Day 34, Balladonia to Ceduna.

Thursday 1st September, 2011 Day 34…

Odo start, 17,365 K's

Odo end,  18,398 K's

Distance Travelled.  1,033 K's

Accommodation, Ceduna Big 4 Caravan Park, $28.00 For a Powered Site…

When i woke this morning i was glad i had chosen the Donga, it had been a wet and cold night. When i popped my head out of my room, the light was magic, checkout how good the campsite looked...

I was on the road at 7:00am, it was going to be a big day, i wanted to get to Ceduna if possible, but loosing 1.5 hours of daylight when i crossed the SA border was going to make it a challenge.

I couldn't figure out what the day had in store for me, the weather was fining up but there was a massive storm front on the horizon…

Just down the road, i came to the most photographed sign on the crossing…

There was not a whole lot to photograph on the early part of the day so i was able to cover some ground quickly. Planning fuel was a challenge for the first stop, there were quite a few stops before the border, the first was Caiguna, only 183 K's away, the second was Cocklebiddy a further 64 K's, the logical one was Madura, it was about 340 K's from Balladonia, I chose Madura, i just hoped i had calculated well.

As i rode past Cocklebiddy, my fuel gauge had just started blinking, i had 91 K's to travel, fingers crossed!! I buttoned off a little trying to conserve fuel. At 10am Madura came into view, as i cruised into the Madura turnoff, the bike stalled, i had ran out of fuel! Luckily it was a downhill gradient to get to the pumps.

At 10:00 am the bike took 21.55 L @ $1.93/L $41.59 for 344 K's From here on the fuel stops suited the bikes range. 

Next stop was to be Border Village where i would need to adjust my clock 1.5 Hours forward. I was having a great run until this…

$75.00 but no demerit points. I explained how i was trying to sit on 116 - 120 Kph as it was safer, at 110 fatigue and boredom was far more dangerous than speeding by 10kph, it is a pity that the rest of the country doesn't follow NT's lead of 130 Kph, but then millions in revenue wouldn't be collected..

I crossed the border into South Aus at 12:10 but this then became 1:40pm, i refueled the bike took 12.66 Ltrs for 196 K's, i forgot to document the fuel price but it would have been around $1.95 - $1.99 Ltr

There were a stack of bikes at Border Village, they were returning from the Black Dog Rally. I stopped for a snack and warned the guys about the Eucla cops.

The road now skirted the Great Australian Bight, i stopped for the first couple of lookouts. A guy in a Camper van came up and thanked me, as if i didn't get booked he would have, i had overtaken him just before the cops booked me, he was travelling at about the same speed as me.

Here is a shot from the lookout...

I finally reached the actual Nullabor Plain, i was amazed that it only ran 20 -25 K's East - West.

I refuelled at the Nullabor roadhouse at 4:00 pm, the bike took 12.01 L @ $1.99.9/L $24.01 Igrabbed a cold can of Coke as the weather was bipolar. One minute it was sunny with a fresh breeze, perfect riding weather, the next moment it was stinking hot with no breeze. I didn't want to stay there so it was time to push for Ceduna, 300 K's away

The shadows were getting longer as each K passed, i didn't want to ride at night, my GPS told me that Sunset was going to be at about 6:30pm, as i rode through Nundroo and Penong Ceduna was looking like the place to stay, i pushed on with eyes like saucepans looking for roo's.

I finally arrived at Ceduna after dark, it was 6:52pm when i refueled, the bike took 17.6 L @ $1.52.9/L $26.91 The guy at the quarantine checkpoint told me where the campgrounds were, the Big4 had a site available for $28.00 so i quickly setup camp then rode off to buy a Pizza for dinner, if you visit Ceduna, grab a Pizza it was stunning!

Thankfully this would be the last big day before i get home.