Day 5 – Venus Bay → Ceduna: The Calm Before the Nullarbor
It was a beautiful morning in Venus Bay 🌅, the kind that makes you want to linger with a coffee on the beach forever. But alas — the road doesn’t wait, and the Nullarbor was looming.
Have you ever seen a bullfight? When the bull bursts into the arena, doesn’t charge immediately, but instead paces, stamps, and takes its time preparing before the big leap? That was us today. A short ride to Ceduna, but Ceduna is the gateway to the Nullarbor. Time to pause, breathe, and get ready for tomorrow’s charge into the great empty.
First leg: a quick spin (50 minutes) to Streaky Bay for breakfast. I’d earmarked a place called Funk’d Coffee and Flowers. Why? Purely because the name made me laugh. Fortunately, the food and coffee lived up to it. Delicious breakfast wraps and proper coffee — five stars, especially considering we’re very far from Melbourne, where coffee snobbery is a survival skill.
Then it was Ceduna or bust. I was riding carefully, scanning for kangaroos (the insomniac kind that don’t care about daytime rules), when I spotted a 4WD in my mirror, barrelling up fast. Perfect! A new candidate to follow. I let him pass, tucked in behind, and suddenly we were partners in crime. He was flying well above the speed limit, and I happily tagged along, overtaking cars in formation. Every time I saw an oncoming vehicle, I eased off — just in case it was law enforcement. Which meant I had to slam the throttle to catch up again. Rinse and repeat. It turned into a 40-minute game of cat and mouse. Even Noune, usually unimpressed by such antics, got caught up in the excitement of our “variable-speed adventure.”
We rolled into Ceduna about half an hour before check-in and ducked into the bistro: champagne for Noune, espresso for me, and a quick strategy session. A bit of research showed the Oyster Barn was the town’s crown jewel, with our hotel bistro in second place. So the plan was obvious: lunch at Oyster Barn (plus a selfie with the famous giant oyster), and dinner back at base.
Once the room was ready, we ditched the biker gear for civilian clothes and trekked 1.6 km to Oyster Barn. The oysters? Fantastic. The champagne? Spot on. The atmosphere? Let’s just say… not quite Michelin-star. And the “giant oyster”? Recently relocated near Ceduna Airport. Sorry, giant mollusc, but you weren’t worth another two-kilometre hike.
After lunch, I tried to get my beard trimmed at the barber, but they were fully booked. Seems Ceduna takes its grooming seriously. I’ll need to fix that before Perth — I can’t turn up at a milonga looking like I crawled out of a desert cave.
We walked along the foreshore, enjoyed the sea breeze, then finally had some downtime. I cracked open Espejos (Mirrors) by Eduardo Galeano — a book I’d promised myself I’d start on this trip. A few pages in, and I was hooked.
Dinner was back at the hotel bistro. Nice menu, good food, and — joy of joys — my favourite dessert: a chocolate sundae. Heaven. Of course, this being South Australia, I had to endure their unique liquor laws again. No double scotches allowed. Not even if you promise to behave. Worse still, this bar wouldn’t even let me mix them myself. I had to take two separate glasses to the table like a naughty schoolboy and combine them under the radar. But hey, rules are rules.
And that was it — another day done. Tomorrow, the big one: Nullarbor, here we come. Very much looking forward to it.
¡Hola, Vahram! Quería contarte que estoy muy entusiasmada, siguiendo el blog. Y conociendo un poco de Australia a través del relato y tus anécdotas. ¡Hacen una hermosa pareja con tu esposa! ¡Muchos éxitos para esta nueva etapa del viaje!
¡Gracias, Susana! Tu interés me motiva un montón.
La verdad es que pasa mucho más de lo que alcanzo a escribir, así que es imposible contarlo todo. Pero ya tendremos mil cosas para charlar cuando vuelva.