The Nullabor Run 2 – The Bight

Eucla is exactly the point where that range of hills that had been tracking us since Madura, crosses the Eyre Highway and becomes the cliffs of the Great Australian Bight. From here on in, we were on the Nullabor Plains proper and the South Australian border only a few minutes away. Before we left, we transferred 40 litres of diesel from our jerry can and floor tank, that we had bought cheap back in Albany. With local diesel prices 60 cents a litre higher, now was the time.

Another golf hole on baked clay and we stopped just over the border at Border Village.

I’d read a travel blog by an obscure traveler who had seemingly done his homework on the best views of the Bight. So we eschewed the popular Bunda Cliffs and headed out along the highway in search of the 52klm marker, our only clue. A dirt track turnoff loomed on the right. It looked like a basic rest stop, but a smaller track at the rear snaked away towards the cliff tops. It only took a couple of minutes to reach the edge.

But we were looking for a particular view point, a protrusion into the ocean where one can look both left and right. We could see it a bit further along the cliff top. Only concern was the crack that ran clear across the point. This extrusion was not going to be around for much longer. It would have been hilarious(eventually) if my 77kg tipped 1000 tonnes of cliff into the sea but I wasn’t going to miss this opportunity, so leapt across the chasm and started to shoot some pics.

Jump on, jump off…several times, tempting fate….maybe. We decided to have lunch where we parked. Tamika threw together some lamb and gravy rolls while I walked further down the track looking for possible place to turn the rig around.

I noticed that the track was well used. It disappeared along the cliff tops and perhaps at some point might find it’s way back to the highway. It’s was a punt but we had plenty of daylight to back-track. What the hell, let’s do it ! So, for four kilometres we hugged the cliff edge, stopping several times to take in our line of sight to Antarctica and the endless plain behind us. Then, a sharp turn to the left proved the hunch correct, and we were backon the black-top and headed for the famous Nullabor Roadhouse.