13/08/2023
Next overnight (2) stop: Eucla.
There is some spectacular scenery along the way and far more than the one or two places people thnk they have to stop to take it all in. There are NO toilets between Nullabor and Eucla. There is NO mobile phone reception UNLESS you are solely with Telstra (not Telstra wholesale/on sellers, Optus. Vodafone etc). Now Eucla is a bit of shall we say interesting.
The first room they gave me, yes reassured was disabled, and lo and behold, get in the door and there is LITERALLY a 6 inch step UP into the bathroom. Yep that works. But the staff where helpful and found me room 30. Ok the “ramp” was shall we say, had seen better days? Yeh a very thick old piece of chipboard that every time l went in and out, l swear it started to resembled the floor of a carpenter’s workshop.
This place too was the first and only time in my life l paid $12 for a plate of hot chips and they weren’t the frozen kind. I also got to celebrate a 70th birthday with 2 lovely fellow travellers who where on the road to Bunbury; beaming with joy and pride that their young grand daughter was singing in some very special opera performance. I wish them well and sorry l can’t remember your name.
Eucla was pet friendly.
The Telstra pay phone well that’s was so much fun; yes all Telstra pay phones are free BUT the path up to it; well there was a lot of artistic licence used by its creator and driving in was one story; reversing out as the only option, l nearly started to wish that the SES where available to haul me out if only l could have gotten back to the phone!
From Eucla l had planned to maybe stay at Balladonia for the night. But settled on Norseman. I rang around the town to find the usual story “no wheelchair access” or “booked out”. Then l spoke twice to one of the staff at the BP, who also happen to run the motel behind. Twice l spoke to them, which l reinforced wheelchair access room, asked if hand rails in the bathroom and in the enthusiastic response was always yes yes yes of course. Did this make me skeptical? Nah why would it?
Heading off from Eucla for the roughly 7 hour drive to Norseman proved to be some of the most entertaining parts of the trip; little did l know the nightmare that awaited me in Norseman.
Madura became my first main stop. Yep you guessed it, inaccessible shop, no disabled public toilets. Oh hang on, helpful staff at the station directed me to the motel. She also called ahead to let them know l needed the key to the disabled toilet. Get to the motel. Wonderful; 3 very large steps. So l am cruising up and down tapping on the window until finally a very helpful person appeared with a key in their hand.
Nearly needing to take a map and compass, plus a dentist to reinsert my teeth rattled out on the way l found the disabled toilet. Problem 1: Thankfully l was in my power chair and it can be a bit of a mountain goat when l need it to be. Problem 2: You know that gravel at Yalata ? It was back ! Yep at the base of the ramp. The disabled toilet was a good quality, also a shower in there if l really wanted one. But that ramp and exiting ? Now l knew what it felt like to be a runaway truck hitting a speed arrester bed coming down a mountain side with no brakes. All good though; just repeat the return journey and finally get my teeth back in and the key handed back and away l went.
I skipped past Cocklebiddy, drive in but kept going, it was very inaccessible from what l could see and the road condition was such l didn’t want to have to find the dentist again to reinsert my teeth.
Next stop was Caiguna. What can l say 5***** service and help and yes accessible shop AND inside toilets. You need a code to get to them but couldn’t fault the staff, service or facilities.
After that next stop was my proposed overnighter at Balladonia and glad l didn’t. Firstly, disabled toilets locked; ok, lets go hunt the key. Now this site is just a tad over run and busy and where is the key ? In the shop. Guess what? 6 inch step to get into the shop to get the key. It was fast getting to onion season (yeh yeh yeh we all know what onions do when you try to peel them, anyway you get the drift) . So how the heck tell me , is a wheelie going to play basketball and bounce into that shop let alone get access to that key ? Of course, lower your dignity and ask some poor stranger if they would be kind enough to retrieve it for you and also find another one to return it. On the road again, even IF my trusty little ramp could have gotten me into a motel room, would have been very hungry by morning with no access to the shop.
Yes did provide feedback to the Manager at Balladonia but never heard a thing. Guess they really don’t care, they aren’t paid enough to do so.
