Up early this morning and thanks to finding a hose attached to a tap at the motel we took the opportunity to give the bikes a cursory but well needed wash. Today we were heading towards the Nullabor where water to wash motorcycles was likely not available for the next few days.
Our motel room at Port Lincoln Hilton had a view of the bay and my son was excited to show us a horse swimming in the bay. It was a great view on a peaceful sunny morning. We packed the now sparkling bikes, went for breakfast at the motel restaurant and decided to get some fuel on the way out of town. The GPS had other ideas though, and decided to take the quick way out of town that avoided main roads so a few k's out of Portland when we passed a sign that told us the next town was further away than our fuel level would take us we turned around to fill up.
Now on our way towards Elliston, the morning was starting to warm up. We were heading towards Ceduna and then Nundroo with absolutely no idea what was in between, we were in for a pleasant surprise. About lunch time we arrived a town called Streaky Bay. It was stupidly hot and we were in need of a drink and some food. We passed a pub advertising curries and spotted the Mocean Cafe overlooking the Bay and it looked classy enough to be airconditioned. In we went.
The menu and food was sensational. The photos show the Green Lipped Abalone Heffy and I had that had purportedly arrived on the boat last evening, Zanderhar had a creamy garlic prawn dish. The menu was chockers with fresh seafood dishes and interesting meat dishes and they all looked great. It had been a while since I had had a decent coffee on this trip and they didn't disappoint either. Now, given where it is I can't see any reason you would ever go to Streaky Bay, but if you end up there and don't eat at Moceans, you are MAD!
By the time we had left the heat of the day had risen to the point that it was difficult sitting back on the Harley's seat. Soon enough though we were on our way to Ceduna where we intended to stop and fuel up. Ceduna was a little bigger than I thought it would be but it was a little too warm to have a look around so we stopped at the BP Roadhouse on the way out of town where we filled up on water and Mother (it didn't look worth the risk to order coffee) and had a friendly chat to some of the local Constabulary. Then on to Nundroo.
Ceduna is on the coast that we'd been sort of hugging all the way from Portland. Heading out to Nundroo we could notice the change in temperature again. We also noticed another change in the scenery with the return of flat red dirt and low bushes of different green hues. There's not much to say about the road between Cenduna and Nundroo other than we made it and were a little surprised by where we planned to stay the night, but acknowedged that there wasn't really any choice in the matter.
I went into the Roadhouse and eventually got to speak to the attendant/person in charge where I mentioned I'd booked a room. She looked us over and suggested that there was no booking and also suggested it might have been in the cabins nearby. I wasn't really in the mood so I firmly suggested that we had booked, needed a room for three that was airconditioned. Fortunately she relented and let us stay and fortunately once we were cooled off, cleaned up and had the chance to chat she lightened up and provided us with some very colourful information about the area and it's locals.
We had a couple of drinks and a few of the locals arrived, one of whom announced that the temperature reached 46 degrees this afternoon here, and was quickly corrected by another who raised it to 47. I mentioned the forecast temperature and they laughed and said that they ran that off Ceduna and it was never really very close. The numbers quoted by the locals were certainly supported by our experience of the day. If you like the weather stuff you can read the press release about the heat wave we'd been riding through for the last few days at the Bureau of Meterology website. It wasn't meant to cool down tomorrow.
Back to the evening... While having a couple of drinks and thinking about food we heard the rumble of a Harley outside and a bit later in walked a leathery gentleman who clearly spent a lot of time on his HOG. His t-shirt indicated he'd been to the National HOG Rally and made similar assumptions about us. It was clear he was alone so I invited him to join us. He was a very interesting Perth based chap who had apparently been riding for about two months following the direction of the Australia Motorcycle Atlas to determine the best rides in at least five states.
In some ways I was jealous of the free nature of his jopurney but it was clear that he'd done it the hard core way. While I was quietly lamenting the spartan nature of the motel accommodation here at Nundroo and the noise of the air conditioner, he was considering whether to fork out the 10 bucks for the backpacker room or just sleep on the side of the road. I bought him a beer, he'd had one himself. He didn't eat dinner with us but did apparently opt for the curry in the pub at Streaky Bay where he'd seen our bikes outside Moceans. He opted for the roadside rest and just disappeared into the darkness, it was still at least 35 degrees.
We also met a scottish backpacking lass, who I incorrectly accused of being Fijian, working at the roadhouse and being rather badly treated by and old duck in charge. She had very strange story of arriving in Nundroo and stopping there to work thereto get a Visa and some funds together to stay in Australia. Bizarre!
Anyhow, dinner, a few drinks and socialising over we headed back to the room and had a very ordinary night's sleep alternating between the rattling aircon and the opressive heat of the night. We planned to leave early and have breakfast further up the road in Nullarbor.