TIME ELAPSED SINCE DEPARTURE : 39 WEEKS
DISTANCE TRAVELLED : 19,680 KMS
THE CROSSING : NULLARBOR PLAIN
This legendary piece of Australian turf is everything that you have heard about, but it’s so much more. Yes, there is no question that, as per it’s Latin name, it is flat and treeless. But only in parts (and yes, the very Aboriginal sounding ‘Nullarbor’ is actually Latin for ‘no tree’. The indigenous name is ‘Oondiri’ meaning ‘no water’ Sooz: which is actually more accurate as we saw plenty of trees!). The 1200 km section of road from Ceduna to Norseman runs along the very southern edge of the plain that covers more than 270,000 square kilometres. It’s enormous! From the road, we only see a thin ribbon of this vast limestone plate.
But it’s not all flat & treeless. There are sections of scrub, there are sections with trees, there are grass prairies and the change from one to the other happens abruptly. The road can be flat and dead straight…but there are also plenty of undulations and bends. Sooz: More surprisingly… There are also some spectacular views. It’s also busier than I imagined. Mostly the traffic consists of trucks and people doing what we were doing – towing a caravan. The road condition is good. And we had walkie-talkies that Chook had brought with him that allowed us to communicate between vehicles. ‘10-4 good buddy, watch out for them Smoky’s!’ (Sooz: Just a reminder, our mate from Melbourne, Chook, joined us in Ceduna, and we went in a convoy.)
FOWLERS BAY
On day one, we had our first stop at a hamlet called FOWLERS BAY which was about 150km from our starting point and about 30km off the Eyre Highway. This was a place that both Sooz and Chook insisted on visiting and I am still trying to work out why. The 30km road into the place was a shocker of c-c-constant c-c-corrugations on a dirt road. The v-v-vibrations gave a man blurred vision! The town of 30 inhabitants has a nice bay and a jetty, but that’s it. We walked the jetty and had a cup of tea and pushed on via a different road to get back to the highway. This road was worse than the road we took into the place! The corrugations shook your teeth out of your skull. The resulting damage to our caravan would become evident later that day when we stopped for the night. (Sooz: Yes – I take the blame for this. I read a few times that you should stop at Fowlers Bay. But could not remember WHY when asked. Oh well.)
HEAD OF BIGHT AND BUNDA CLIFFS
Another 140 km further on is the turnoff for the ‘HEAD OF BIGHT’ stop where a boardwalk and lookout has been built and a tourist office with an entry fee that you must pay to get to the view. Fortunately, my NSW Seniors Card qualifies us for discounts at these sorts of places and the $7 fee did provide a very spectacular view high on the cliffs at the very top-end of the Great Australian Bight. Here during June – November, Southern Right Whales take up residence in the beautifully blue waters to give birth, to mate and socialise. At the height of the season, more than 100 whales can apparently be seen at the one time. We were a bit early for the show (we arrived in early May), but it was still a good spot and an iconic point on the Australian mainland. It was time to push on and look for a camp for the night. About another 160 km is where the highway gets close to the cliff edges of the Bight and this is where the tallest sections of cliffs are. Called the BUNDA CLIFFS , they range in height from 100 to over 300 feet and are the longest continual coastal cliff faces on the planet at over 200 kilometres! We pulled off the road at about 4pm and trundled along a rough track amidst a barren and bare landscape. After about 400 metres, we were at the very edge of the cliffs and we set up camp for the night. It was windy and cold and the stars were plentiful when darkness fell. Such was the proximity to the sheer cliff edges, I had to make a mental note not to sleep walk in the middle of the night. It was here that we discovered that the microwave oven in the van had busted the frame that contains it because of the earlier mentioned road corrugations, and now the door is difficult to open and close (but it still works! 😊) (Sooz: The aforementioned proximity to the cliffs edge was a bit close – only about 10 metres from the edge.)
