Perth - Peterborough - Day 3

Departed camp 8.15am. Arrived Mundrabilla roadhouse at 10am expecting to see the animals but their gravesites are all that remain! I was told by the truckies (who recognised us) that the place has new owners since we were last through here. Fuel a little better at $1.23 (diesel).

Just past Eucla is the WA/SA border so the time zone in summer is 2.5hr later than in Perth. We choose to make this transition gradually, so we will not adjust our watches again today. Also, once across the border, you enter the Nullarbor National Park and the road skirts the coastline with numerous lookout points along the coast all the way through until the road swings away again on the final approach to the Nullarbor Roadhouse. This is our third complete crossing from Perth - Sydney and we yet have to come back across so we are not stopping at each lookout again, but certainly at some, for the views really are spectacular.

At our first stop along the coast - at Merdayerrah Sandpatch, I would love to have taken a photo of a hangglider however he was still setting up. He recognised us too, and we talked for a while. I was wondering what backup support he had, as he was on his own and his Landrover looked like it had done some miles! He was very well setup for this however, with EPIRB and a panoramic digital camera, although he did tell me a story of a recent incident when he had a long walk back to the car after becoming stranded halfway down the sandpatch. As we left, I gave him a bumper sticker, and he gave me his brochure - turns out this is Lynn Webb, professional photographer who is working while he soars above the cliffs of the Nullarbor. His gallery is in Norseman and he definitely has the ExplorOz thing happening in his life so we must go back and check that out sometime.

Next stop 1.30pm at Nullarbor Roadhouse and at 5pm we stopped for Chardae's dinner at a P-Bay camp just before Penong. We are noticing a pattern with Chardae - she seems to scream at about this time and it is best for us to stop and give her a proper dinner. Since the summer sun is still very high at this time we feel it is best to continue driving for about another hour, so this rest is important for all of us. Having not been down to Cactus Beach (Point Sinclair) previously, we decided to use the time to make the 21km drive down to the coastline.

Point Sinclair is a privately owned property taking in the whole of Point Sinclair, both sides of the main road to the Blue Lakes then back to Caves Beach. The property is classified as a Coastal Protection Reserve under the SA Government Heritage Agreement. Land use is therefore subject to certain conditions, a small camping fee and campers are to stay a maximum of 12 weeks and to keep to defined areas etc. Although it is a real surfers hangout, we found it well cared for and a delightful camp. Showers, bbqs and firewood is provided and dogs on a leash are allowed. All sites are excellent, with bins serviced daily and most have a short walkway leading directly onto Cactus Beach.

Dinner: Marinated lamb chops with sweet potato cooked on the Cobb Cooker. Have noticed our dinners have become more basic than previous trips when we had more time to attend to such luxuries, but the Cobb makes cooking pretty easy. We are also finding that dinner will never come if everyone waits for Chardae to be fed and put to bed so David has taken over the cooking and I attend to Chardae. Leah looks set to be occupied exploring the contents of her "toy bag" for many days yet, although she did ask "when will we get to Sydney?". We dread we might hear the painful whine "are we there yet?"