SA-WA-Crossing The Nullarbor

Years ago crossing the Nullabor meant several days on a dirt road with few facilities. Today crossing The Nullabor is a very civilized experience. Now, the road is completely sealed and well serviced with many roadhouses along the way and carries a vast amount of tourist and commercial traffic. The largest distance between roadhouses being 188klms. The trip took us three days and we stayed in roadside stops for two nights. I had always thought of the Nullarbor as being desert with sand hills everywhere and found it to be nothing like that at all.

The Eyre highway hugs the coast from Ceduna to the WA border where it begins heading inland. We stopped at the Head of the Bight where the spectacular Bunda cliffs drop into the turquoise ocean. Between May to October this area has up to 100 southern right whales. Some whales come here to give birth, others to mate and some come here to socialize. The viewing platform allows you to get close to the ocean and it would be magic to be here during those few months. (Photo 1 )

The countryside was continually changing from low lying scrub ,salt bush, larger shrubs and eucalyptus forests which kept us interested along the way. Occasionally there would be a tree beside the road covered in shoes, others in bottles, one in household items which were rather funny. (Photo 3 )

The longest straight stretch of road in Australia is towards the end of the crossing. It is 146.6 klms long so its time to put the ipod on and start singing to a few oldies to pass the time.

We were very lucky with the temperature as the highest was 27degrees and we had a tail wind most of the way so Mike was happy. We had heard horror stories of some people having a head wind all the way and chewing through the fuel.

All in all, the trip was good and the golf was the best thing to distract from the distance.