13k Peg Scenic Lookout to White Well Corner

 Thursday 6 October 2022

13k Peg Scenic Lookout to White Well Corner

We started off at a reasonable hour and had morning tea somewhere along the roadside.  Between that and lunch time we stopped for a cache. This one had quite a story about it and I make an exception by copying it onto my blog post for you to enjoy as well.

#2469 - Martin's Seat (Traditional cache)

The story:

An easy roadside cache breaking a 200 km stretch on the Eyre Highway close to the Great Australian Bight. Build up the cairn!

I placed this cache to mark the spot where I waited a long afternoon to be rescued by an old bush mechanic from Nullarbor roadhouse, 100 km away. I was nosing about by myself checking out caves and blowholes that are numerous across this long limestoney stretch of uninhabited southern Australia. I was 8 km up the track that leaves the highway here when the dreaded event happened! I had stopped to photograph the lovely country and a big circular depression that probably conceals caverns beneath. I climbed back in to my Falcon station wagon, and there was no kick from the starter motor at all. I tried everything, with no luck. It sunk in - I was very alone and had a longish walk to tackle - snakebites and twisted ankles must be avoided at all costs. I walked for two hours back to the highway, then stepped out to flag down a passing traveler. The first car, amazingly given the location, did not stop... The next - a hired tourist van - stopped about 150m past me. A German-sounding chap shouted to me from near the van and seemed understandably nervous - I was a heavily-bearded bloke covered in sweat and tatty clothing emerging from nowhere a full 100 km from the nearest roadhouse. Turned out this very nice German couple had also seen the movie 'Wolf Creek'! I managed to assure them of my decent intentions, and they agreed to take my request for help to Nullarbor roadhouse.

I settled down for a long wait, ruing the fact that I'd left my sunscreen 2 hrs away. There was no shelter, so I got some good sunburn and rained on for while as well. I couldn't find anywhere to sit that wasn't crawling with ants, so spent a while building myself a little limestone cairn to sit on. Hence the name of the cache.

Five hours later a leathery older chap in a 4WD arrived (he'd missed the location and driven an extra two hours). He found the track very rough in his Landcruiser which must have meant I was entranced by the country, as I hadn't noticed! He quickly found some wires had jarred loose from the Park sensor on the auto gearbox, and I was mobile again.

I was oddly exhilarated at the end of the day as I neared Ceduna. There was something terrific about facing that situation and successfully coming out of it, as well as spending some good quiet time in that remote landscape.

It's beautiful country round there, and next time I'll get all the way up that track to Koonalda homestead and cave.

Please add some limestone rocks to the cairn if you stop there. Let's see how big it can get! If you can, take a photo and post it here so other finders and I can enjoy the growing monument.

Have a good crossing! I definitely did.

The sun is finally letting us down and we run into a few showers on the way.  We pass another oversize truck and then stop at Nullarbor Roadhouse for lunch (in the motorhome). Didn’t get fuel. $3.10 is just too much. Last time they were the most expensive at $2.79. We'll try our luck at Yalata.

As planned we stopped at Yalata for fuel which was available at a much more reasonable price ($2.15/L as apposed to $3.10/L!!!)).

We stopped at White Well Corner for the night but I didn't take any pictures.