Had a nice sunny day for this drive, a pleasant ramble through more gimlet and salmon gum forest. We stopped for a bit of shopping at Norseman and then drove on to Fraser Range. Norseman was a prospector's horse who uncovered a gold nugget pawing the ground with his hoof. Gold has been mined off and on there since the late 1800's
Fraser Range is a sheep station that has tourism as a side line. The caravan park is set in a very picturesque setting in the ranges and came highly recommended by a number of people we talked to on our way. It definitely lived up to it's reputation.
30th July - Fraser Range
We did a 5 hour 4wd tour of the station with 2 other people plus guide. We were shown stone wall dams constructed at the turn of the last century, more recent granite mining, goats, old Afghan wells from early gold rush days (the Afghans carted freight by camel train from Esperance to Kalgoorlie), dingo trapping stations, old out-station buildings, lots of different trees, a dead dingo and a Sturt's Desert Pea.
A very windy storm passed through during the night and the Dove held up well.
31st July Fraser Range - Madura
Out of the eucalypt forest and into the low scrub overlying the Nullarbor limestone plains. Madura is situated at the base of a pretty pass down from the limestone plains to the coastal plain, a drop of about 100 m. All of the places on this section of the road are just roadhouses perhaps with a motel, but no town.
1st August Madura - Nullarbor
More scrubby plains today with the limestone plains escarpment nearby to the north to break the monotony. We climbed back up onto the higher plain at Eucla and passed the WA-SA border. After this point the coastal plain is gone and the ocean comes right up to the escarpment, forming the cliffs of the Great Australian Bight.
Nullarbor is near the start of the true Nullarbor, a treeless grassy plain with even very few shrubs.
After setting up camp we drove to the Head of the Bight, where we saw something very special. Southern Right whales come here to raise their calves, right close to the shore/cliff. We were within 30 meters of them and at one stage we counted 14 whales immediately in front of us, mother and calf pairs. Most of the calves looked half grown but one guy looked very young. The official count was 31 in the bay. One young guy breached repeatedly while zooming about 500 m up the bay. Feeling good I guess! We were absolutely gob-smacked and stood and watched them for about 2 hours until they wandered out to deeper water. A truly amazing experience.
Oh, and we also had a dingo wandering around our camper when we got back from our bedtime ablutions.
