Friday, 26 June 2026
The alarm went off at 6.00am this morning so that we could get on the road early. After breakfast, we re-packed the car to be on our way at ten to eight at what we thought was Australian Western Central Standard Time i.e. 45 minutes behind South Australia and 45 minutes ahead of the rest of Western Australia. That’s the weird unofficial time zone that is used between Caiguna and Border Village.
We were on the road early, because we had 220 kilometres to travel to the Head of Bight Whale Centre. Last time we drove across the Nullarbor we were out of season for the whales, but we were told in the restaurant at Norseman, by Victorians travelling west, that there was plenty of whale activity when they called in a couple of days ago. We were excited to be heading to see the whales from the boardwalk and viewing platforms just east of Nullarbor Roadhouse.
When we crossed the border into South Australia it was still before 8.00am and we were feeling good about what an early start we had made, although we were expecting to lose 45 minutes when our watches and phones flipped over to Australian Central Standard Time, now that we were in South Australia. Without that having happened, we made our first stop for the morning at the 13k Peg Parking Bay to take some photos of the spectacular coastal cliffs.
Having stopped here before, we made it a quick stop, five minutes at most. We climbed back into the truck and we had lost 90 minutes with the time flipping over to Central Australian Standard Time while we were taking our photos. OMG it’s gone from being 8.15am to 9.45am! My phone must have reverted to Australian Western Standard Time during the night and the damn alarm went off at 6.00am Perth time!! No wonder we were nearly the last to leave the Eucla Motel this morning. Obviously most other people had their time straight?! If we come this way again we need to make sure we have an analog time keeping device with us.
At 10.45am we stopped at another of the amazing scenic lookouts. At this lookout it is possible to see the headlands stacked one behind the other looking eastwards towards the horizon. Continuing towards Nullarbor Roadhouse and slightly away from the coast we had to pull to the side for a wide-ish load being escorted by a pilot vehicle. I say wide-ish because it certainly wasn’t the largest thing we’ve seen on this trip.
We motored straight past the Nullarbor Roadhouse since we were not in need of any fuel. Sixteen kilometres later we were pulling off the highway to travel the 11 kilometres to the coastline where the Head of Bight Whale Centre perches on top of the cliff. When we visited last time we seem to recall arriving after 3.00pm when the centre closes at 4.00pm in the off season. Despite our confusion as to what time of day it was, we had timed it nicely to arrive just before noon today.
We purchased our tickets and, after using the facilities, we headed off towards the boardwalk and clifftop viewing points. We had to decide … left on the boardwalk or right along the clifftop viewing points points. Ooh, there are whales right there, right in front of the boardwalk so, boardwalk it was. There was a mum and her calf lolling about in the water only a hundred metres or so from the boardwalk. Awesome.
While we watched her she rolled onto her back and was laying in the water with her underside showing. One of the boards explained that this behaviour is displayed when females are avoiding male advances or calves wanting to suckle. Before we came down we were told in the centre that there are four new mums in the bay, with their calves that are less than one week old. What an incredible time to visit. Although we were mainly watching the cow and calf in front of the boardwalk, we could see other whales blowing/breathing nearby. It certainly is a prime spot to see the Southern Right Whales on their annual migration to give birth here.
From the boardwalk we made our way around to the clifftop viewing points, where we discovered another cow and calf lolling almost as close to this viewpoint as the other pair in front of the boardwalk. We were being spoiled with close up whale viewing today. We could have watched for longer, but after an hour we thought we should call time on our whale watching.
Now, Bernie told me that he read on the website that the Whale Centre offered a range of toasted sandwiches but, no, they don’t. An ice-cream freezer is the full extent of their food offerings. While we do love an ice-cream we have not yet resorted to considering an ice-cream lunch! We had to toss up between tuna bowl thingies from our pantry box, or drive back to the Nullarbor Roadhouse which would add 43 kilometres to our journey.
