Day 149 Nullarbor part 2 to Eucla

The night in Balladonia was not particularly pleasant. For the Nullarbor it is normal to have high temperatures and almost no rain the whole year. So in this arid area, we thought staying overnight in a rooftop-tent would be ideal. Signs in the amenities asked to help conserve water because there is a big drought. So who would have thought that there will be a big thunderstorm with wind, lightning and lots & lots of rain? We clearly did not expect this and were woken up by the lightning and the rain in the early morning. As soon as there was only lighter rain, we packed our awning, belongings and the rooftop-tent up and left Balladonia.

Well, some warm coffee from the Roadhouse helped to warm up, but the drive to the east was in strong rain. So we just had a quick photo stop at the 90-mile-straight sign and Stuart was refusing to leave the car.

Driving on, we stopped at the Caiguna Roadhouse, where there was a short time no rain, so Stuart was happy to say hello to the frog and all the other statues. Then we drove on to the Caiguna Blowhole - well, it is basically only a hole in the ground, nothing more to see, even if there would be no rain. The Caiguna Blowhole just blows of air, so as long as you don't do roping, you won't see anything.

Our next stop on the Nullarbor to the east was Cocklebiddy, where the Roadhouse had counted everything available around there. We also wanted to visit the Cocklebiddy Cave, but it was closed. So we just drove on via Madura and Mundrabilla to our next overnight stop, the Eucla Roadhouse.

At Eucla, we first drove past the Roadhouse to the Eucla Telegraph Station with the sand dunes around and the broken Eucla Jetty. Luckily, at that time there was no rain anymore, but even a bit of blue sky visible, so despite the strong winds, it was a pleasant stop and walk around.

At the Eucla Roadhouse, Stuart discovered a whale and immediately jumped on the whale, as he thought with all the water today travelling with a water animal would be a good idea. We showed Stuart that the thunderstorm and rain are far behind the Roadhouse on the hill and that it will pass by.

Stuart was not 100% convinced but decided that in the car it will be drier than with the whale. So we were heading to the campground to find our spot for the night. We realized signal was back, so we looked up the weather forecast for Eucla and then decided to wait for another hour before setting up the tent, because of a 50% chance of rain. Well, it was a great idea given that only shortly afterward a big thunderstorm with lightning hitting the ground of the campground was there. The rain was so heavy that the campground was a little lake with lots of water & mud flowing around.

After an hour or so, the rain stopped and we moved our car to one of the few spots where there was no puddle of mud. Setting up the rooftop-tent showed us that the cover had a tiny hole, so the mattress in the tent was wet and we had to put it up and dry it in the hope it will get dry before we want to go sleeping. So we decided to not put up the awning tent but instead work from inside the car just in case we also have to sleep in the car. While we hoped the mattress would dry, we walked back to the Roadhouse, had a look at the garden with the Nymph before having some dinner at the Roadhouse. Just minutes after we walked back to the campground another, shorter thunderstorm hit the campground, so everything was wet again. At night there was no more rain or thunderstorm and in the morning it was quite warm, but still, this experience with the thunderstorm, lightning, and the massive rain was not what we expected to experience on a Nullarbor (Australia's driest area) trip...