A few pictures from my Christmas break

February 18, 2007 at 2:04 pm · Filed under cars, cows, transport, travel

I took a week off work after new year and decided to go for a drive to South Australia (~1600km away) – with thunderstorms from cyclone Isobel chasing me across the border, and still waiting for me on the way back. But it was still a fun trip. I’ll do it again though, in better weather. My route was Perth -> Kalgoorlie -> Eucla -> Over the border -> Norseman -> Esperance -> Kalgoorlie -> Perth. Mostly using the Eyre Highway.  With lots of overnight stops at roadhouses, and also a bit of camping out, which was the highlight. Especially a stay near a lake about 80km east of Norseman.

As you probably know, I’m a science geek, and i’ve been wanting to spend a night out, in the open, under a clear big sky, for yonks. I do overnight walks all the time, but it has always been in forested areas. So it was good to get out on the Nullarbor Plain for some camping this time. I tried to get some photos of star trails, around the south celestial pole, but haven’t yet gotten my film developed. I suspect it didn’t work. But there are a few holiday snaps from my digital camera below. As usual I have hundreds of photos, but haven’t gotten around to looking at them yet!

Incidentally, on science-geek things, I was disappointed that the Skylab museum at the Baladonia Road House is now closed. Apparently the artifacts have been sent back to the US. The Skylab space station, if you didn’t know, burned up over this region of Western Australia, leaving bits and pieces of itself all over the Nullarbor Plain.

I arrived in Esperance a day after the worst of the storms. But I was impressed by how quick the tourist operators were adapting! The original plan was to return to Perth via Hyden, but of course the storms destroyed a bridge. So the only way to get back out of Esperance was to go back via Kal again, dodging the stray sheep and cows crossing the road, and the flooded sections.

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