The evening spent with Ian and Andrea Fuller was most enjoyable ,talking about lots of subjects but most of all revolving around the sea and with a few nice bottles of red went to quick. One of Ian's interest is the Nullarbor Plain and with many trips out there was able to give me the incentive to detour of the highway on the way home to check a few caves out. Ian's home at Venus Bay is right on the ocean near the jetty and with his great coffee it was hard to say goodbye in the morning. Leaving Venus it was straight to Streaky Bay but not before checking out the well that E.J.Eyres men had made and used as a camp on his East West treks. Arriving in Streaky it was time to catch up with Mick and Vick who had been staying at Lloyd and Heathers who are also Bushtracker owners. With Lloyd having a huge parking area there was enough room for both our vans plus a few more. Happy hour that day was on their patio, that would have to have one of the best views of Streaky Bay, then after that it was a walk down to the pub for dinner. On the way back from the pub Heather gave us a history tour, taking in the old hospital which is now their daughters home and of a great white shark made of fibreglass. The shark which the mould was taken from was caught by their now son-in-law on 26lb line, some feat for a young lad taking over three hours to land and being 5 1/2 mts long.
From Ian's Front Patio
Eyres Well
Streaky Bay Foreshore
It did not take much to convince Mick to have a little detour to the caves on the Nullarbor on our way
home. So next morning we set of and our first stop was Mick & Vick's favourite coffee stop the Penong cemetery, it is amazing what you can learn from head stones. After the cemetery we went down to Cactus Beach and town beach a very lovely spot but after finding out that 50 kids were on their way decided it may not be a good spot to camp that night. Driving on we ended up at a roadside stop, we thought the trucks might sound better than 50 kids but it was actually very quite.
The pink salt lake on the way into Cactus
Travelling along the Eyre Hwy I noticed on the Hema a cave by the name of Wigunda and a quick call to Mick on the radio confirmed that this was to be our first caving adventure. Being un planned all we had for suitable rope was one of Mick's Bunnings special which was more of a bungee cord than a rope.
Not to be deterred, down we went with the girl's wondering if they will ever see us again. At the bottom we went in and though two crevices only to see a smaller one that we decided was a bit too small. Much to the girls delight out we came to tell of our adventure with just a bit of exaggeration of the story.
Caveman Geoff
Caveman Mick
The old homestead which was also once a road house.
The old road house
This hole I found while riding around turned out to be a cave as none of us big fellows could fit, it was up to some other campers to find out for us what was inside.
The next day we checked out Koonalda cave which is where they used to draw all the water from and as the entrance needed to have a key with permission to enter we decide to leave that for next time. After lying in bed that night listing to the dingo's howl the next sound was thunder and then the rain. In the morning things where real wet with pools of water every where and I knew it would be good fun getting out. The original plan was to go along the old Eyre hwy but we changed our minds and headed for the bitumen. We our now camped along the Bight just before the WA border.
Koonalda cave
The entrance is at the tip of the tree the fruit trees where planted by the station people.
Geoff & Vick on the way out
Mick on the road out in the morning.
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