Driving the Nullarbor

We were up early on Tuesday morning, filling all our water containers and packing ready for the long drive across the Nullarbor. After 200 kms, the turn eastwards onto the Eyre Highway at Norseman was encouraging - it is only 1986 kms to Adelaide!

Skylab in Balladonia

Balladonia was our lunch stop and we doubled its population in our short time there - if you discount the flies. Balladonia's claim to fame was being sconed by a piece of Skylab in 1979 and I suspect not much has happened since!

A little further along the track the road had a dual purpose - the verges were cleared and widened and the Royal Flying Doctor Service planes could land there on the emergency airstrip. The kids were disappointed nothing happened while we were on the "runway". It would be quite something to be tootling along the highway with a plane as your oncoming traffic!

The next spot of interest was the longest straight stretch of road in Australia. Although it was not hot, the road stretched out in front of us and disappeared in a shimmer of haze on the horizon.

We exited the straight just before the Western Time Zone where we lost 45 minutes, arriving at Cocklebiddy Roadhouse around 5 p.m. It was bare, freezing cold and not at all inviting, but we needed to stop so we set up quickly and sheltered in the caravan out of the howling gale. And we were expecting the Nullarbor to be hot!

Looking for a giraffe on the veldt

Highly trained squadrons of budgies entertained us early the next morning as they peppered the sky with specks of bright green. Ella was pretending to be a dog, and I held her lead to stop her from chasing the budgies, as I thought she would in her doggy way. "Likely not" she said, "They're too beautiful!" After a long drive unrelieved by any change in the scenery, we crested a hill at Madura and stopped to admire the view. It looked like the African veldt, but we didn't spot any giraffes!

We stumbled across one of the Nullabor Links at Mundrabilla so the kids played the Par 4 Watering Hole with a yellow plastic cricket bat and a pink tennis ball. As needs must! Marcus played it in 19, then 40 and the four of them played as a team in 29!

Tally-Ho!

A somewhat irregular golf swing -
a mixture of Tiger, Federer and Ponting!

We continued playing leap-frog with the Nullabor Postie as she did her vast delivery round. Most homesteaders were waiting for her and were on for a chat, so we passed her, and she us, as we drove the length of the Roe Plains.

Eucla Pass took us up onto the plateau with commanding views of the coast and thinking we'd have lunch by the sea, we took a 4km detour to the old Telegraph Station ruins, only to find the sea still at least a kilometre's walk away. There were 2 inquisitive emus there who followed us as we investigated the building.

The hall has not been swept for some time!

The Border village was just outside Eucla and we crossed into SA with very little fanfare - not even a welcome sign to be photographed there! - and lost another 45 minutes. The Great Australian Bight stretched out before us and we stopped at a couple of the lookouts to take it in.

We pushed on towards Nullarbor (roadhouse) and discovered there that it was an hour later than we thought due to daylight saving. We also discovered that we'd driven for 2 days, had consumed all of the "Nullarbor Lollies" from the Boulder Sweet Shop and had only just reached the Nullarbor Plain proper! Nullarbor was cold, very windy and not at all appealing, but they did have hot showers so we set up right next to another of the Nullarbor Links - the Nullarbor Nymph. The kids bolted with their golfing equipment to play "Big Golf", as Ella phrased it, and were gone until almost dark. They were protesting about it being too light for bed, but were all sound asleep fairly quickly!

Our favourite road sign

Marcus was due to have his phone interview for School Captain on Thursday (if we could find a payphone in working order at the right time - and if we could work out the right time!!) and his first comment of the day was "What time is my interrogation?" He hadn't slept much - he rarely gets nervous about anything, but this had him worried! At least he was quiet on the road!



A welcome diversion was the Head of Bight - a whale watching paradise in season and a spectacular lookout over the Bunda cliffs for us. We exited the truly treeless Nullarbor Plain faster than expected and then it was much the same as the other days ... flat plains and shrubby bush. We started to notice fences and then wheat fields just before Penong, where we stopped for lunch and to find a public phone. Our mobile phones are useless out here. To Marcus's disappointment, we found one in working order and so at 2 p.m. we rang school so he could speak to the interview panel.

A difficult first interview with a panel
and payphone ... and passing trucks!

Having a roadside interview in a phonebox was not one of Marcus's favourite experiences on the trip, but he spoke well and managed to answer most of the questions. He looked much better when it was all over.

Windmills and silos at Penong

Penong is known as the "Town of 100 Windmills" but try as we might, we could only count 36. Nearby Lake McDonnell has enormous gypsum deposits. 96% of the plasterboard produced in Australia is made from the gypsum from here.

We had to stop at the Ceduna Quarantine to forfeit the last of our fruit and then made a quick supply stop at the supermarket there, before driving to Streaky Bay (we were tempted to add "con") where we were more than pleased to stop. Guess what? It was cold and windy. The kids didn't notice as they played in the playground, happy to use the long hours of daylight. Dave and I sat almost comatosed in the caravan, feeling the effects of almost 2000 kms. Marcus received an email saying he had been selected as one of the two school captains, which cheered us all up and we celebrated with lemonade and chocolate!

We were on the road again the next morning, travelling the Eyre Peninsular on our way to Adelaide.


Stay tuned ...