Day 78 - Cocklebiddy to Eucla

Our first stop was the Eyre Bird Observatory. To get there you have to detach your trailer and deflate your tyres to 15 psi thereabouts. I did not want to get stuck in the sand again! You can just see the track we were about to drive on, to the left of the photo below.

 

The Eyre Bird Observatory is in the old Eyre telegraph station a few dune away from the Great Australian Bight. There was never much else here.

 

There was a little museum in one of the rooms full of the history of the telegraph station. We got to hear a recording of expert morse coding, and how any one understood it is beyond me. I didn't notice one pause in the transmission. One telegraph operator at Eucla proposed to a daughter of the telegraph master at Eyre using morse code. Ahh, the romance of the delivery. He got accepted. We were offered drinks by Carole, over my cup of tea I found my old next door neighbours, Gillian and John Hensler, comments in the visitor's book from ten years ago. The building is maintained by volunteers. Carole and her husband have been here for two out of three months. You can stay here if you organise it in advance, bird watches old be in heaven. An emu was tempted to get a drink from the bird bath but Lexie's voice kept scaring it off. We left soon after so the poor bird could relieve its thirst. We successfully drove back across the sandy track back up the escarpment to rehitch our camper trailer. The compressor decided to give up the ghost on the first tyre, so once we hit the highway we slowly drove the 18km back to Cocklebiddy rather than about 60 km east to Madura. 16 psi on bitumen is a sure way to blow your tyres.

We camped at the caravan park in Eucla, at the top of the escarpment. We rushed back down before sunset to see the ruins of the telegraph station. It has been overtaken by sand dunes.

 

Possibly the above picture is the last sunset photo I will inflict on you. I make no promises however! We ate the last of our fruit and vegetables for dinner as we cross into South Australia early tomorrow.

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