After a fairly restful night (apart from a truck generator going all night)  at Jilah Rockhole, we were back on the road heading across the Nullarbor with our planned destination the Head of Bight and a free camp close to the whale watching centre.

The drive was not a particularly long one, however as we drove out, an alert came on Trev’s GPS saying the highway was closed in both directions at Eucla…. A bit concerning seeing there was no other way to continue heading east…

I checked online, and the closure was due to a “Police Support/ RFDS landing”- so it must have been a medical emergency requiring the Royal Flying Doctor to land on the highway to do a medical retrieval….

As we continued on towards Eucla there were now no cars coming in the opposite direction… and about 10 K out of Eucla te traffic slowed… we were hoping it was as the internet had indicated – as if it turned out to be an accident of some description the road could be closed for a very lengthy period….

Fortunately, just after we hit the traffic, we saw the RFDS take off….

And then suddenly a large amount of traffic coming our was (unusual sight on the Nullarbor 😊 )… we started moving again, got to Eucla and filled up with fuel… and continued on thankful that the delay had only been short.

We crossed the border into South Australia…

In the distance we could see storm clouds… and rain – not a very frequent sight in the desert area….

The highway got closer to the ocean and we could see the sea from the cars – it was incredibly calm and glassy… no wind at all….

Wide loads were less frequent than on the Goldfields Highway – but one very large one passed us – the road was quite narrow and the shoulders somewhat soft so it was tricky pulling off to let him pass…

Gordie was always on the lookout for firewood – and stopped on the side of the road as he located a dead tree which looked promising…

so we gathered enough wood to ensure we could have a fire tonight – the only way you can sit outside together as the nights are really cold now….

We hit the “Western end of the Treeless Plain” and drove on…..

reaching the Nullarbor Roadhouse for lunch…

In the distance to the north, rain continued to fall on the Nullarbor Plain…. But the sun was shining where we were…

The Whitewell Free Camp was only a few kms further up the road, and a right hand turn along the road to the Whale Watching Centre – so we got to the camp and unhitched so we could drive out without the vans in tow…

The campsite was great with level sites…. And a deserted building of sorts with no purpose….

A short drive out to the Whale Watching Centre… and an admission fee of $15pp… and we walked down to the viewing platforms to see quite a few whales playing in the bay!!

The centre is located at the start of the Bunda Cliffs – and you could see the spectacular cliff-edges coastline to the west….

To the east were huge rolling sandhills – a shiny white backdrop to the turquoise blue of the bay…. A beautiful wild vista of the coast around South Australia….

The whales were quite close to shore and so we got some interesting pics…. There was a mother and calf swimming around in the waves together…

A few other whales were playing…

showing off their tails….

And breaching further out to sea…

If you didn’t know what you were looking at some images could be mistaken for another large sea inhabitant!!

When we got back to the camp, we sat together and listened to the next instalment of exodus as today was Sunday – and there were no churches around to visit 😊

During the day’s journey, it was noted AGAIN that the lights on the Hunter Lotus were non-existent…. despite all the attempts by auto-electricians, MacGyver, Gordie, Branch they and all and sundry… they were still stubbornly unreliable – so yet another inspection of the 12 pin plug was warranted…. Branch by this time was over the pin and could barely crawl over to take a look – his posture said it all 🙂 … still no result – so Gordie decided to see if he could call an auto-electrician in Ceduna on the way there tomorrow….

 Gordie got the firepit out and lit the fire so we could sit around that evening….

Trev went for a bike ride to stretch his aching knees…

Sunset over the Nullarbor – with the storms and clouds on the horizon – was glorious in its own way.