Crossing the Nullabor Plain

Whale Watching

Eucla Old Telegraph Station

Yesterday we got going early and drove and drove and drove from Coolgardie to Eucla. The boys coped well with the long day, probably our longest so far covering around 900km's. There was not much going on out the window so for the first time on our trip we saddled up the laptop and put a movie on for the kids to watch while driving. I have to admit it was a sanity saver in this situation with one or two of us teetering on the edge of loosing it towards the end of that drive. Eucla was an interesting spot perched up on a small escarpment above the sand dunes that have swallowed up the original site of the town. We drove down the have a look at the remains this morning and the kids had great fun leaping around the sandy ruins of the old telegraph station. After that we headed on to Yalata, an Aboriginal community at the head of the Bight, where you can drive in and see Southern Right Whales wallowing around with their calves, if you are lucky. Well we got lucky today and had a great view of the very intimidating Great Australian Bight coastline and also a Mum and calf very close in to shore with other pods of whales mucking around further out. We have been very spoilt for whales on this trip.
We came across our first real odd-bod on the road today. A guy waved us down for help, we pulled over to check if he was OK and he asked us for fuel, then money with a weird story that seemed rather fluid and didn't make much sense. After being on the road for a while now it didn't take long to size him up smell a potential scam so we left him to it and kept moving. We had a fascinating discussion in the car afterwards about helping people out who you don't know and balancing being helpful and staying safe. All part of the education kids get on the road.
So now we are snuggled up in Streaky Bay having made it across the Nulla and only one state away from home!