Monday, 10/15 Koonalda Homestead to Side Road near Ceduna

Bustards. dingoes, camels, and other wonders

     We didn't hear any of the mice in the shearer's kitchen during the night that Simo had said he'd heard, and the wind of the previous day had died down, so we had a calm breakfast of coffee and bread and jam on the little porch. Then we packed up our stuff and headed out to look for the dingoes that Simo had said we'd see a few miles down the old Eyre Road. We'd heard a pack of dingoes howling a few hundred meters away when we first awoke, so that was a good omen.

     The new road crossing the Nullarbor Plain, which opened in 1986, is some twenty kilometers south is smooth and straight. The old highway was never paved. It's relatively straight, and was probably as well groomed as other big dirt track roads when in its heyday but it's gotten a little rough in places now. It's generally best to keep your speed around 40 mph when negotiating the corrugated roads, fast enough to smooth out the bumps but slow enough to maintain control. Also helps outrun the dust. But since we were dingo hunting we took it slower.

     We'd driven a few kilometers without seeing anything when we spotted some strange large birds that looked like a cross between an emu, caracara and turkey. It's a good thing Kim gave us the bird book. The birds didn't let us get too close, but here is one;

Australian Bustard, over 3 feet tall

     A few more kilometers down the road I looked over and saw three tawny forms 50 meters from the car and called out “dingoes”. They were feeding on a fresh wombat carcass. We stopped the LC to take some photos and a male circled towards our front. I drove on slowly to keep taking pictures of him. He seemed nonchalant about us, mostly ignoring our car but continued to lead us further from the other dingoes and wombat kill. Finally after about 100 meters he trotted back into the bush and headed towards the other dogs. I don't know if he was actually trying to lead us away, but it sure seemed like it.

A bored yawn

I took many photos of this handsome fellow, hard to decide which to post

     Then as if that wasn't cool enough, I noticed a spread of large bones just at the side of the road. I got out to check them out, there were leg bones larger than any I'd ever seen outside of a museum. Too big to be cattle bones. Diana got out and joined me searching for the skull and found it on the other side of the road;

Camel skeleton

Wow, that was all quite exciting. Wait, how about a nice flock of Galahs?

Galahs in flight

     Or a handsome Brown Snake slithering across the road (Diana was not happy about me chasing him with the camera);

Brown snake

     Satisfied with our safari, we drove back to the main road to take in the Bunda Cliffs, towering limestone walls overlooking the Southern Ocean that run nearly the entire length of the Australian Bight, over 1000 kilometers;

Diana looking west at the Bunda Cliffs

Kevin looking east

Diana looking down... see her there, right on the edge?

     There's a spot on the highway that is the designated landing strip for the flying doctors to land their planes, but I suspect it's as much for show as anything else, since I'm sure they set down where ever they need to in an emergency;

The runway is basically 1000 km long, why pick this spot?

    Well, that was enough site seeing for the day. We pointed the car east and drove, stopping to take showers at the Nullarbor roadhouse, then driving towards Ceduna looking for a place to camp. We ended up just driving a few kilometers up a side road and parking near a farm road. I fixed ginger stir fry with couscous and we went to bed.

Roughin' it