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Page 1 2.
April 26, 2002
We forward the clock at 45 minutes at border W.A./S.A. We leave the border at 10 km and see the beach. The road is flat along the beach, we see the view on the right side. There are a few parking area for truck that they could get the water from the big tank, but the water is not safe to drink as there is a warning sign "Drinking water from the tank is your own risk".
Border Village to Nullarbor is about 186 km with no settlement. We bike to different lookouts seeing the cliff at 0.5-1.0 km off the highway. The height of the land was lifted up the above sea level at 50-100 meter. There is a warning sign for safety at the cliff and the children must be taken care by the adult. Australia is an old country and consists of big limestone. It is a big continent. We see many fossils around us when we camp in the desert. The land was lift up from the sea for million years. The sign tells us "Next 96" is a lovely sign, meaning 96 km to the next service station and we would see these animals from the picture, camels, wombat, kangaroo. If we turn back, we would see another sign says "Next 88 , that means we have been about 88 km from Border Village. The meaning of crossing Nullarbor is the world from Nullus Arbor (No trees), we could hardly see a tree far away. There is no tree, only the rough grass.
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April 28, 2002 We take a rest at Nullarbor Roadhouse for 3 nights. We learn that there are many beautiful cliffs at Nullarbor, near Head of Bight. It is located at the Aboriginal Land. The southern whale delivering their babies here every year from June to October. We camp under the last tree at the roadhouse. We often eat Fish Burger. We get to know Paul who is a manager of the roadhouse and he had been to Thailand. He is so kind to give us a van to drive to the Bunda Cliff. He recommends that this cliff is a very special one that we should see. He point out the road to the cliff. We drove on the dirt road for 20 km and see the right one "Bunda Cliff", it is a truly beautiful one.
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May 1, 2002 We leave Nullarbor Roadhouse and say goodbye to Paul and Terry (the owner of the roadhouse), he gives us muffin to eat on the way. There is no tree for long kilometer. We enter Yalata, an Aboriginal Land. The government reserves the forest as they are. The Aboriginal Community are here at 50 percent and another 50% live in the bush. The Australian government supports the aboriginal for social benefits, eg. provide house, car and school. We camped in the bush for the night in aboriginal land. Tourist must ask for the permission to see whale at Head of Bight where is located in the Aboriginal Land. At Yalata Roadhouse has craftwork from the aboriginal and tourist could ask for the permission for visiting Head of Bight.
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May 3, 2002
We get to know Darlin who is the cook at Nullarbor Roadhouse, he love fishing very much. He is from New Zealand. He recommends us to fish at Fowlers Bay where is 200 km away. We take the opportunity to rest. We know that there is a beautiful Sand Dune in this area. We fresh up from the desert and stay at the small town of 40 people. The beach is so beautiful and famous for fishing. Darlin drives a car from Nullarbor and meet us at Fowlers Bay for fishing. We have no luck of catching any fish. Someone who spend holidays here give us good fish to eat. We get to have new friends along the journey.
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May 5, 2002
The dirt road from Fowlers Bay to Penong make us a very difficult to ride. We decide to lift our bikes to the caravan to safe our bicycles. We feel uncomfortable to lift. Everyone suggest us to lift to safe bikes. We skip for 30 km, we lift our bikes to Doug & Jenny's caravan to the main road of Eyre Hwy. We rush and make the time to reach Ceduna, an important city of the end of Nullarbor Plain. The fruit check point is located just close to Ceduna. We need to eat up fruit or vegetable or honey before entering the point. The officer say greeting with a warm welcome and know that we are coming. (Doug and Jenny had told him about us). Most people who love fishing know about this town well. The world record of fishing a huge shark is from the person living in this area. Ceduna is famous on farm oyster. We did taste half dozen oysters before getting to the town center. Ceduna is one of the most beautiful sunset in the world, we shall not miss the opportunity of taking photo. We could hook up the computer for the internet as the Information Centre provide the direct phone line for tourist. The cost is only at $1 per connection. There is a certificate given to the one who successfully crossing the Nullarbor by mean of transport eg. bike, walk, run, car, train. We both did get one certificate each.
Although, we biked across the heart of the Nullarbor Plain from Norseman to Ceduna, it is still the semi-desert for the rest. It is long distances between settlements. We need to carry food and water as much as before. We must camp in the bush. Someday, we see many galas (bird) flying in the evening. We see beautiful sunrise and sunset everyday. On May 12, 2002 it is raining and dark. We try to find a place to stay in Minnipa. We asked the owner of one service station Mobil for a room. She is building a roadhouse and the decoration has not been finished. We beg for a room to stay, no matter she hasn't finised the painting. She is so kind to let us stay in that room.
