The Rambling Retirees: Are we there yet?

Australia Day 2016 --- yep, already the end of January (well almost) and this Rambling Retiree is still travelling across the Nullabor at the end of September 2015!!!! At this point in my blogging life a John Denver song comes to mind --- "Some days are diamonds, some days are stone. Sometimes the hard times won't leave me alone". Despite my best endeavours to keep our blog up-to-date it seems there have been far more pressing priorities on the 'must-do' list and here we are asking "Are we there yet?" Never fear, as Lao Tzu stated -- " A good traveller has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving." -- so we continue our adventure across the Nullabor on our way to Bornholm where we will rest for three weeks whilst housesitting.

Journal entries continue from here --

Wednesday , 30th September to Friday 2nd October -- Eyre Bird Observatory (EBO)

Leaving Cocklebiddy early we were quite excited about the next couple of days because for some time now we had been considering taking on the role of caretakers at the EBO. This was our opportunity to 'test the waters' if you like, just to experience the area and find out more about the tasks expected.

Access to the EBO was interesting to say the least. We left our trailer at the lookout car park area as there is no trailer access to the old telegraph station where we would be staying. The first section of the track is down a very steep escarpment - a bit scary but the views are fantastic and the OWO dealt with it extremely well. At the bottom of the escarpment tyre pressure has to be lowered to about 20-25 psi as the next 16kms is through very soft sandy dunes. It took quite some time to finally reach the outpost -- and it certainly is an isolated outpost!

Our two days here passed very quickly. We spent many quiet hours each day walking and observing the birdlife, as well as seeking information about the caretakers role (have to say the incumbent caretakers were not too helpful on that point). Surprisingly there is quite a mixture of coastal vegetation here with some very interesting designated walking tracks. On day two we walked the beautiful Seaview Circuit track -- 6.5kms. After spending some time on the beach the track led us through the sand dunes and some interesting treed areas where we spotted a large dugite (a big black snake!) and lots of birds, including a golden whistler in full breeding colour.

Although we enjoyed our two days in this beautiful 'wilderness', these Rambling Retirees were not convinced that we wanted to spend three months here as 'caretakers'. And so having 'tested the waters', and with energy renewed, we left the EBO and travelled on to our next camp.

Friday 2nd October to Sunday 4th October - Newman's Rock (140kms east of Norseman)

We left the EBO at 8am and the temperature was already 30degrees. Thank goodness for air con in the vehicle! Today it reached 40degrees but we didn't really care as we found a great campsite at Newman's Rock. No other campers, just us and the emus, frogs and birds. Oh, and I forgot to mention those big biting March flies and our night time visitors, thousands of flying ants! But the beauty of this campsite far outweighed any negatives found in the latter.

Here there was a rock pool, where we observed the emus and a collared sparrow hawk enjoying a cool drink. Our campsite was surrounded by flowering scented shrubs and we woke to the sound of frogs and beautiful birdsong. Colourful parrots joined us in the late afternoon as the sun went down and Mother Nature provided us once again with a spectacular night sky.