Midnight… the ghostly howl of a dingo very close to the caravan brought us to our senses. Shortly thereafter another four or five joined in all seemingly placed around the van with one playing the lead with its yip yip yapping and the others all contributing with background howls. With the moon very bright Carol was convinced there were werewolves about. The dingo quintet rendition of “Bright Moon Ballad” sounded very sad and lasted only a few minutes before we disturbed them by having a nose. Interesting that Dingos are supposedly Aussie wide and yet this is the first time we been up close and personal with them.
Dingos aside we had a fitful nights sleep – not sure why but the morning came far too early and although once again bright and sunny we were less than enthusiastic about dragging ourselves out of our warm snuggy bed. Slacking about however was not an option as we had whales to see. Yes we were almost at the “Head of Bight” where Southern Right Whales (at least the ones the Japs have not killed) congregate to breed and calve. We were unsure if there would be any whales there to see as it is supposedly a bit hit and miss this early in the season but with the weather god on our side we felt positive.
Prior to our departure we managed to check emails and the like and it appeared Ross’s laptop student (Glenys) from Nabawa had been a bit too clicky clicky (as Glenys says “ here a click, there a click, everywhere a click click!”) on an email and buggered up her laptop somehow. The good news was that between Colin and her they were able to do a restore from their well implemented backup procedures and fix the situation. Go the “colgleny” combo.
Shortly after leaving the rest area we passed through Nullarbor itself – just a road house but the area it sits in is definitely without trees. This is where the terrain certainly matches the name of the plain but surprisingly the distance where it is so barren of trees is relatively small. The animal crossing warning signs had changed a bit to include Wombats but along the entire distance we did not see a single live Camel, Emu, Kangaroo or Wombat.
In the midst of the no tree zone we headed south to the coast to where the whale watching area is in the Great Australian Bight Marine Park. There is a per person entry fee determined by the number of whales about with a board listing this before you drive the 12km in – for us it was 3 whales there and $5pp. Sounded fair so off we went. On our drive in we came across a bunch of wedge tailed eagles tucking into an item of road kill. Now we had seen these eagles before and they are a big handsome bird. One thing we have learned is that they always take off into the wind, regardless of what that might entail, ie if into the wind is straight in front of your vehicle then that is what they do. Well sure enough… there were three of them picking at this carcass and two took off well before we got there but the third basically eyed us up with a “its mine, I ain’t movin” look until of course the last second when it lifts off directly across our bows (into the wind). Lucky for the bird we knew that is what it might do and although a close call it survived to go back and finish its meal.
Ok, back to the whales… On our arrival we were advised there was a whale right by one of the viewing platforms so off we skedaddled the 300m down to the viewing platform and there she was. Just slowly moving through the water and trumpeting – a big old right whale. Just excellent. After about 20 minutes she moved off so we went back to the van to rug up a bit more as the wind was a bit on the cool side and on our return we were able to view another two rolling and frolicking about. All in all we were there for at least two hours and it was so worth it to see these magnificent animals so close as they were only about 50m off shore at times. The scenery was excellent as well with it being at the end of the Bunda Cliffs.
Then it was back on the road east to a lunch stop with an overly friendly magpie. The scenery changed dramatically back to reasonably sized eucalypts and near the small settlement of Penong and its plethora of windmills, we were all of a sudden back into wheat production country. Our stop for the night was a scrappy little rest area just west of Ceduna and quite close to the main road but given the late hour of the day and the distance we had traveled it was all good.