We decided to support another business operating on the Eyre Highway, so we drove back to the Nullarbor Roadhouse. Here we were able to order freshly made toasties, tcht … and a small hot chips. Not hot chips again! With our lunch sorted we were back on the road, heading east, just after 2.00pm. We had another 300 kilometres / three hours of travel to reach Ceduna.
We passed through the Yalata Aboriginal Area. It was the Yalata people and conservation groups who lobbied for the creation of the Great Australian Bight Marine Park, which was established in 1998. It was proclaimed to protect:
the breeding grounds of the Southern Right Whales
the only mainland breeding sites of the Australian Sea Lion; and
the unique benthic (sea bed) flora and fauna of the Bight.
The landscape changed from the truly treeless part of the Nullarbor Plain to the more forested Nundroo Range as we neared Nundroo. Arriving in Penong we had to make a stop at the Penong Windmill Museum. It was just after 4.00pm and definitely time for a leg stretch. We’ve stopped AND photographed the windmills here before, but we were happy to stop again because … who doesn’t love a windmill??
The ‘windmill’ idea started over drinks in the workshop of some locals in 2000, with two couples feeling there was a need for Penola to have an attraction. With the town already referred to as the ‘Town of Windmills’ by passersby (due to the array of windmills on Antjutabie Flat on the approach to town) it was decided that windmills should be the key ingredient for their ‘attraction’. They saw an opportunity to preserve and showcase historic windmills, as these workhorses were being replaced by solar pumps.
In the beginning they acquired and restored windmills common to the Penola area but, over time, added windmills used throughout Australia including ‘Bruce’ the Comet Windmill. Bruce, with a span in excess of 35 feet, is Australia’s Biggest Windmill. Certainly a monster! Quite a few of the windmills were turning on our visit today, so that made them even more captivating.
As we departed Penong, we left the scrub and woodland behind and started motoring through agricultural country. It was quite literally the Goyder Line, with sheep to our left (north) and wheat to our right (south), ha, ha. I think the area is probably more of a transition zone between land suited to pastoral use and that suitable for farming as we certainly saw a mixture of fields filled with grazing sheep and hectares and hectares of bright green wheat growing.
On the outskirts of Ceduna we stopped at the Quarantine Checkpoint. We declared that we had some cut pineapple on board which Bernie had researched as being permitted to enter SA. The Quarantine Officer confirmed this to be the case and asked if we had an Esky or car fridge on board. Yes, we said and agreed to it being inspected. After a look in our fridge AND the pantry box, we were cleared to go.
We made our way to the Ceduna Foreshore Caravan Park and checked in to our cabin for the night. We tossed up whether to stay in the hotel/motel part of the same complex, where we stayed last time, but eventually booked the cabin option. We thought that the cabin would provide us with more amenity for preparing our own breakfast in the morning.
We didn’t purchase fuel on the way in, wanting to get checked in before reception closed, so it was straight back out again to the BP. Bernie didn’t like the 24/7 set up at the BP so we ended up at the Shell Servo where (at least) half their diesel pumps were not in operation. Bernie eventually pulled up beside one that was dispensing diesel, which was at a much better price here than it had been across the Nullarbor. At least with the long range fuel tank we didn’t have to buy too much fuel at inflated prices.
Back at the cabin we grabbed our cameras and raced down to the jetty for some (slightly after) sunset photos. Actually, it was good arriving when we did as the sun had just started to reflect red/orange on the horizon making for some dramatic shots silhouetting the jetty. After a quick walk out the jetty and back again, we wandered over to the Foodland Supermarket to buy a couple of kiwi fruit to go with that cut pineapple we have.
The post sunset glow was still looking amazing as we walked back to the caravan park, so we snapped a couple more shots. Why couldn’t the sunsets have been this good when we were at Kalbarri and Port Denison? You can’t plan a good sunset though, you just have to be lucky with the weather conditions wherever you may be at sunset. We can’t complain as we really have been treated to quite a few magnificent sunsets on our journey.
Steps: 9,405 (5.99kms)
