Nullabor - no trees and very plain

I’m listening to the latest Pink Floyd album – ‘Endless River’ as I write this, sitting in a lovely little campsite in Ceduna, SA after crossing the Nullabor Plain in just over two days. It really is the great Australian Road Trip.

After the magical Valley of the Giants mentioned in previous post, we went on to Albany – not much to report there except it’s probably much nicer when the weather is kind!

Then we decided to be brave and camp in one of Australia’s many free camps. Basically a spot off the road, possibly with a toilet (use at your peril), where you can camp for nothing. OUR FIRST FREE CAMP! It was a bit spooky, but we survived, hardened and keen for more similar adventures. Weather was pretty cold, so we had meal, watched another episode of The Sopranos and went to bed.

Woke up Wednesday morning to fierce winds and rain and our hopes of seeing the beauty of a much-hyped Hopetoun (sic) were dashed as out little camper nearly got blown off the jetty! So we gave up on that idea.

Set off for Esperance in high hopes (sorry about all these puns – couldn’t resist them!) in driving wind and rain and were buffeted all the way. Countryside varies here between small mountains (hills), trees & fields & agriculture & outback. Cut through Jerdacuttup to get to Esperance and it’s a pretty hopeless sort of place. But we needed to touch base with laundry etc and there was a cinema there!

Had two quiet days, wind blew a bit but it stayed dry so we could wash stuff and went to see ‘Gone Girl’ – very true to book (except bits that were cut for length), but ambivalent about it generally as I’d only recently read the book. Quite enjoyed it, he said, damning with faint praise.

Must say something about the museum at Esperance. It’s a jumble of all sorts of antiques and random junk – some of which was probably donated from people’s attics. But the big attraction hereabouts is that in 1979 Skylab crashed in these here parts, so every ‘Museum’ in a 400 km-sq area has bits of bent metal – remnants of the historic event. Apparently, the WA government gave NASA a $400 fine for littering!!

Before leaving Esperance on the Saturday morning, we drove the 40 km loop road – Great Ocean Drive (everything’s ‘Great’ something here) and it was a pretty spectacular series of beautiful bays and cliffs as well as a not-so-pink–anymore lake (come on BASF, get your finger out!)

Hit the 8000km mark reaching Norseman – a nothing sort of town at the start of the Nullabor and spent the evening fending off the flies.

The next day we started on the Nullabor Plain. Nullabor comes from the latin Nullus – none and Arbor – trees. The Aboriginals call it ‘Endless Plain’. Both descriptions are accurate.

A little-known fact is that about 400 km before the SA border, the clocks go forward – by 45 minutes – so we arrived at our next stop, another free site, Moodini Bluff and watched a spectacular sunset – a bit later than planned. But all good.

On Monday we set off early and arrived at the border, at what was to be our next stop – Eucla – by 11. 30, so pressed on into South Australia and put our clocks back by another 1hr 45 mins. Bet you didn’t know that did you?!! Stopped at Colina, with the sun still high in the sky at 7.00 pm. Nice change. Hit 9,125 km by the time we stopped.

Another rather odd thing is that the fruit fly fruit n veg quarantine checkpoint is not at the border, but at Ceduna, where we are now, 300 km into the state. Go figure…

Anyway, on Tuesday (today) we arrived in Ceduna, having crossed the mighty Nullabor. Sorry if I’m making a bit of this, but it is quite a remarkable road and it fills you with awe when you realize that this was originally crossed by foot over four months. It’s a hell of a road and definitely something to cross off the bucket list.

Waiting for sausages to ripen in this charming little campsite by the sea. Just seen another spectacular sunset. More next week.

Nullabor...

Sunset

need I say more?

Plain...

Skylab, honest

note the corks - see they do wear them!

Lifelike exhibit at Balladonia Roadhouse museum