The Corrugation Way

Day 16 - Kingoonya to Nullarbor ( via Ceduna )

Sat 29 Aug 2015

We started out a little earlier than yesterday and our first stop was to call in at the unmanned credit card only fuel station. Contrary to reports we read before leaving on our trip, diesel and petrol are both available at Kingoonya.

There’s something special about driving in the outback early in the morning. You get to see nature waking up, it’s very different to watching the city wake up. The outback is fresh, clean and very relaxed. With an overcast sky and puddles of water around Kangaroos, emus, birds and livestock came out to drink.

By 9.00am it was only 7 degrees.

: Two Kangaroos, South of Kingoonya, South Australia

The road to Wirrulla passes between 3 salt lakes; Lake Harry, Lake Everard and Lake Gairdner and took us through the Lake Gairdner National Park. Heading south, it wasn’t long before we saw the first two of the three main salt lakes that make up the Lake Gairdner National Park. On the left we saw the tip of Lake Gairdner itself, the largest of the three lakes and Lake Harris was on the right. These salt lakes would look spectacular when full of water not to mention the wildlife that would gather there.

: Stony Top Hill, near Lake Gairdner, South Australia.

: Emus near Lake Everard, South Australia.

: Lake Everard, South Australia.

Further along Lake Everard came into view on the right. It’s the second largest of the 3 lakes. If Lake Everard was full it would cut the road in half. We pulled over near Lake Everard and went for a walk up some small sand dunes. There were wombat tracks everywhere and the thought popped into our minds there was a good chance we could see at least one wombat, but alas it wasn’t to be. On the way back to the car we came across a couple of wombat burrows but again no sign of any wombats. Maybe it was too cool for them.

: Footprint of a Wombat near Lake Everard, South Australia

: One of several Wombat burrows we saw near Lake Everard, South Australia

Many smaller salt lakes dot the landscape out here and it is nice to see some of them had water in creating some good photo opportunities.

When we arrived at Wirrulla, about 1.30pm, the whole town was closed. Even though it was Saturday afternoon the town didn’t share Colin Barnett’s retail trading hours 🙂 oh well Ceduna was just down the road.

Penong, Nundroo and Yalata all passed by before we pulled in at Nullarbor for fuel around 7.00pm just as another lovely sunset was on display. We decided to grab a room for the night.