Wide open spaces

After enjoying our morning on the beach at Lucky Bay, we swung by Esperance on the way out for a few supplies before heading to another iconic stage of the trip – crossing the Nullarbor. None of us really knew what to expect over the next few days. We had heard some people say it was really boring, just a straight, desolate road with nothing to see, while others had said they loved the Nullarbor and had crossed it many times. Oli was particularly excited about it, and had a picture in his mind of a dead straight road, flat in all directions, no trees and red dirt. He couldn’t believe that there could be such a long, straight stretch of road and really wanted to see it. We headed up towards Norseman, the start of the Nullarbor where the road heads directly east, and we enjoyed the sunny weather which made the driving much more pleasant than the rain we had been driving through over most of the last couple of weeks. Whilst on the drive, we listed to a really interesting ABC radio series on the Nullarbor that I had downloaded before we left. Although we weren’t stopping in all the places it covered, it was still really interesting to learn of the history of the townships, and the people that lived there. We stopped for petrol in Norseman but decided to push on to a place called Fraser Range for the night, which was supposed to be a nicer option. We had travelled about 380km that first day, not a huge day but still enough to be glad to get out of the car. Fraser Range was a lovely station with loads of space and having arrived around 6pm we quickly setup the basics before I headed to the BBQs with Em to cook up some hamburgers for dinner. We then headed to bed, needing a good night sleep for another long driving day the next day.

We didn’t rush in the morning to pack up, keen to let the kids have a play before we set off for another day in the car. There was a camp kitchen with lots of games so we left them to play there while we packed up. Mid pack up, Kat came over to tell us that there was a snake slithering around near the camp kitchen so we went to investigate. The owners came and picked it up, confirming it was just a python, at which point Oli was keen to have a hold, so they draped it around his neck for a photo op before releasing it back into the bush nearby. We finished pack up and just as we were driving off we spotted and emu with about 8 chicks in tow. The kids loved seeing the cute emu chicks, and it was a clear indication that we were heading into spring and warmer weather (hopefully). We headed off, not really knowing where we would stop that night, but we were trying to outrun some more miserable weather that was forecast. For now at least the sun was shining, and soon we hit the longest straight stretch of road in Australia. After stopping for a photo at the sign, we pointed Iggy towards the horizon and just drove and drove. Kat and I both did some of the driving along this section, and it didn’t really feel any different to driving any other part of the road, apart from the novelty of not turning. There was loads of traffic on the road, including a lot of road trains that kept buffeting us around as they flew past us, but we stayed on course and eventually reached our first turn in 147km (90 miles). We stopped in at a few of the many colourful roadhouses that were dotted along the road to stretch our legs and take a look around. We also passed a teddy bear tree that had been established to bring attention to stopping cruelty to animals. The kids loved it and we put a couple of their bears in the tree (temporarily or course) for a few photos. Em did tie a couple of her barbie dolls to the tree as they had not really had much love of late and we figured they would be more useful tied to a tree along the Nullarbor than in our boot. By mid afternoon we were making good progress and the kids were happy in the back so after passing through Caiguna where we had previously planned to stay, we decided to keep going to Cocklebiddy, but after arriving there and taking a look at the accommodation options we continued on. We called ahead to Mundrabilla which had good reviews and they had motel rooms for $120 a night. Although this was well above our normal budget, there were 40km/h winds forecast for most of the night and we didn’t feel like dealing with what would likely be a sleepless night ensuring the camper survived, so we booked a room and kept driving. After 550km we arrived at Mundrabilla and after initially thinking the weather wasn’t too bad, as the evening continued and the wind and rain came, we were very glad to be in the motel room, and the kids thought it was pretty fun too. After unpacking a few things from the camper we headed to the roadhouse where the kids got mini pizzas and played in the toy room they had there while Kat and I enjoyed a beer and a few games of pool which took us back to our carefree uni days. We then had a game with the kids before heading to bed.

The drive the next day was pretty miserable. There was heaps of wind and rain, which made passing road trains even more unpleasant. Along the way there were a few more novelty trees that we checked out. After passing the bra tree, we then came to the teacup tree. Given a mate of ours back home has a business selling tea (www.monji.com.au) , we couldn’t resist the opportunity to create some promo photos in this unique location for her. After a bit of fun there, we passed the undie tree before continuing on to the WA/SA border where we got out for the usual border crossing photos. As we continued along the very green but generally treeless plains of the Nullarbor, we headed along the Great Australian Bight, which had a few spectacular lookouts along the way. We made very brief stops at each to enjoy the view as although there was only gentle rain, the wind was blowing an absolute gale from the south. The cliffs were stunning, with bands of different rock and colour along their height, like a giant layered vanilla and chocolate cake, with rough southern ocean seas smashing the rocks below. We continued along and decided to stop at the Nullarbor Roadhouse (given we were on the Nullarbor). We considered another motel room but this time it would be $145, so I wandered out to the caravan park behind the roadhouse and found a perfect spot in the unpowered section right behind a large building that would give us shelter from the prevailing winds. We locked in a site there for a much more palatable $20 and headed around to set up. As we had saved a bit on our planned accommodation, and given the weather was pretty gross, we felt justified in heading to the roadhouse for dinner that night, enjoying the usual combo of burgers for us and chicken nuggets and chips for Em. The weather was improving as we headed to bed, and we hoped it would stay that way.

We woke up pretty late the next day, having crossed a couple of time zones over the last two days, meaning we had lost 2 hours in as many days. We had breakfast and packed up while the kids played on the putting green of the Nullarbor Roadhouse golf hole which was part of the Nullarbor Links, the world’s longest golf course, with a hole at each Roadhouse from Kalgoorlie all the way to Cenduna. Having driven 1,200km so far in 3 days, we were looking forward to getting the last day of the Nullarbor out of the way before spending a few days on the coast of South Australia.