13/9/12

We left the Ten Mile Rocks Rest Area and drove to the Balladonia Roadhouse and refuelled just in case. Balladonia made world headlines in 1979 when debris from the space station Sky Lab crashed back to earth 40kms outside of town. We drove 30kms from Balladonia and stopped at the sign which marks the start of the longest straight stretch of road in Australia. It is 145.6kms or 90 miles without a bend. We drove through country with tall trees and then it transitioned to grass and small shrubs as far as the eye could see in all directions. We had lunch at Baxter Rest Area and we thought we only had another 38kms to travel before we stopped for the night. Unfortunately Camps 5 and our travelling atlas both lied and there was no toilet. So we continued on to Cocklebiddy Roadhouse and then onto the Observatory Turnoff Rest Area. We were surprised to find we had travelled 387.2kms today. This has been one of our biggest days travel since we left home. One good thing was we gained 45 minutes, so we are only 70 minutes behind the East Coast now. We had another fire tonight.

 Balladonia Roadhouse on the Eyre Hwy

 

 The start of The 90 Mile Straight

on the Eyre Hwy

 

 Our lunch stop at Baxter Rest Area

 

 Caiguna Roadhouse at the end of The 90 Mile Straight

 

 Cocklebiddy Roadhouse, Eyre Hwy

 

 Camping at Observatory Turnoff Rest Area, Eyre Hwy

 

 Our smaller fireplace

 

Observatory Turnoff Rest Area