19 March 2000
Slept in 'til 7:30 this morning at the Cocklebiddy roadhouse. Tsk! Tsk! Got away around 8:00 a.m.
Weather all day cool to cold, with heavy overcast and drizzle off and on, sometimes quite solid drizzle. Heavy mist from Cocklebiddy to just short of the Madura Pass roadhouse. Saw several Royal Flying Doctor Service emergency landing strips marked out on highway. Before we drove out of the mist, a light plane suddenly dropped out of it directly in front of us and just a couple of hundred of feet up. Thought at first it was going to land on the road, but on reflection think pilot was just using the road to get his bearings. Stopped at the Mundrabilla roadhouse for breakfast. Was going to have a look around Eucla thinking it was a town, but it is just a roadhouse, a Police station consisting of demountable buildings, a weather station and a few temporary-looking dwellings
Crossed border into SA around midday. Beginning just over the border in SA and continuing for a distance of some 140 kms are a number of tracks leading out to the cliffs which overlook the Great Australian Bight. The road runs quite close to the sea at this point. The views of the coastline and Southern Ocean from these cliffs is awesome. There are no safety fences or railings and you can walk right out to the edges (which appear quite fragile and crumbly) where they drop sheer into the sea. I don't know how high they are but would not be surprised to hear several hundred feet. Even on such a dark, depressing weather day they were very impressive (perhaps even more so). On a bright, sparkling sunny day the view would be magical. Didn't go out to the head of the Bight as it was 12 kms off the highway and we didn't reckon we'd see anything better than we'd seen already.
Had a late lunch at the Nundroo roadhouse and arrived at Ceduna at 8:10 p.m. after losing another hour and a quarter to time zone changes (we are now only half an hour behind Sydney time).
Ute due for another service (have travelled 26,000 kms so far), so will try to have it done at Port Augusta on Tuesday or Wednesday before heading NNW again for Alice Springs.