nullarbor Plain is 200,000 square kilometres in total and is almost as large as Victoria.  It was named by Edmund Delisser who surveyed the treeless plain in 1867.  The name comes from the latin nullus and arbor, meaning 'no trees'.  The aboriginal name for the area is 'Oondin' meaning 'the waterless'.  The average rainfall of the plain is just 200 millimetres.  Experts believe the plain was created about 25 million years ago when it lifted out of the sea.  Lime secreting marine skeletons and shells littered the sea floor and these deposits eventually created the limestone that underlies the entire plain to a depth of 15 to 61 metres.  The Nullarbor Plain region is one of the largest arid to semi-arid Karst landforms in the world.  This 'dissolving' of rock leads to many 'Karst' features.  The Nullarbor Caves being a good example.We also went into two of the photo opportunities for the Bunda Cliffs. They really are spectacular. We thought the one closest to the Nullarbor Roadhouse had the best views. And I did get a photo of the info on Jenny's relative at the Nullarbor Roadhouse.  

 I wonder what tomorrow will bring! I told Donelle and Bill that I thought the golf would be a challenge and a hoot! Well I got the challenge bit right, but as for the hoot! There is certainly no hooting!  14 photos