Day 6 was originally from Eucla to Balladonia, which is approximately 465kms. Still adjusting to a new timezone, we left Eucla at around 8am local time. As there was basically nothing to see from Eucla to Balladonia we decided we’d push on to Esperance and be a day ahead of schedule. This would make it almost a 900km day but I was confident this would still be a comfortable drive.
Day 6 is called the Bra and Knickers run in honour of all those people that travel commando across the Nullarbor. We saw at least two or three trees covered in underwear, one setup with an old TV & TV antenna and (my favourite) a tree covered in CDs creating an awesome multi-coloured mirror ball effect as you drove past.
We stopped at the Cocklebiddy roadhouse for fuel just as an oversized load of CAT Mining trucks also pulled in to refuel. We’ve now seen and pulled over for at least 6 oversized loads on our journey, from CAT trucks to excavators and huge farm machinery.
Having made excellent time to Balladonia, we grabbed a bite to eat and refuelled again, before heading off down the Balladonia Road. This road is marked with large signs saying its a 4×4 road and unsuitable for caravans. We’d done our research and already knew we’d be fine. (I was looking for anything more exciting than the exceptionally boring 146.6km straight we’d just been across)
The road had about 5 or 6 difference surface types, starting off extremely rough (probably mud in the wet season) to ending some 177km later with a graded and then sealed surface. I dropped the tyre pressure by 10 psi to give a more comfortable ride on the exceptionally corrugated sections. There was one particular section that was relatively smooth but like going over small waves. I’m certain the esky may have got airborne a few times.
Along the way we stopped at a Telstra Fibre repeater station to checkout the big solar panel arrays, another abandoned homestead and also did some rock and track driving to circumnavigated a big rock (Breeborinia Rock)
Of course there were a few more gates covered in underwear too.
From the end of this annoyingly straight road, we headed down to Cape Le Grand National Park to look at the beautiful beaches and catch the sunset.
Accommodation booked in town on the way into town (Esperance)