Mon 29th September – Day 142: 27km W of Nullarbor Roadhouse – Wudinna (476km)

9:30am we are on the road again and soon after leaving our tree haven the highway continues across vast treeless, bluebush-studded plains which stretch forever in all directions, the kids resort to schoolwork (still to be completed) and we marvel at the ‘RFDS’ marked out landing strips on the straight stretches of road as we pass along.
We pull into the Nullarbor Roadhouse to buy our ‘whale watching’ pass but are told to continue up the road. A scrawny lone dingo stands by the roadside as we pass. We turn onto a sealed road 12km east of Nullarbor and travel the 15km down to the shore. The Head of Bight plays host to southern right whales (Eubalena Australis) between May and October of each year that come to mate and calve around the area. With females weighing in up to 85 tonnes (males slightly smaller at 55tonnes) and up to 17.5m long they truly are gargantuan creatures of the sea. At birth Right Whale calves are delivered tail first, weigh about 1 tonne and are 5.5 metres in length. During the 3 to 4 months after birth young whale calves grow to 7 or 8 metres in length and gain on average 50 to 60 kilograms in weight every day. By the time the young whale calves depart for their summer Sub-Antarctic feeding grounds they typically weigh between 6 and 8 tonnes. These rapid growth rates are all the more remarkable however, when you consider that Right Whale mothers fast for the 4 to 6 months they are resident in their breeding and nursery grounds.
Today the Southern Right Whale continues to remain an endangered species despite receiving international protection from commercial whalers since 1935. From a peak population of 100,000 Southern Right Whales in the early 1800s, numbers have now stabilised, and may even be marginally increasing from a low base of 4000 creatures.
Weird Whale Facts (thanks to www.nullarbornet.com.au)
• The male Southern Right Whale possesses the largest pair of testes in the animal kingdom. A pair of Right Whale testes can weigh up to a tonne.
• Unlike fish, sharks and many other whales, the Southern Right Whale possesses no dorsal fin whatsoever. The Southern Right Whale is a smooth backed whale.
• The male Southern Right Whale penis can be up to 2.5 metres long.
• Southern Right Whales have a "vee shaped" blowhole with spray exiting the vent in 2 streams at an angle of 45 degrees from the perpendicular.
• Female Right Whales are sexually promiscuous. This is probably related to the fact that females are only able to breed once every 3 years whereas males are able to breed every year.
• When migrating between their feeding and breeding grounds the normal "cruising speed" of a Right Whale is about 4 kilometres per hour.
• The Southern Right Whale's nearest relative is the Northern Right Whale, which is extremely endangered with only a few hundred remaining alive.
After taking about 100 photographs of whales and calves we continue on our way, passing the closed ‘Yalata Roadhouse‘ (owed by the Anangu people), then Nundroo, Penong (lots of windmills & sheep farming now evident) and finally Ceduna on the coast where we give up the remainder of our fruit and vegies, buy fresh oysters for dinner and the kids each get their “Crossing Nullarbor certificate”.
We push inland now heading across the Eyre Peninsula (wishing we had more time to explore the surrounds), past the Wirrulla silo’s, through the small grain belt town of Poochera, finally stopping at the local van park in Wudinna for a much needed shower.
Gawler Ranges Motel and Caravan Park (Powered $30)