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May 13, 2002 We eat breakfast at the service station. She charged us at A$12 for the night. We had a good conversation with her. One lady came to the shop and listen to our journey. She wrote a message to us, it says:
She hand us the message and tell us that her daughter would be happy to meet us or if we would like to stop for a cup of coffee at her daughter's place. We put the tent at Caravan Park in Wudinna. There is a good bakery shop in this small town. May 14, 2002 We leave Wudinna and head to Kimba. The road is rolling, we try to find Christine's house and keep looking up each post box. The lady told us to look up the post box with the picture of pig on it, then cross the road to the right. We found Christine and she welcome us to her home. She did get a call from her mother that we are coming for a visit. She thought that we would arrive yesterday. We are on push bikes, it is quite difficult to be on time. We meet Wayne, Christine's husband and had a lovely dinner with them. We all laugh and relax and spend a night there. In the morning, Christine shows us around her big farm of 5,000 acres. We meet her children and their families at the house nearby. She grows wheat. Wayne takes us to see the big tractor working on the land preparation in his new farm. We learn new experience and sit in the tractor while his son is driving the tractor. Christine & Wayne has a big chicken farm nearby the house, approx 200 chicken for laying eggs and eat meat, some of the beautiful one just for fun to look at. They have a pig farm that they sell 25 per week to the market and 2,500 sheeps. We say goodbye and thank you Christine & Wayne for the warm hospitality. We bike to Kimba which is a farming town, mainly grow wheat. We could see the wheat farm so far away. Kimba is a half way from Perth to Sydney, we did see the sign for the prove. We have been 2,300 km from Perth, just the have way!!
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May 16, 2002 We stop at the supermarket to carry food and leave Kimba. We see beautiful forest in the national park, so green. The road roll on the hill, we enjoy riding very much. We often take photo to one another at a time. We couldn't put the stand to take a photo of us at one shot, our camera fell down once in the Nullarbor because of the strong wind.
We meet a couple of Australian cyclists, they are standing on the top of the hill and see us. We are so glad to talk to one another. They have known about us from their friend in Perth and visited our webpage. We camp in the bush as usual, it is really cold night at 2 degree C.
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May 17, 2002 We continue on the Eyre Hwy, no ended road. The next important town is Port Augusta, is the crossroad to different tourist points to Adelaide, Perth, Sydney. Most travelers stop here for a refreshing with all facilities and beautiful harbour. A spray painted sign on the lamppost marking the end of the Eyre Highway in Port Augusta is hardly see.
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May 18, 2002
We camp and take a rest in Port Augusta Caravan Park for few days. It is raining and getting heavier rain with cold. We move to stay in the on-site-van with a kitchen and bed inside, but no pillow and blanket. We have our sleeping bag to keep warm.
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May 22, 2002
We leave Willmington and head to Adelaide. We stop for a night at small town, Wirrabara and camp by the pine trees in Caravan Park. The rain falls all night, we need to dry up our tent and our gear in the morning. It is getting cooler and cooler. June 1, 2002 is turning to winter time, but Adelaide gets lots of rain in winter. We get more wet and cold, this make us more difficult for the journey.
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May 23, 2002 We eat breakfast in the tent, the rain doesn't stop until noon. The Northface is a really good tent, we realize the quality of it. We find the internet access which is available for the community and it is free. We go into the Old Bakery which is an old shop selling for more than 100 years, we had a delicious and best pie. We pass Gladstone until Clare seeing beautiful scenery of vineyard, lots of grape tree both sides of the road. Clare is a tourist area, many tourist visit and spend holidays, shop and taste wine & dinning. We arrive Clare at night and camp in the caravan park. We meet three cyclist and had a great conversation. Two of them are from U.S.A. The other man is from England (he is bicycling around the world, his journey is finished by the end of this year). His mother died with cancer, his love for mom make him come up with idea of charity project for cancer research.
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May 25, 2002 We leave Clare and head to Tarlee. We camp near the AFL Oval. The next day, we arrive Gowler and phone a Thai lady "Khun Nee". She lives at Parafields Garden and welcome us to her home. We stayed with her family for six days. We bike to the city center of Adelaide (South of Australia). We have many activities in Adelaide, more stories coming along….the distance is very long to Sydney.. Our second part of the journal will be continue… Wan and Mou |
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