Thierings on Tour

It was our last morning in WA and what a stint it’s been!! Grateful for all the experiences and memories and already looking forward to coming back to explore more one day!

We had a quick look around the Balladonia roadhouse museum and it’s interesting to imagine how people would have travelled these vast landscapes on camel in the past.

Then it was back on the road and heading East. Shortly we hit Australia’s straightest road, a 90 mile stretch of highway. I think even I could have driven this while towing the van, but I had too many emails to work through so Chris did the honours yet again. 

Chris reminisced about the last time he drove this road – smoking ciggies and listening to AC/DC, this time there were no ciggies (while driving) but we did blast the AC/DC tunes again. 

Once the straight road was all done and dusted we stopped off at Cocklebiddy for a quick diesel refill and food fuel stop. Chicken wraps out of the back of the car whilst the girls found some random, rusty swings at the service station. 

We had one more stop to stretch and check the car (luckily all in order!) and then with a TimTam bribe and some tunes we made it a few more hundred kms. Before we knew it, we were at the SA border and I barely had time to grab my phone to snap a photo on the go, because there was nowhere to pull over and get a proper snap with the family…

Instead we jumped out shortly past the border to get some iconic photos with the boxing kangaroo and all the distance signs. 

The Great Australian Bight Marine park had amazing views of the ocean and cliffs and we tried to find a nice stop for the night. It seemed that most were just for day viewing and the wind was a bit too much for us anyway to stay the night. 

With the help of WikiCamps we found an awesome little spot off the road near a pretty cool cave. There wasn’t a soul in sight, but the spot had magical views and a great sunset to celebrate our first night in SA. The clock change of 2.5hours completely threw us and after such a big driving day we were all out of whack anyway. I think the kids went to bed around 9.30pm local time – oops. 

Chris and I enjoyed the stars, a fire and some cool local visitors. This bug had an amazing hard shell, neither of us have ever seen anything similar to this guy. 

Kms travelled – 582