Day 6 – The Nullarbor Plain

Wow – I knew this country was big, but not that big! Today we hit the Nullarbor Plain and drove around 1,000 km on mostly perfectly straight roads, just some slight corners to correct and few small ups and downs, but for the most part the road was just straight over the horizon. We left Ceduna at 7:00 am and arrived at 5 pm (but 1.5hr time zone later, so actually it was 6:30 pm at the point of our departure in Ceduna). The countryside pretty much arid scrubland. I (Rich) found the countryside fascinating and engaging as the vegetation kept changing (see photos) from open scrub through to a mallee type Eucalypt bushland.

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Just in case you thought we were kidding about the long straight roads, one section even has the sign claiming to be the longest straight road – 146.6 km with no bends.

Along the way we stopped to see the cliffs of the Great Australian Bight – just a wild section of coast battering very fragile cliffs (don’t go near the edge, as they are continually crumbling and there is no help nearby if you do go over). Interestingly along this road there are aeroplane landing strip markings on the main road for the Royal Flying Doctor Service in case someone gets into trouble – makes perfect sense as the road is straight and as good as any landing strip.

The Nullarbor Plain is certainly also alive (although don’t try compare to African savannahs) – along the way we saw lots of birds, a few dingos (one I had to slow down for as he was sitting in the middle of the road) and a few Wedge tail eagles.

We had a strong headwind all the way as this is the direction of the prevailing winds, plus there was a massive cold front crossing the bight. Go figure – the lowest rainfall region in Australia and it rains most of the day while we drove into a 60 knot head wind. To make matters worse, the price of diesel went from $1.35 in Ceduna to over $1.71 at the border between SA and WA. Paying $1.71 for diesel is simply robbery when there were fuel stations in between that were more than 10c/l cheaper.   (Kim paid $4.30 for a 600 ml bottle of water!)

Tonight we deliberately planned to free camp – a great feature of many outback regions is that you can pull off the road (as long as it is more than 10 km outside a town) and camp in the bush. Along the Nullarbor Plains road these sites range from just a dirt track, to actual free camping areas where there are bins and self-composting toilets. The place we pulled into is just bush and red dirt, but had about 7 other vans all about 100 m or more from each other all tucked away in the bush – best part is that you get a real sense of the total silence of the night bush and it is totally free.

Tomorrow it is another 400 km to Esperance, the first of the larger coastal towns on the West Australian coastline. 

Kim here – well the Nullabor Plain was not at all what I expected.  Somehow I had in my head that it would be desert (red dirt and stones) and hot.  Instead there was plenty of vegetation and it was freezing!  It is truly a majestic area - the silence and the size of the place is confronting  – whenever I come to a place like this, I always think about how we people rush about our busy lives in the towns and cities and here, in the Nullabor, always, and both before, now and after, this place sits in silence!  It is SO big and so vast and absolutely nothing in it – it just exists – possibly simply for God’s own enjoyment.

I must say that starkly magnificent that it is, I would not like to live here and whilst I enjoyed the experience of the Nullabor, I am looking forward to Esperance – if for no other reason than to be in contact again with loved ones – there was absolutely no communication with anyone whilst crossing the Nullabor and we couldn't even find a radio station!! 

We did see some funny things in the midst of all the silence and emptiness – the movie Forest Gump seems to have had an impact and there were numerous people walking, running, cycling along the Nullabor plain – all alone, out in the middle of nowhere there would be this lone person slogging their way along.  There was even one guy pushing a wheelchair with a giant teddy in it!!  We were feeling small DRIVING the Nullabor Plain – I can’t imagine what it would feel like to be out there all on your own walking, running or cycling!  Very quirky!

 

I am happy to report that at day six, Rich and I are still friends – despite living in such a small space – and in fact I am so grateful for our small space – it is often a refuge from weather, over enthusiastic fellow travellers and (in the Nullabor) overwhelming silence, and provides a spot that is safe and cosy!  Funny isn’t it, how we want to be adventurers and yet crave our own safe spot! 

PS:       Before we left Warragul Rich and I had dinner with the Fingers.  I asked Heather about how she went keeping everything clean and tidy.  She looked me in the eyes and said ‘ drop your standards!’  Well I have managed to keep the van clean, but I can’t do anything about Rich’s fashion sense – I think the standards are dropping somewhat in the fashion department (she means red socks with orange crocs - what's wrong?)!

To follow a map of our travels click on this link: Google Map