Madura Roadhouse

Madura is 83 k east of Cocklebiddy and 115 K west of Mundrabilla, the roadhouse is situated at the base of the Hampton Tablelands and is pretty scenic for the area. Originally it was settled as a pastoral homestead in 1876 and later was well known for producing polo and cavalry horses for the British Imperial Army. It was an important place because it is the only known site with free flowing bore water, the water is brackish and only fit for stock. Today it continues as a pastoral area, mainly with sheep.
The roadhouse comes with a motel, a licensed restaurant, swimming pool, a caravan park with camping facilities.
This is where we are now and will be here till the parts for our bus arrive so hubby can put a new water pump in... then we shall be on our way once more. It looks like a popular spot as every night travellers in all sorts of vehicles come in for the night.. the ablution block is clean and the water hot, there is a laundry and the staff are friendly. I'm really enjoying the stop :)

The water pump has been removed and its all ready for a new one.... lets hope it turns up tomorrow :)

Moodini Bluff rest stop

We got fuel at the Madura Roadhouse and continued down the road to Moodini Bluff to stay the night. It was a nice enough place to rest awhile as long as you parked at the back of the main area... the main area had over flowing bins and the toilet was not really in a fit state.
We were planning on staying a few nights for a rest but clouds came over us once more in the morning so we packed up to move on while the bus charged the batteries... well we got approx 5 k up the road and heard a noise coming from the engine.... the water pump died!!! So we turned around and made a very slow return to the Madura Roadhouse.
Here are a few photos of the rest stop...

Longest straight road

East of Balladonia is  the longest section of tarred road in Australia at 146.6 k or 91.1 miles, and let me tell you, it is STRAIGHT! I would not travel this while tired just in case you fall asleep at the wheel altho if you did and had great wheel alignment you'd probably not bump into anything for hours!! We stopped half way for a night then carried on in the morning just to break it up a bit.

Newman Rocks

We HAD to go visit these and take photographs for our good friends Tanya and Peter, and it rained, lovely heavy drops too, it was lucky I had a plastic bag to pop my camera in so it did not get very wet.....

The Newman Rocks are located 50k west of Balladonia and is approx 1 k from the road down a dirt track. It's a lovely picnic area with tables but if you go further down the track you end up on top the rock and the views are incredible, you can see for miles!!! There is a small pool of water where you may see a duck or two as we did, it has been used as a watery hole and you'll see a small brick wall put there to help the flow of water off the rock into the pool, it's great for a 24 hour stop.

I've been trying to find out what these birds are, they are everywhere and lots of them, noisy too.... and seem to be in groups where they call to each other for most of the day....

Eyre Highway

The Eyre Highway is some 1,675 kilometres from one end to the other and it stretches across the plains as far as the eye can see, it was named after explorer Edward John Eyre, who was the first to cross the Nullarbor by land.. It also has the longest straight piece of highway in Australia also some places of interest but I don't think we are seeing the 4wd ones with the bus, maybe some closer to the road.
The Nullarbor gets its name from Latin for 'no trees', the local Mirning people referred to the area as "Oondiri" which is said to mean "the waterless"
No towns exist along the route, only Roadhouses with basic services such as petrol, food and bottled water, caravan park or camping spots and are a distance apart. Because of its remoteness, some sections of the Highway serve as emergency airstrips for the Royal Flying Doctor Service, you'll see sign posts and will actually drive over the runway, on the sides there usually are turn around bays for the aircraft. But you will come across lots of rest areas mostly 24 hour stops, just be aware that large trucks use these so keep well out of thier way, we usually park as far back as we can.
Well here we go.... a trip and a half :)
Wish us luck!!!!!

Our Trip Has Started

We spent Easter at home to be with the kids and grand kiddies... there was chocolate to spare at our house LOL Then we popped down to see some friends before making our way to the Eyre Highway for the long trip over east. These first set of photos are of the Muirs Bridge rest stop and then of the Stirling Range as we drove past... we got clouds and more clouds and even rain along the way which was no good for our solar panels at all. Conserving energy was a big thing this past week or so after all the new fridge runs on battery and we do love our ice-cream! :) here are a few snaps of the journey....

The old bridge

And these are of the range :)

Going over East

We're on the road again after spending sometime with friends down south of where we live and then at home re-organising the bus. We had a new fridge fitted as the old one failed, then we had to buy extra solar and even more batteries!!! Now that its all done and the hot season is no longer upon us we've hopped back in the bus to go explore the rest of the country. WOW! it's so exciting!!! I am not so fast with my photographs I'm afraid but will try to get up as many as our internet allows... hope you will enjoy them *grin*

WOOOHOOOOO!!!!!! we;re on the road again!