114 caravanworld.com.au
butcreatea longerworkinglifethrougheasy
replacement of teeth as they wearout.We
eventually got out, the 2000kgZoneslowing
progress a bit, and made it down to yet
another hardly believable clifftop camp.
However, after being forced to test out the
Maxtrax several times, we were never going
to make it to the SA border and our planned
stop at Eucla. Brad knew of a secret spot off
the Old Eyre Highway marked as Koonalda
Homestead. Like many once thriving
farmsteads, Koonalda has fallen to disrepair.
But with a pit toilet and flat ground, it had all
we needed.
The strangest thing happened at Eucla, we
fought over what time it was but on asking
the locals, they suggested we check the clock.
"Which one?" we asked when seeing three on
the wall inside the cafe. We were met with a
shrug. The stop runs on popular time: when
it's popular, they stay open. When quiet, they
close. I admire that lifestyle.THE NULLARBOR
After what felt like hours of playing eye-
spy and exclaiming when we saw a tree,
we diverted to the coast to see one of the
most controversial pieces of Australian
infrastructure: the Dingo Fence. It feels like
one side is more worn down than the other —
perhaps from pests? We all wanted to follow
it back to the highway but, with locked gates
and warning signs of trespassing should we
try to follow the obvious tracks back, it was
the long way for us.
But we did get to stop at the Madura
Roadhouse for a $5 shower, a quick spanner
check of the campers and a restock of
essentials ie pies and flavoured milk. Funny
how you take a simple thing like a servo snack
for granted until you don’t see one for days.EYRE’S A LEGACY
Not only is there a major highway, peninsula,
lake and mountain named after him, Edward
John Eyre’s name is also on the Eyre Bird
Observatory. It’s a must-stop for twitchers,
but the homestead and adjoining sheds are
a historian’s dream, littered with artefacts
from settlement days through to the whaling
period and the observatory’s time as an
animal watching hotspot.h gheasy“As dusk approached, we came
across a stricken Ford Ranger
crawling out of a turnoff with a
blown and nearly off-the-rim tyre”
CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE On the hunt for a night's sleep on the Nullabor; one of the daily trip rituals;
an overhead view of our goal, Point Malcolm; a friendly 'local' spotted on the Telegraph Track