The return leg...

Tuesday 15 to Sunday 20 February

We'd pre-packed the ute the night before, planning a quick breakfast of Up-n-Go to get a early start on the 910km drive from Esperance to Eucla. We threw the bedrolls and tent into the ute and left around 6:30am, grabbing some extra McDonalds along the way! The drive was pretty uneventful, taking us around 10.5hrs, we arrived in Eucla tired and checked into our basic room, the bed was shocking and sagged in the middle.

Lawrie took the old highway down the scarp to the Eucla National Park, checking out the old telegraph repeater station while dropping tyre pressures. The sand was soft but Silver showed her prowess by not getting bogged...at least there was mobile reception as a backup. While it was quite blowy, the water was clear and cold, with the setting sun providing great lighting.

Looking down the old highway to the Nat Park.

The old telegraph station.

The sand dunes are slowly swallowing up the building.

An old pole, shorter due to moving dunes, looking East to the sandhills.

The track to the beach.

The old Jetty, used to supply the station before the road.

The whale at Eucla roadhouse

Wednesday we drove to Port Augusta (960km) and checked into our motel, which was close to the local pub for dinner. We were advised to keep the door locked during the night as the night before a bushy who just shut the screen door awoke to find a drunk guy passed out on the floor...We went down the pub and Lawrie had a local King George whiting, Kitty a salad, before walking back up the hill past the police (lights blazing) letting someone out of a paddy wagon and hit the hay.

Thursday we took the short (415km) drive to Broken Hill, which, while technically in NSW, runs SA time, news and apparently plays AFL. This is fair enough given NSW didn't want to provide services in the early days, but wanted the royalties! We spent some time in the Pro Hart gallery, made our way to the visitors centre, then headed to our B&B, the Caledonian, which was a pub in the early days! It was a very comfortable place, homely and very old school cool inside.

View across Broken Hill from a spoil pile.

Honey I shrunk the Kitty?

We awoke to a great breakfast on Friday, complete with espresso and home made jams, including a tasty but different lime marmalade. We drove to Dubbo, chosen because of the zoo, which was around 750km away. It turns out we made a great decision with our hotel as it was located near the river & bikepath to the zoo. Dinner was the local bowls club -  Coronas were less than $5 so Lawrie was happy!

Saturday we jumped on our bikes and rode out to the Zoo, around 2.5km away. We arrived as they opened the gates and made it to the counter before most of the hoards could get out of their cars. We got coffees and watched the monkeys, letting the majority of the group get ahead of us. You can drive, 4wd golf buggy, ride bikes or walk around the zoo. The road is one way (for cars at least!) and around 6.5km in length. The majority of people drove the short distances between the exhibits as it was a very hot day!

The view from our coffee table

Black rhino Mum & Bub

They have a massive herd of giraffe

These white rhinos had a little scuffle

Massive, solid but lean and pure muscle

Some people will recognise this view

Mum & Bub

Elephants

Meerkat, censored version

Galapagos Tortoise

After a whole day at the zoo we rode back, collapsed in the air conditioned comfort of our hotel room and chilled out, preparing for Sunday and the final 860km drive. We made it back unscathed, spending the next week catching up with family, friends & planning our first stop, California.