Thursday, 25 June 2026
We enjoyed the space in our HUGE two bedroom apartment overnight, but we were bemused by the very small vanity mirror in the bathroom, a single mirror tile! We didn’t have high expectations for this room secured at the last minute, but it was OK. Certainly not the worst room that we have had on this holiday. Although, having said that, the standard of the rooms has been consistently good all holiday.
This morning we didn’t have to worry about competing for the bathroom with someone in the household getting ready for work, so we were up early and on the road by 8.00am. Our bed for tonight is 700 kilometres away so, no time to waste if we want to arrive before dark. Travelling eastward the days seem to be getting shorter AND we are losing time with changing time zones.
Before getting properly underway, we made a quick stop at The Village Grocer. We forgot to buy a packet of Gingernuts at Woolies on Tuesday afternoon and I ate my last three last night. I do like a cuppa and some Gingernut biscuits for supper in the evenings! Probably a bad habit indulging in sweet biscuits after dinner?
We drove out of Norseman and made a foggy start on our journey along the Eyre Highway. The SatNav said – ⬆️ 709 km Stay on Eyre Highway. The sun was trying to burn through the cloud but didn’t really succeed for during our first 200 kilometres. Finally, about 10 Ks out of Balladonia, the cloud broke up and the sun appeared. It was still only 11°C, but at least the sun was shining.
Bernie pulled in to the Balladonia Roadhouse and parked next to the Minions. After a comfort stop, we popped into the Skylab Museum. Been there, done that on our last trip across the Nullarbor, but we needed to take a couple of photos for the blog. Built and operated by NASA, and launched in 1973, Skylab was America’s first space station. Many scientific experiments were completed by three separate crews in 1973 and 1974. When its orbit decayed, plans were made to steer the 77-tonne craft towards a point of impact far from population centres.
The plan was for it to crash into the Indian Ocean. However, on the 11th of July 1979, it disintegrated in the upper atmosphere during an uncontrolled re-entry and it scattered wreckage across Western Australia, near the town of Balladonia, having rather overshot the mark. Fortunately, no-one was injured and now tourists travelling across the Nullarbor can call in to see a piece of space junk in the museum. There are also displays featuring the original indigenous inhabitants, the pioneers and the cameleers.
Before leaving, Bernie checked Petrol Spy and found that the diesel here at Balladonia was the cheapest we were going to be able to buy it for today. He decided to top up the truck’s tank at $2.47/litre while he could. That way we wouldn’t have to buy as much at the higher price we will have to pay near the border.
We pulled out of Balldonia with me at the wheel. This is the first time that I have driven on this holiday. I have offered to drive a few times but, until today, Bernie has declined. It’s understandable when I spend so much time in the passenger seat snoozing. Although I don’t think my sleepiness has been quite as bad as it was in New Zealand last year? Anyhow, I drove the 179 kilometres from Balladonia to Caiguna which includes The 90 Mile Straight. This is Australia’s longest straight stretch of road at 146.6 kilometres in length and, arguably, the most boring. Was that a good section of road for me to take the wheel on??!! And what did Bernie do in the passenger seat? He snoozed! Quid pro quo I suppose.
I parked the truck out the front of the Caiguna Roadhouse and we wandered into the restaurant. Have to say that we enjoyed some excellent toasted sandwiches and hot chips at the roadhouse that claims to be The Hub of the World. We were upset that their signpost did not include Melbourne. As we walked back to the car we did notice that a couple of signs have fallen off so, perhaps, one of those was for Melbourne?
Climbing back into the truck after lunch, Bernie’s phone blue-toothed to the truck’s screen and showed the time as 1.29pm. What? My watch and phone were showing the time as 12.44pm. So, Bernie’s watch and phone had added 45 minutes to be on the ‘unofficial’ Australian Central Western Standard Time, while my watch and phone were still on Perth time (Australian Western Standard Time). Aargh, confusing. We thought we had an early lunch but now it was more like it was a late lunch.
At about 3.00pm (I think?) we reached the Madura Pass, which descends from the Hampton Tableland to the Roe Plains. We pulled in at the Madura Pass Roadhouse because it seemed like it should be ice-cream o’clock. We’ve missed ice-cream o’clock for a couple of days and what better excuse for a break from driving and a leg stretch? With no Splices in the freezer, today’s ice-cream of choice was Drumsticks.
I cannot remember if I got the geography clear in my head on our last crossing, but today I was confused about the distinction between the Nullarbor Plain, the Hampton Tableland and the Roe Plains?? A little bit of Googling and I think it’s like this. The Nullarbor Plain sits atop the Hampton Tableland so, after we descended the Madura Pass, we were no longer driving ON the Nullarbor Plain, we were driving on the more coastal Roe Plains. However, we continued to drive alongside the Hampton Tableland and the Nullarbor plain continues atop the slightly raised tableland.
At Mundrabilla we really entered the Time Warp. My watch and phone skipped to 4.15pm, while Bernie’s remained at 3.30pm. The time back in Norseman, where our body clocks started this morning was 2.45pm!! For some reason my watch seemed to have picked up Australian Central Time from a South Australian phone tower?? And, the fact that the differences are 45 minutes apart really messes with my head.
At 4.08/4.53pm (?), sometime this afternoon anyway, we climbed Eucla Pass and pulled into the small settlement of Eucla. After a little bit of confusion we found our way to the Eucla Motel. Thinking it was the motel’s driveway, we accidentally pulled in to the Eyre Memorial which is co-located with the War Memorial. The Eyre Memorial consists of a plaque on a rock to commemorate Edward John Eyre, (and party – Baxter, Wylie, Joey, Yarry) camping in this vicinity on the 11th of March 1841 during the 1,500km journey from Fowlers Bay to Albany.
Finding our way to the motel we checked in. When we asked about dinner we were told very clearly – Last orders at 7.00pm and it is 5.15pm now, the time on the clock on the wall is the right time. I guess with the confusion with time zones, and especially with electronic devices picking up different time zones, that they regularly have people arrive too late to order dinner? We definitely recall that we had the same problem just across the border when we stayed in Border Village last time we came this way!
While we were in the restaurant I noticed an explanation for Eucla’s name – Most people call it Eucla, that is incorrect, its proper name is ‘Yer-cla’ and Yer-cla comes from the nomadic tribes who inhabited that area ‘Yer’ meaning bright and ‘cla’ meaning fire and the name is ‘bright fire’ which is the name given by the Aborigines of that district to the planet Venus as it appears just over the bluff just east of the border line and that bluff was subsequently named Wilsons Bluff by a South Australian explorer surveyor.
This evening we don’t really know what the time is. When we went over for dinner we were served, so it definitely wasn’t later than 7.00pm then, ha, ha. Sitting back in our room, my watch seems to be on Australian Western Central Standard Time (45 minutes behind South Australia) while Bernie’s watch and phone remain steadfastly on Perth time. He has set the option on his phone to auto-update the time and it updates to Eucla and then reverts to Perth, even though he has turned the option off and on several times. His iPad is on AWCST though. All very strange when all the devices are Apple and the phones are both with Telstra. It’s hard to explain why they don’t all agree on the ‘right’ time?? And there is no explanation at all for why Bernie’s phone was first to adopt AWCST but later stubbornly reverted to Perth time.
Steps: 4,053 (2.61kms)
