Day 112: Border Village Roadhouse to Nullarbor Roadhouse

 What is the local time at Border Village ? Located right on the WA/SA border this became a serious question.

It seems that Border Village/ Eucla and surrounds have their own unofficial time zone , Central Western Time which is 45 mins ahead of Perth and 45 mins behind Adelaide. My Ford Everest was very smart and picked this up, but the mobile phones didn't, so we were not sure what the time was.



You can see the border buildings behind the car in the service station

Our drive today is only 200 km, but there is a lot to see and we plan to divert off the highway to the lookouts along the way where we can see the Great Australian Bight.


The first lookout is only a short distance from Border Village and not one of the official 3 lookouts, but it attracted plenty of interests and a few hardy caravaners looked like they had camped there overnight.




We weren't expecting to see a lot of beach at this point, but it is obviously part of the coast that is a little more accessible from the ocean.



There were a few keen campers who enjoy a 30 knot breeze

The next lookout point showed much more of the sheer limestone cliffs that are the Great Australian Bight.

Someone's holiday didn't go well.








At the next lookout we really started to see the sheer cliffs to the ocean.




But it was the  final lookout before we reached Nullarbor Roadhouse which really showed off this coastline.


The path from the carpark took us out to a great viewpoint




We are now in the Nullarbor Plain (no trees) and about 50 km from Nullarbor Roadhouse. Arrival there is around lunch time, as we continue to juggle time zones, we are now on Adelaide time. The roadhouse is quite modern compared to the others along the Eyre Highway and we reluctantly top up our fuel for the bargain price of $3.24 / litre. Fortunately today the headwind is much less so our consumption was closer to normal. 

The plan is to spend the night at the roadhouse caravan park and once again, we are one of the early arrivals. It really fills up after that. 



By nightfall there were lots of vans here and the motel was full.

For the rest of the day, Carole baked a focaccia ! 


It looks terrific

Whilst I had a wander around checking out the roadhouse. They had electric charging for EV 's with diesel generator backup for when the sun's not shining.


The original roadhouse still stands and is now cordoned off from the main complex, but well preserved.



There is the usual roadsigns warning of stray animals on the highway.


We had a shower, which costs extra atb many roadhouses on the Nullabor. $1 for a 5 minute hot shower seemed reasonable.

Tonight we decide to eat at the roadhouse, it seems we are not the only ones, as the place is busy. The daily special is a lamb roast dinner which has a lot of appeal.

The bar/restaurant is called the Oz Rock Legends Bar, and it is decorated with some very well crafted murals.





Great Murals in the bar


Outside the entrance door a very lean looking dingo was looking for a free feed, which of course is strongly discouraged. She soon moved on


The meal was huge and good country fare. Once again it is quite cold once the sun goes down, so as soon as we left the air conditioned comfort of the bar, we rushed back to our van and fired up our own air conditioning. 

Tomorrow we are heading for Penong / Lake Macdonnell for 2 nights and are hoping the improved weather stays with us.

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