Circumnavigation of Oz take 2

Heard that you should watch your speed around Manna Hill on the Barrier Highway; one cop police station and he has nothing better to do than play with his radar gun.
 
Well and truly in the Nullarbor plain now. After a great night at the Norseman pub, we turned right and cruised into the desert at 110 km/h. Balladonia roadhouse for brekky after a lazy 200 km. This part still has trees, plenty of traffic too. Bit of a tail wind to push us along. Photos don't do the place justice, it is just huge. Madura Pass does come up as a bit of a surprise, and we parked up at the 1950's motel, with a great dinner and some Margaret River Shiraz.

The diesel Genny hummed away to send us to sleep, but a big rain storm woke me up. Thought we where in a desert?

Woke up to a very windy start, with rain squals coming through. Wets on, and we headed off for brekky at mundrabilla. Great people there, and an awesome feed. Home made Anzac bikkies packed, and we headed off. After dodging 3 squals on the way to brekky, the 4th one caught up to us while we where eating. The wind was howling, and both bikes needed choke as they had cooled right off. We dodged another downpour, then hit the edge of one getting into eucla. Chatting to the guy there, and he rang ahead for us to book the last room at the Nullarbor roadhouse. With another huge black cloud in our mirrors, we took off for the 200 km run. Now, instead of the mile markers being every 10 km, in South Oz they are every 4 and 9. Very quirky. With a huge downpour off to our right, it was time to put the hammer down. The wind gusts where throwing us all over the road, and the view in the mirror was Grahames tiny headlight, and a huge storm cloud. Every time the sun broke through, the clouds where travelling faster than us! Bloody hell, we are going to get smashed!
 
Every time I got a few drops on the visor, I thought this is it. Twist the throttle and it would stop raining again. This was going to be a full on battle! The wind was blowing from the side, slightly behind us, so that storm filling up mirrors was all around us. We pulled into the roadhouse just in front of it, epic!!!!! I have now christened grahames SF2 "storm runner". Epic ride! What a place this Nullarbor is!
 
Marty, did you head off road to check out the Bight? that's a spectacular view
The guy at Mundrabilla, was his name Bruce? Last time I was there, 2008 after the Border Run we stopped there for the night. Bruce was an ex fisherman in Walpole in the 90s. There was a couple of strippers and their body guard passing through and for free accommodation they did a show for us, my 2 mates, half a dozen truckies and a couple of fishermen. Would have been one of the funniest nights ever. Bruce was saying another couple of years he was selling up and moving on. Not sure if he did. Pretty isolated place to live really. Due south of Mundrabilla there is a fishing camp on the coast. The Nullabore is a spectacular place. My grandfather installed the telegraph line from Norseman to Eucla working for the PMG. The remains of the telegraph station is still in Eucla. Have ridden the BM along sections of the old telegraph track.
 
chrisk said:
Manna Hill no longer cop manned. Female cop from Peterborough does the dirty work now. Silver 4x4 Marty, when you see the size of her you will understand why she isn’t in a Rav 4.
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Yeah Marty, watch out around there. She got me in 2019. Pretty sure a coppa at the Ororroo checkpoint, who sent me backtracking to Peterborough for fuel, radio'd through to her. Nailed me on a backroad.
 
Weirdest strip show I ever attended was at the Benger Hall in the 70's. Doody had been booked for the 21st birthday of one of the locals but had failed to turn up due to ill health. So she rebooked and came to town ( well 2 houses, a petrol station, and the old hall) on a weekend I happened to be visiting. She duly performed her full strip show in from of all five of us in attendence and then went back to one of the houses for a cup of tea and a chat with all present. I am still concerned about the number of splinters she must have picked up rolling around on that old dry jarrah floor.
 
On my trip across in 98 I pulled in to Mundrabilla just before dusk but they were full so had to press on to Eucla. As it got darker my eyes got bigger and about 50 kays out of Eucla I saw a light on the horizon, as I carried on it slowly got brighter but no closer. When I finally pulled in I saw it was a large illuminated cross on top of a sand dune.
As I was doing the trip in June it was pretty cold and never been so grateful to have a bar heater in my 'luxury' room at the motel.
 
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