Wednesday 26 September – Today turned out to be a long one, and a good one.  I suppose it was a bit before 8.30 by the time we left the caravan park, and a short while later we reached Head of Bight – as it says, the head of the Great Australian Bight.  Regarded as one of the most spectacular whale watching sites in South Australia (and even the world), the scenery is spectacular with the sand dunes on the coastal part of the desert meeting up with the limestone cliffs, dropping a sheer 90 mtrs to the ocean.

Cliffs at the Head of Bight.

In the bay at the head of the bight the water is very sheltered, and Southern Right whales have chosen this spot to congregate en masse each year to give birth to their calves.  Whales at the at the Head of the Bight take up 'residence' for an entire 5 month period between June and October and generally remain within a 15km long section of coast.  And with the water being so pristine and a beautiful clear blue, it really is the ideal whale watching place.  Great boardwalks have been built to give easy access to viewing platforms, and the whales put on a real show.  It almost seems as if they know they are being watched and they ‘turn it on’.

Today we were lucky enough to see at least a dozen whales, some with their young ones, and they just cruise around spurting up water every so often.   The young ones seem more energetic and playful and often leapt in the air.  It was just great.  We were there for about an hour and a half, and I could have stayed all day watching them, but of course that wasn’t possible.

One of the bigger whales.

The surroundings from then onward for the next hundred or so kms was very much like yesterday – no trees, and no animals or roadkill.  We figure that there aren’t a lot of the bigger animals around there as there are no trees for protection or shelter.  We did see numerous lizards and two or three snakes that had come to a sticky end on the road, though.  And unfortunately I was the cause of the demise of one of them when I accidentally ran over it this afternoon.

It was some time during this stage of the drive that Zola had a nervous breakdown.  She was just sitting quietly on the dashboard until a road train passed us and she started making this ‘ddrrrrit’ sound, literally every second!  And I couldn’t stop her.  Eventually she was relegated to the console between our seats, with the lid pressed firmly down, where she continued to be a nuisance, as though somewhat muffled, she was still proceeding with her melt down.  After about twenty minutes we got jack of her carry on, so I got her out, examined her closely, saw a small hole in her side with the letters rst above it, stuck the stylus in that hole (which I gather must mean ‘restart’), and her behaviour returned to normal.

After a morning tea stop (close to lunchtime) and a later lunch stop, the decision was made that as we were making pretty good time we wouldn’t stop the night at Ceduna, but would drive on an extra 94 km to Wirrulla, thereby making tomorrows drive shorter.  It was about 4 o’clock when I pulled in there – a real one horse town, where the caravan park is situated on an old tennis court and housed about 6 or 8 vans.  When I went into the general store to pay, the lady said that she didn’t think there was a power point left, but if we had a double adapter she was sure one of the other campers wouldn’t mind if we shared a point.  But when Grant checked, it needed to be a 15 volt adaptor and ours is a ten volt.  So back I went to the general store with the toilet key to return and explained the situation, got a refund and we were back on the road again.  Fortunately the next town was only 45 km away, it had a caravan park, so here we are at Poochera, in a park behind the pub with only two other vans here accompanying us.

We didn’t get here till about 5 o’clock - our latest arrival so far – but got ourselves set up pretty quickly, had our showers, chatted to the neighbours, and I made stir fry for tea which we’d finished by about 7.  It has been another beautiful day, quite warm, and today we had the benefit of a tail wind – though nothing like as strong as the wind we had yesterday, thank goodness.  At least it made the car not quite so thirsty.

Today I had a phone call from the Neerim South hospital letting me know the arrangements for my cataract surgery next Wednesday.  I have to be there by 10am, so this time next week I’ll hopefully have one really good eye!