BORDERTOWN, SA
Day two took us another 450 km and across the SA/WA border. Who knew that there was a time zone just into WA called ‘Central Western time’? Well, there is. And a handful of dry and dusty towns including Eucla and Mundrabilla and Cocklebiddy work on this time which is 45 minutes behind SA and 45 minutes ahead of Perth. Funnily enough, this zone registered on one of our phones but not the other (when reception was available). (Sooz – gotta love the name of one town – Cocklebiddy – just makes me laugh! 😊)
The petrol stations/roadhouses along the Nullarbor are positioned so that you are unlikely to run out of fuel. The longest distance between fuel stops is almost 200km; but these ‘service stations’ are rather dismal in appearance and charge like the world had run dry of fuel a decade ago. Diesel can be anywhere from $2.30 to $2.70 per litre which is 40 to 80 cents a litre more than in other rural centres and a dollar more than the cities. Rogues & thieves abound! Someone had told me not to refuel near the SA border, but to wait until we cross into WA where only 30 km down the road it is much cheaper. Correct! The difference was 30 cents a litre at Eucla in WA and the savings paid for a sausage roll and a donut for dessert. But why wouldn’t a fuel stop in such a remote part of the world have an air gun? It was in the middle of day 2 and while filling up I noticed that my front-drivers side tyre was soft. But this joint did not have the necessary tools that every servo should and does. You are kidding ref. We are in the middle of nowhere where all sorts of things can go wrong and you don’t have a bloody air gun?? You are actually a ‘non-service’ station. Fortunately, my mate Chook had a portable compressor and from that point I was able to monitor the tyre going forward. It proved to be a slow leak. Phew. It’s a manageable situation. (We also have a portable compressor, but it’s a small one specifically for the inflation of the suspension airbags I had fitted before we left Sydney. I add air to them every time we tow the van, and then let them down when we unhitch otherwise it makes for a hard ride. The little compressor would inflate a tyre but would take half an hour.)
We spent the second night parked some 300 metres off the road in a lightly wooded area with a number of trails winding through it. Several other intrepid travellers had the same idea but there was plenty of distance between us all. We started a campfire, had dinner, told stories around the fire and had an early night.
DAY THREE
The next morning, we re-inflated the soft tyre again (it had dropped from 40 PSI to 31 PSI overnight) and said goodbye to Chook. He was keen to get going and was probably tired of travelling behind us and going at our ‘retirees’ pace. We trundle along at about 95 kmh and he likes to be north of 100 and was keen to get to Kalgoorlie that afternoon. Chook is an ‘all systems GO’ kinda guy! It was good to see him.
We decided we would aim to get to Esperance from our campsite at Caiguna and were thus facing about a 600km drive. I was wrestling with stopping at Norseman to fix the damn tyre but when entering the town of only 800 people, I decided to keep going. It (the tyre) was going OK and the fuel stops were now more regular and all seemed to have air guns. SERVICE stations! 😊
Crossing the Nullarbor was a great experience. Here are some of the ‘different’ things we saw during the drive:
- A small plane (Cessna) being transported on top of a small truck – like a furniture van!
- A number of cyclists. Weirdos! Really1? You are going to ride a bike across the Nullarbor? And of course, one of them was French. You could tell by the four large tri-colour flags he was flying from his bike! Funnily enough, all of the riders seemed to be gritting their teeth. Y’all having a good time while you are pedalling into a 60 kmh headwind? I’m telling ya – weirdos. The world is full of ‘em.
- A walker! Seriously? How weird can this get? With an escort vehicle trundling along behind. How boring would it be to be in that car, driving at 4 kmh across 1200km while keeping an eye on this guy? (Let’s see now ….. 4 into 1200, carry the one …. It is going to take this fruit cake & his crew 38 days to get across!! OMG! There is no end to nut cases in this world.)
- The Nullarbor has the world’s longest golf course. The 18 holes are spread out over 1200 km and located at the various stops along the Eyre Highway. Chook & I played the hole at Border Village, a par 3, 160 metre beast. You get a patch of artificial turf to tee off from, then a lot of outback dirt, dust, rocks and scrub before a patchy ‘green’ made of some kind of material. Neither of us hit the green, Chook lost his ball and thus I won the hole 6 shots to 8. Chooks mood seemed to darken after this, and not recover! (Sooz: Chook had the most amazing shot of the hole. He lost his ball, had to drop amongst the “rough”, which was rougher than anything you have ever seen, took a shot, and his ball hit a rock and landed smack on the green in an excellent spot! It was priceless!)
