BALLADONIA TO EUCLA

Ben teeing off at the Skylab Par 3, Balladonia

David giving Bridgie a few pointers

Look at that swing!!

On the fairway and headed for the green!

Trying to get onto the green!

On the Nullarbor

A team photo - The Tedescos, the Patersons and the Hansens

Tess and Tess enjoying the Hansen Travelling Cinema

Stormtrooper on the way from Perth to Sydney

The Nullarbor

Tess, Bridget and Tess in the travelling Hansen Cinema

All the kids in the van waiting for dinner

DAY 92 – BALLADONIA – EUCLA                                         Sunday, 2^nd October

This morning, the guys decided that they had to “have a hit” on a few of the holes of the Nullarbor Links Golf Course - longest golf course in the world.  Kevin had three golf clubs (2 left-handed) and some golf balls so they hit the course.  You should have seen the fairways!!  Undulating rock and sand and scrub!!  A Par 3 turned into a … well, let’s say that they were almost double figures – and some more than that!

After that we hit the road towards Eucla.  The first stop, of course, was the sign saying “Longest straight stretch of road in Australia”.  90 miles or 146.6 kms of dead straight road!  So we had a team photo and then a stop halfway so ALL the adults could say that had driven across this famous stretch of road.  We saw some amazing sights along the way.  Enormous semi-trailers carrying funnels for wheat farms and trucks, emus running across in front of the cars, and beautiful Wedged-Tail Eagles sitting on the road, dining on dead kangaroo and brazenly staring us down as we thundered past.  They don’t move from their dinner table!!  They are just amazingly beautiful, powerful birds.

We came across a Stormtrooper, walking from Perth to Sydney to raise money for the Starlight Foundation.  And Superman was there too, raising money for the Heart Foundation!

We stopped at Madura Roadhouse, pulled out the awning, got out our chairs and sat there for lunch, just like the Grey Nomads.  The men had another hit on a Par 3; very funny sight.  We arrived at Eucla, after crossing the Central Western Time zone and putting our clocks forward 45 minutes – bizzare! – around 5pm (not sure what time zone that was!) and were stunned to find the Roadhouse practically booked out!  We had to drive over to the Caravan Park and search for a site for our three vans – not an easy task with just plain sand and electricity boxes dotted around in strange spots.  We finally all found a spot, pushed into corners and parked in laneways!   It will be a very interesting time getting out in the morning as we really can’t move until others move!

We cooked dinner and had a record number of people in our van – at one time, four adults and ten children – before putting the kids to bed and cleaning up!  All children VERY tired!!  When we put the vans up, the sky was a beautiful blue, but the wind should have tipped us off.  David and Laurence were up at 3am putting shoes under cover and chairs away as the rain poured down and the thunder and lightning crashed.  There was absolutely nothing we could do about the tent at that time so we just hoped the kids would not get wet and stay asleep.  We would have to figure it out in the morning.