Kalgoorlie, Western Australia to Border Village, South Australia - 910 kms 9:20 hours.
Setting out, this time I will keep going till I am halfway down the Eyre Highway, stopping at Border Village.
Heading out of Kalgoorlie, I pass Lake Efroy and pause at Lake Cowan. These are salt water lakes. The water level varies depending on the water situation. This time around, they had receded into the distance but not completely dry. There are a few of these lakes around - Lake Cowan is the biggest.
Soon I was at Norseman and I filled up. I had some greasy potato scallops. I know they did not call them scallops round here so I just had to point at them like a tourist. Potato cakes, the person behind the counter responded.
Getting close to Balladonia, I come across the RFDS emergency airstrip. RFDS is the Royal Flying Doctor Service - it is a non-profit organisation that provides emergency medical care to remote areas. Parts of the highway are widened and cleared to allow their airplanes to land and take off. A zebra strip at each end identfies the actual runway.
I did stop at Balladonia but only to stretch my legs a bit. You come across a few strange sights driving down the Nullarbor. One of the them is fairly large houses on the back of a flatbad truck. I have heard of moving house but this is ridiculous. Still, I can see the convenience. You probably don't have to pack up stuff beforehand - just move the whole house. OK, some of it may get tossed on to the floor but that is no big deal - most of my stuff is lying on the floor anyway. Soon I was at the start of the 90 mile straight stretch.
Now I was in the middle of Nullarbor. It was my second time around in a week so I knew what to expect. It passed a lot faster this time and before I knew it, I was at the end of the 90 mile stretch.
As I drove past the featureless plains, kilometre after kilometre, I noticed occasional patches of solar panels a fair bit off the road. I wasn't sure what they were for so I turned off the road on to a path leading to one of them. Bad idea! The path got scrubbier and scrubbier. I could hear the sharp branches scratching the side of my car. But the path was narrow and there was no turning back. After a few harrowing tens of metres, I came upon the solar panel installation. No indication of what it was for, save a few threatening warning signs saying that I will be tracked and hunted down. But now there was enough space to turn around and make my way back to the road through the same scrub. I got off and checked the side of the car. Scratches all over one side. If only they had put the warning signs at the turnoff.
The sun was beginning to set and I took the usual sunset photos.
It was getting dark and I soon pulled into Eucla. It seemed like a nice place and I went to check in. Turns out, my hotel is at Border Village, not Eucla. And it was about 12 kms away.
Border Village is a lot smaller and not as nice as Eucla. And the kitchen was due to close in 15 minutes. So as soon as I checked in, I headed for the restaurant and ordered dinner. Then I moved my gear to the room and came back to a hot dinner and a nice cool glass of beer.
The timezones get a bit confusing around here. Border Village sits at the border between Western Australia and South Australia. The timezones in these places are different (AWST and ACST) and about one and half to two and a half hours apart (yes, one has daylight savings and the other does not!). So Border Village, to avoid confusion or simply to add to it has its own special timezone - Australian Central Western Standard Time(ACWST). This is 45 minutes off South Australia (ACST). A 45 minute offset is weird but having a timezone just for a small locality is even stranger. It dates back to the days when a telegraph office at this place had staff rom both WA and SA working side by side. So a unified timezone half way between the two was adopted for this telegraph station. The telegraph station has long since been shut down but the timezone remains to this day.
After a good night's rest, tomorrow, I shall tackle the other half of the Eyer road on my way to Port Lincoln.
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