Saturday 12.11.2011: 18 - 31 degrees - hot with wind from the west. We left the Van Park at Norseman and headed to the golf course and played the two holes of the Nullabor Links, a par 4 and a par 5 hole which were average size fairways but lots of long grass with burrs. We met two other couples, one lot followed us up the fairway and the other two had just arrived, so we decided it was peak hour on the Nullarbor Links Golf Course. We didn’t do too good here but at least they were open fairways without too many obstacles‘.
We then traveled along the Eyre Highway from Norseman traveling east, where there was a very large dry salt lake on our left, there were trees on either side of the road which varied in height up to 30’. We traveled to Fraser Range Station where we played the Sheep’s Back par 3 hole and stayed the night.
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| Nullarbor Links hole by hole description |
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| Tin Camels at entrance to Norseman |
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| Fraser Range |
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| Par 3 - rock and long grass |
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| Fraser range camp |
Sunday 13.11.2011: 18 - 33 degrees - Hot and sunny with westerly winds, which helped our fuel consumption as they were pushing us. We left Fraser Range Sheep Station and traveled to Balladonia Roadhouse where we played the Skylab Par 3 through scrub, then back in the Coaster to Caiguna Roadhouse where we played 90 Mile Straight Par 4 through trees. The scenery as we drove was long grass about 30 to 45cm high with green scrubs dotted everywhere, the road seemed to rise up and down no more than 2 or 3 meters. We stayed at Cocklebiddy Roadhouse overnight.
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| Balladonia -Fairway? |
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| Caiguna |
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| At least the greens were OK - synthetic grass and fast! |
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| Western end of the 90 mile straight |
Monday 14.11.2011: 19 - 33 degrees - hot with wind from the south east. We started our day by playing the Eagles Nest Par 4 at Cocklebiddy.
As we drove east the scenery was the same as yesterday except the road was dropping down from 100 meters above sea level, to Madura Roadhouse where the road dropped down to the Roe Plains 45 meters above sea level. We played the Brumby’s Run Par 3, this was the worst hole so far with large trees across the fairway and lots of bushes waiting to hide your ball, a very hard par 3.
We drove across the Roe Plains to Mundrabilla Road House, we saw:-
Ÿ lots of Harley Davidson Bikers coming towards us with headlights on, they are traveling to a Rally in Margaret River
Ÿ lots of flocks of budgerigars flying and swooping back and forth across the road
Ÿ About 20 kilometers of dead budgerigars on the road probably sucked into the road trains as they go so fast
Ÿ A boot tree
Ÿ A ribbon tree
Ÿ Mirages
Emergency Airstrips on the highway for the Flying Doctor
At Mundrabilla we played the Watering Hole Par 4,
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| Get in there! |
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| Approaching Eucla from West |
Then back in the Coaster to go to Eucla where we played the Nullarbor Nymph Par 4, this was a big improvement as it was on the Eucla Golf Course (only the one hole) where they had actually cut the tufts of grass. The fairway was littered with spent shotgun cartridges and remains of clay targets used by the local shooting club. We booked into Eucla Van Park to recover from all our golfing and driving.
Tuesday 15.11.2011: 19 - 27 degrees. Sun/cloud/wind /wind/ wind. After breakfast we drove down to the ruins of the old Eucla Telegraph Station from where the original overland telegraph line went to Darwin. The ruins are again being gradually covered in sand blown from the enormous sand dunes nearby. There is much more sand now than when were last here .
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| Looking west over Roe Plains from Eucla lookout |
We drove 12 kilometers east to Border Village this is the border between Western Australia and South Australia, where people going into W.A. have their car checked for fruit, vegetables, honey and plants.
We found the Big Roo and played the par 3 hole Border Kangaroo 160 meters, the fairway was like a narrow gravel road through trees beside the highway and the green was the usual synthetic grass with a yellow flag.
Not too far from Ecula we stopped at the scenic access points on the Bunda Cliffs and found they had fenced off walkways to keep people away from the edge of the 90 meters cliffs, another tourist told us about a guy who got out of his car to look at the view and watched his car and caravan role over the cliff as he had not put the parking brake on. This happened prior to the fences being put up. The views are stupendous with the various layers of limestone clearly visible, it being a very windy day the seas were quite rough.
