Nullabor(ing) Crossing

We were off the air for a few days whilst we made our crossing across the Nullarbor. We had so many expectations of what the middle of Australia would be like, what it would be like to drive that far, how big would the road trains be, how hot would it be..... 

We set off from Streaky Bay reluctantly - such a lovely place it would have been great to have been able to spend more time.  We have met so many people that have been on the road for 8 months or more and are a little envious of their lifestyle - our turn will come in years to come and for now we have to be satisfied with our timetable.

Arrived at Ceduna and got the final items that we needed as it would be several days before we would see shops again - the main item of purchase a 12v charger for Tom's DS as his other one blew up.

We hit the Nullarbor full of excitement and anticipation...Paul Kelly was cranking on the stereo and we were singing along - the good ol Aussie Road trip!

Almost immediately the road trains became bigger, this fellow has over 70 wheels.

But it took a while for the scenery to flatten out to what we expected the Nullabor to look like.    The road itself is a good road - fairly wide, good road surface, lots of stops to pull over for a rest or sleep the night and petrol stations regularly spaced.

The road also serves as a landing strip for the Royal Flying Doctor Service.  There are several spots marked for this.  The dog fence also crosses the Nullarbor - the fence is the longest continuous fence - runs over 5000kms from Queensland.

Before too long we began picking up the typical Nullarbor signage...

And Dave drove it the whole way - wouldn't share at all - apparently its my turn to drive it on the way back!

We arrived at Head of Bight and spent a nice time walking around the boardwalk and watching a shark swim around in the beautiful clear water.  At the right time of year this area is a breading ground for whales.

Entry was a very reasonable $5 per adult and kids were free.

We pushed on down the road a bit further and found our bush camp for the night.  Can you believe it rained overnight - we're in the desert and we still got rain!

As we were staying near the Great Australian Bight Marine Park and the lookouts weren't far from there we didn't have to start too early the next day.  We took our time checking out all the little pulls ins.  The weather was cool and we were still having a few showers of rain but the scenery was amazing.  You can really see the shape of the coastline its like a 3dimensional map - that probably sounds weird but if you've seen it you'll know what I mean.

At the end of the lookouts we crossed the border into WA and gained an extra 2 and a half hours.  We'd just had morning tea and were starting to think about lunch and suddenly we were back to morning tea time again.  The time difference is hectic on your body!! 

He we are half on us in South Australia and the other half in Western Australia - gotta love border crossings for daggy photos!!

One big thing we noticed after crossing the border into WA was the amount of rotting animals on the side of the road and the obvious smell that goes with them.  SA clean theirs up where as WA leave them to be consumed by other animals and decompose by the side of the road - not very pretty really!

Flies were really bad too - these ones are like B52 bombers, they carry their own knives and folks and are capable of running off with your food if you give them half a chance.  They are massive and relentless!!!

Dave drove the longest bit of straight road in Australia - didn't have to turn the steering wheel for 146km.  We had a massive days driving, just short of 700kms.  Found our bush camp for the night at Harms Lake (no there was no water there - no lake to be seen but a nice spot to rest - except for the flies and the mozzies!)

The plan was to get up early the next day and head to Esperance.  We had every intention of being there by lunch time.  Well the plan went slightly astray when suffering desert disease I woke everyone up at 4:30am (which I thought at the time was 6:30am.  See I told you WA time is hectic on the body!!) We got dressed, had breakfast and packed up in under an hour we were on the road at 5:30 - much to my surprise when we got in the car and re looked at the clock.  We made it to Esperance just after 10am.  Needless to say everyone is pretty tired tonight. 

Esperance is very pretty but also very windy and quite cold.  We are going to enjoy an extra day here having completed our Nullabor crossing a day early.  Personally I didn't find it as NullaBORING as some people have said, don't know how much I'm looking forward to driving it back again though!!