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.
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Mum & calf |
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Amazing to see Right Southern Whales so close at Head of The Bight |
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Young calf |
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View from Head of The Bight to Coastal Cliffs |
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Happy to be here |
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Lost in thought... |
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The Head Of The Bight Information Centre |
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More hills |
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Loving the hills.. |
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Onto the last stretch of the day and still smiling |
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