The actual treeless plain starts just east of Ecula and extends to about 20K east of Nullabor roadhouse
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| Western end of treeless plain |
The next stop was Nullarbor Roadhouse where we played the Wombat Hole par 5 - 520 meters, we were told to watch out for the brown snakes and the crows as they like taking your golf balls, they suggested spraying your ball with aero guard or something smelly that will make the crow drop the ball.. We stood on the tee looking down the fairway there were no trees, the grass clumps had been cut on the fairway, the rough was long grass and salt bush, the ordinary flies were in their hundreds , the march flies were biting, and the wind in your face was like a southerly buster, the joys of golfing.
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| Flat horizon all round |
We stayed at Nullarbor Roadhouse overnight to recover from the wind and flies, being out of the wind and having a cuppa was bliss.
Thursday 16.11.2011: 19 - 32 degrees. Cloud/sun. Leaving Nullarbor the countryside is very flat with low scrub and grass tufts, we drove to Head of the Bight, the eastern end of the Nullarbor, this is where people can view the Southern Right Whales and their calves between May and October, we missed out by a couple of weeks, but we still went and had a look, the view is spectacular, the cliffs here are 80 meters high and 200 odd kilometers long looking west and looking east the cliffs drop down to sand hills which are blowing inland at 11 meters a year. Once again there are boardwalks with rails either side and viewing platforms. The Visitors Centre is very well put together and we stayed and had coffee and scones with jam and cream, the centre is run by grey nomads.
As we continued on towards Nundroo Roadhouse the road started to become undulated with low trees, we found the Nundroo Wombat Hole Par 5 - 520 meters where the tufts of grass had been mown and we hit off up a hill then down to the synthetic grass green with the yellow flag, no wombats only flies.
We continued on with the scenery changing to large wheat properties even bill boards and a tree with a big green bear in it. We found the Penong Windmills Golf Course and played only the first hole which is part of the Nullabor links, a par 4 - 260 meters with an open mown fairway at first with a few trees either side near the hole, the wind was nowhere near as bad as yesterday. We stayed at the Penong Van Park.
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| Lloyd found that the trees had golf ball magnets in them |
Thursday 17.11.2011: 17 - 37 degrees. Sunny. Woke late to find everyone else either packed and leaving or almost ready to leave, we were still on W.A. time with no daylight saving-an hour behind local time. I put a load of washing on and pegged it out and then had breakfast, we collected the washing on the way out and it was bone dry. Traveling along the Eyre Highway we had strong north westerly winds pushing us along, which is better for the fuel economy, we passed through lots of wheat and grain properties, even telegraph poles, civilisation again. Went through the S.A. border quarantine check where the inspector came in and inspected our fridge with all the containers where we had cooked up whatever we couldn’t take in to SA raw, then drove to the Ceduna Foreshores Van Park and checked in, the temperature was 37 degrees, too hot to do anything, forget playing the last two holes of golf at Ceduna today, airconditioned comfort won and a good rest.
Friday 18.11.2011: 31 - 37 degrees. Cloud/sun, extremely strong westerly wind, southerly change late in the day. We packed up and went to the Golf Club to play the last two holes of the Nullabor links, we were the only ones there, there was so much wind blowing each time we hit the ball, it was blown off course quite a bit, even though you thought you had allowed for the wind, and the greens were black oiled sand, not a good way to finish.
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| Oiled sand "greens" we use a rake to smooth a run to the hole |
We took our cards to Ceduna Visitors Information Centre and handed them in to get our Nullarbor Golf Links Certificate. We did some shopping, then drove to the lighthouse and had lunch with the Coaster open getting any sea breeze there was to get to cool us down, we were overlooking the jetty where the big road trains were off loading, grains, gypsum, salt and fish for export., we then went back to the van park to put the air con on and rest. A southerly came through later in the day, lovely refreshing relief.
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| Ceduna port |
Playing the Nullabor Links course was a bit of fun but also frustrating, the ground generally was so hard that we couldn’t put a tee in the ground and had to use drink and wine bottle tops as tees and should your ball hit a rock (of which there were many) the ball could go anywhere. However we finished with more golf balls than we started with so I suppose that was a bonus. It does break up the monotony of the drive and we have heard that the road toll has dropped in the two years the course has been open.
Accross the drive from Norseman to Ceduna there are some interesting roadsigns, some of which we remembered to take photos of.
We will head off East tomorrow towards Port Augusta and stay off road somewhere for the night.
You must be able to smell Sydney by now ..... oh yeah ... the wind is blowing the other way ..... see you soon
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