Norseman to Koonalda(SA) 800km

19/01/15

Jenny & I had a warm night sleeping in the pop-top section of the camper, we got up at 6am but couldn't leave early as the Norseman IGA store doesn't open until 8.30am.

So we had breaky, coffee, showered & packed up. We fuelled up at the Caltex next door to the Caravan Park, at $1.41 per litre, the Britz Land Cruiser had only used 90L of diesel over 750km. Not to bad, equals about 12L per 100kms & we rarely drive under 100km on the open road.

So we picked up some essentials from IGA & left town at 8.45am. We have passed two separate cyclists, a man headed towards Norseman (he only had 15km to go) & a woman headed east . She will be doing it tough. It's 40degC today, at least she had a tail wind.

Highway 1 has been sort of busy on average we passed a vehicle every 20km.

 Jenny must be a bit bored with driving as she has started playing the waving game. You know the one where you wave at the oncoming traffic & if they wave back they are good bloke or top sheila. If they don't wave then they get curses from Jen accusing them of being dicks & morons.

We have done 358km from Norseman & it is now 12.50pm so I'm not sure if we will make it to Koonalda.

Well we did make it at 8.30pm SA DST time. Very curious place, 12km in on a 30-40km/h track. We had dinner & hopped into the camper roof coffin at 11pm.

Parked in drive way of Koonbalda Homestead.

Old Vauxhall with Telegraph Station in background

Jenny with FX Holden, not one Jap car in site.
All Aussie, Yank & Pommie cars.

Thunder Box. Yes we used it!

Telegraph Station, on original Eyre Hwy.

Koonbalda Cave, water source for Station.

Koonbalda Cave

Monday 19th Jan 15 (Jen's view)

A big day driving today to get past all the things we've seen before and get to some we haven't. 

Madura Pass heading East was a first for me and it came upon us suddenly and was such a change from the plains. 

Just past Eucla and Boarder Town is the first glimpse of the Ocean so we had to stop. 

We headed for Koonbalda, which is an old homestead/roadhouse from the prehistoric days. It is on the old Eyre highway. 

Stopped for some fuel but they had some problem with their computer system.

So we have to stay till they fix it and we can get fuel to get out again.

Having a look around, we noticed some other vehicles. I think this problem had been going on a while. ..

It is an amazing place, full of history. ..and old cars. We saw a dingo on the way in, and he gave us a visit at the homestead. A really good place to camp.