Yes, we have no bananas!

If you have just read the title and are wondering about my sanity, bear with me! All will become clear, I promise. Shortly after setting off this morning, Mark would have reached a point on the Eyre Highway just below the escarpment (see yesterday) from where this view was taken. It looks south over the Eucla plain towards the Great Australian Bight. In the distance are the expanse of sand dunes which form such a striking feature on the coastline when viewed in Google. According to a number of sources the extent of the sand hills here is due to a plague of rabbits in the late 19th century which ate all the duneland grasses, thus destabilising them and allowing the wind to distribute the sand inland. A casualty of sand inundation was the old telegraph station at Eucla ....Eucla was established in 1877 as a manual repeater station for the Overland Telegraph. A jetty and 1km tram line was constructed for offloading supplies to this remote area. At the time both the South and Western Australian colonial administrations operated out of Eucla's telegraph station.

Just 13kms east of Eucla, Mark will have arrived this morning at the West Australia / South Australia border .

Here is something for you to work out...... what direction was the photographer of this image facing when he snapped it?

We are now getting closer to an explanation of the strange title for today's post. I knew that Australia was very strict about quarantine regulations relating to the import of foodstuffs into the country but I had no idea (until today) that there are similar regulations regarding the movement of many items (including fruit such as bananas!) across state borders. And if you don't believe me, read 'The Traveller's Guide to Interstate Quarantine'.

After complying with with quarantine regulations, I wonder if Mark took time to ponder this road sign at the WA/SA border! I just hope he didn't follow the sign to Paris as it points back the way he's come!! And since you are now getting your head around direction, you will doubtless have worked out that the photographer at the border was facing south.

Mark continued east of the SA border for the remainder of today, cycling into an area of spectacular coastal scenery where the Nullarbor National Park and the Great Australian Bight Marine Park meet at the coast. Here, the Eyre Highway comes within a couple of hundred metres of the high limestone cliffs and they will certainly have given Mark some amazing views along the coastline much like this one below. The cliffs here are known as the Bunda cliffs and according to the GPS tracker, Mark appears to have stopped here for the night...

It's a pretty awesome campsite! If you can cope with the slightly nauseating music (feel free to turn your speakers off!), there is also a short YouTube offering for the Bunda cliffs...