Sunday, 7 July 2013

DAY 88 - 6TH JULY 2013 - NULLARBOR ROADHOUSE TO NUNDROO ROADHOUSE


Day 88– 6th July 2013  - Nullarbor Roadhouse to Nundroo Roadhouse


Walter slept late – first time ever on this trip and I think he must have needed it so we didn’t get up until 7.15am. He was away by 8am and we arranged to meet at Head of The Bight 14 kms up The Eyre Highway and then another 12 kms from the highway turnoff.  Part of The Great Australian Bight Marine Park it is situated on the Yalata Aboriginal Lands and it is famous for being one of the most spectacular whale watching sites in South Australia (or indeed the world – according to the brochure I looked at) It has the largest congregation of Southern Right Whales in Australia – massive mammals – they grow up to 18 metres in length and weigh 50 to 90 tonnes and their tails can measure five metres across. You access the viewing platforms via cliff top timber boardwalks where the migrating whales can be seen and they are here to calve and frolic with their young. This is well worth a visit and you also get a magnificent view of the coastal cliffs from one of the viewing platforms. Today we were lucky we saw many of The Southern Right Whales with young calves.


Cycling Stats:  170 kms
Cycling Average:  31.5 kms per hour

We had our coffee break there and then Walter left to resume his ride with another 130 kms or so still to cycle.  I met up with Paul, the cyclist from Singapore & he had had a tough day’s riding yesterday so he wanted a lift back to the highway & a few kms further as he carries all his gear with him and so he mainly  averages of 18 – 20 kms per hour and he was keen to arrive in Nundroo as well today and the visit to Head of The Bight meant that he was behind schedule. I arranged to meet Walter at the now closed and abandoned roadhouse Yalata – here Paul resumed his ride and I waited an hour or so for Walter to arrive. Lunch then back on the road for the last 52 kms of today’s ride.

A pre-arranged stop 30kms up the highway but Walter was fine and indicated that I should continue on to Nundroo Roadhouse – so I topped up the fuel and spoke to the friendly Scottish manager who kindly offered us a free powered site for the night.

The landscape has changed – all of a sudden bigger trees in place of the low sparse vegetation of Nullarbor (treeless plain “nullus arbor”) Interesting that the Nullarbor was once part of the ocean floor and it is the world’s biggest, flattest piece of limestone covering approximately 200,000 square kilometers and is up to 300 metres thick..

Walter’s ride today started with flat terrain of the plains and quickly changed to numerous small and moderate steep hills almost up to Nundroo. It was he tells me more challenging then some of the recent day’s rides as it changed from the flat plains to landscape with lots of hills some quite long and many with 2 or 3 climbs continuing straight after the previous one.

Mum & calf


 
Amazing to see Right Southern Whales so close at Head of The Bight


Young calf

View from Head of The Bight to Coastal Cliffs

Happy to be here

Lost in thought...

The Head Of The Bight Information Centre

More hills

Loving the hills..


Onto the last stretch of the day and still smiling


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