- At several locations along the highway, there are markings like those at the ends of an airport runway. Big, wide, white parallel paint markings. These are accompanied by a sign advising that the road might be used as a landing site for the RFDS (Royal Flying Doctor Service). Wouldn’t that be great to see?
- The Dingo or Dog Fence. It ends down here. It crosses the road and heads towards the ocean cliffs. I wonder if it continues into the ocean? Some 9 months ago, we saw where it starts, out the back of Rockhampton in QLD. I reckon that’s pretty cool.
- In the town of Balladonia, in WA, near the end of the Nullarbor (or the start depending which way you are heading!) in a room at the local servo, sits a piece of SKYLAB, the space station that crashed to earth in 1979. The story goes that the local mayor at the time sent NASA an invoice and letter demanding a payment of $400 for littering. Apparently President Carter called the roadhouse manager to sheepishly apologise for the mayhem and inundation of American reporters that occurred following the crash. The reporters were left dumbfounded as there was only one phone line available to file news reports of this event that the world was watching. A local kid won a $10,000 prize for finding the first piece of the craft, but he didn’t have to look far. It was in his backyard. The littering fine remains unpaid. (Sooz: Also, Miss America was in Perth for the Miss Universe Competition, and was flown out to this speck of a town for some added press coverage!)
The final day of the crossing and using Skylab parlance, ‘re-entry’ into civilization was a long one – some 585 km. We are in no rush and cruise along at around 95 kmh and thus its 6+ hours of driving plus stops we make and therefore it’s a long day And I have to say that towing a van is taxing. There is so much more to watch and be aware of compared to just driving a car and I reckon that it’s easier to drive from Sydney to Melbourne (900 km) in one hit in a car than it is to drive 600 km towing a van.
FIRST STOP IN WA
ESPERANCE, WA doesn’t look that much when you first enter it but when you get down to the harbour front, the perspective changes. It’s got a busy port where significant quantities of grain are loaded onto ships. That infrastructure is never a pretty sight, but look away from that area and it’s quite stunning. With a population of about 13,000, it’s the biggest town we have been in for over a month. It’s got a great jetty and parks up and down the waterfront with a cute little marina and nice restaurant nearby. But the town is not the focus. It’s the area around Esperance that knocks your socks off. Standing on the foreshore and looking out to sea provides a view full of islands. You can head west on a 40 kilometre ‘Ocean Drive’ and you will see some of the most beautiful beaches ever! Stunning. But wait, there’s more and they aint steak knives! Head east into the Le Grand National Park, and the beaches are even better! I have never felt such lovely sand. This is the whitest, finest, softest sand
imaginable. It’s like powder. It’s gorgeous. The water is turquoise and the headlands are ancient granite that is sloping and smooth. You will need to check some of the images that we post in the separate file on the blog. SCROLL DOWN AND CLICK THE BUTTON
We spent an hour and a half climbing up the very steep ( Grade 5 ) ‘Frenchmans Cap’ mountain that gave you views forever. It’s hard to imagine, but the large cave at the top of the mountain was formed by waves millions of years ago. Waves! In other words, this mountain was under water in another era. To top it all off, we stayed in the best caravan park that we have experienced and we have stayed at more than 50.
Esperance has shot to (or near) the top of my most enjoyable places to visit in Australia. A great spot. Just needs a decent pub.
ESPERANCE HOLIDAY PARK : 10/10 (heated pool, across the road from a beach, fantastic facilities etc) Sooz: I agree!!! 10/10
Loved catching up with your adventures. Couldn’t agree more about the beaches around Esperance. Went there 25 years ago and I think the beaches in Le Grand National Park are the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. And you know that’s saying something as we live round the corner from the beach voted the second best beach in Australia this year, Boomerang Beach!
Cheers from Jenny and Stephen, Blueys Beach
Hi Jenny and Stephen,
Sorry to take so long to reply. Somehow we missed this comment when it was first posted. Glad you enjoy reading about our adventures. We can’t wai tto also be locals in such a lovely part of the world. (Though WA is still making us smile at the amazing scenery we keep coming upon!) Hope we can catch up again soon.
Susan & Leigh
As usual, another very entertaining blog.
What a wonderful journey across the Nullabour .. well deserved beer after 600kms!
Winning photo of Leigh and Chook on the golf range 🤣
Amazing! Enjoying your journey – thanks for sharing it with us!
Love from the US!