Balladonia WA. May 25 2018

We were in no rush to tackle the next 500km or so, so we slept in and left relatively late, depending on which time zone you were taking notice off. It was 830 according to Western Australia Standard time, 915 according to the locals who have devised their own Central Australia time zone, and 10 if you had just come in from South Australia.

The wind had been howling all night, blowing straight in unobstructed from the Great Southern Ocean, and naturally we turned due west and drove directly into it for the next six hours or so.

The only highlight of todays run, apart from lunch at Caiguna Roadhouse, was traversing the longest straight road in Australia, the 145.6km stretch of the Eyre Highway from Caiguna to Balladonia. Balladonia is a tiny, tiny 'town' on the highway that started life as a pastoral lease in 1870 or so, then became better known when the telegraph station was set up in 1897.

another amusement is that the highway is a very long airport. Balladonia WA

Edward Eyre first walked across the Nullarbor in 1841, and his trip was repeated by John Forrest in 1874, in preparation for the Telegraph from East to West. However, it wasn't until 1941 that various governments thought it would be a good idea to have an actual road, track actually, for defence purposes, from east to west, and so the Eyre Highway was born. The Balladonia homestead became a travellers stop and a hotel came into existence. The road at that time saw few travellers, right up until the 1950s there were only 12 a day, which delayed the sealing of the road, which wasn't complete until the late 1970s. The Balladonia Hotel moved to its present site in 1962, and in 1979 burst into the world headlines when the remnants of SkyLab came back to earth all around the place.

Balladonia WA

Parked caravans. Balladonia WA

Tourists aren't supposed to see this. Balladonia WA

Motel suite anyone? Balladonia WA

The new motel even has a swimming pool. Balladonia WA

Sun sets over Balladonia as it has for millions of years

And so today in 2018, we pulled in here and booked ourselves into the Caravan Park, which is just an area separated from everything else by a line of rocks, and settled in for the night. The thing is, we've come a long way today, it's still too far to anything else, so we might as well brave the dust storm being whipped up by the very same winds we drove into all day, and make camp for the night. At least there is power and a functioning toilet, so all is right with the world.