Day 113 Eucla

Today we were on the road early to head to the border with South Australia. We arrived yesterday at Balladonia about 15 minutes before a storm hit and today we seemed to be in a bubble travelling along with rain in front and behind and left and right of us. We had never seen this before, and we made it all the way to Bordertown near Eucla without any rain.






Yesterday we thought we had driven the 90 mile straight however we hit it today, the 90 Mile Straight is a legendary 146.6-kilometer (91.1 miles) stretch of the Eyre Highway that features no bends or turns from Balladonia and Caiguna.






The Caiguna Blowhole is a famous "breathing cave" located 5 kilometers west of Caiguna and just off the Eyre Highway on the Nullarbor Plain. It is a natural limestone weathering cavity that acts as a barometer. When air pressure drops outside, the cave breathes out. When air pressure rises, it breathes in. Air rushing through the small opening has been measured at speeds up to 70 to 72 kilometers per hour, creating a noticeable "whoosh" sound or rushing breeze. The cavity beneath is shallow, measuring roughly 0.5 to 1.5 meters deep.




We saw another hole of the golf course at Cocklebiddy, along with the beware of snakes sign, even the ladies get a 100mtr advance on the tee. Cocklebiddy a remote roadhouse settlement with a population of 8.





Madura Pass is a dramatic escarpment and scenic lookout on the Eyre Highway in Western Australia, offering rare high-altitude panoramic views across the flat Nullarbor Plain down onto the coastal Roe Plains and toward the distant Southern Ocean.!Madura Pass provides a striking change in landscape as the road steeply descends the Hampton Tableland escarpment. 







We were really surprised with todays drive, when we last did the drive some 20 years ago we do not remember the land being covered in grass, instead being red earth with emus etc. Today no red earth just lush grass growing everywhere with not an emu in site.






The historic Old Eucla Telegraph Station ruins are striking, half-buried stone structures sitting quietly among coastal sand dunes within the Nuytsland Nature Reserve in Eucla. Built in 1877 constructed to support the monumental East-West Telegraph Line connecting Western Australia with the eastern states and the rest of the world. By the early 1900s, it operated as the nation's busiest telegraph station outside of the capital cities. A severe rabbit plague in the late 1800s stripped the surrounding dunes of stabilizing vegetation, causing massive sand drifts to slowly swallow the settlement. Operations ceased in 1927, and the town relocated 4 kilometres north up onto the higher ground of the escarpment.





Eyre's Memorial for English explorer Edward John Eyre, his overseer John Baxter, and Aboriginal companions Wylie, Joey, and Yarry. The party camped here in 1841 during their historic and grueling overland expedition from Fowlers Bay in South Australia to Albany, Western Australia. 






Eucla's Roadside Cross was erected in October 1969 and it's design references the traditional wayside cross & Lithuanian heritage of the Patupis family. Steve Patupis transported the 10 metre long metal cross via tip truck, with the beam of the cross extending over the truck's cab.

A beacon and landmark for travellers, the cross situated at the top of Eucla Pass, is illuminated at night and can be seen for miles in each direction. This Traveller's Cross represents & guides all those who are travelling across the Eyre Highway.



The Big Kangaroo, known as Rooey II, is a 7-metre roadside sculpture located at the Border Village Roadhouse on the edge of the Nullarbor Plain in South Australia, just metres from the Western Australia border. This is where we are staying tonight.