The long and not winding road - crossing the Nullarbor Plain

On the day we started out on the long road back to SA, it rained. And rained. And rained. So we drove, and

drove and drove – travelling further than we had intended, and stopping for the night at the Balladonia “caravan park”, a dirt clearing that had become a sea of wet gravel, mud and puddles. There we encountered two very bedraggled cyclists: a couple in their 60s who have been cycling around Australia for TWO YEARS covering about 50km a day. (Where could possibly be the fun in that?)

Setting up in the rain was an interesting challenge; funnily (and luckily, I suppose) the first time in the whole trip we’d actually had to do it. We discovered that the umbrellas were buried so deeply in the bottom of the car boot that there was no way we could get to them, but I did find the rain jackets at the back of a remote cupboard. We ventured out briefly to see the “museum” in the roadhouse, where they have a piece of Skylab on display, from when the space station crashed in the area in 1979. It was all extremely shabby and poorly presented, however, belying the brochure’s promise of “high-tech interactive technology”.

By morning the rain had stopped and we packed up and launched ourselves onto day two of crossing the Nullarbor Plain, the largest area of “semi-arid limestone karst” (cave) in the world. It sounds fascinating, but is actually extremely dull – flat and featureless for hundreds of kilometres, including the 146.6km world-record longest straight stretch of road, which runs from Balladonia to Cocklebiddy. Despite the name (From Nullus arbor – meaning no trees) it actually has quite a few trees, except for a short stretch near the SA border. We didn’t get that far on day two, stopping early at the Madura Pass roadhouse so we could watch the rerun of the Grand Final. We spent a surprisingly enjoyable afternoon in the desolate bar in the middle of nowhere, chatting to the locals who had a very dry sense of humour. I loved their “commonly asked questions” by tourists pinned on the wall with the no-frills answers. Like “If I just park in your caravan park and sleep there, do I still have to pay?” And “Where can I get my hair cut?” (Answer: Ceduna) Shame about the footy, though!

On the third day we stopped in Eucla, where there was phone reception for the first time since Kalgoorlie and I carried my computer out to the beer garden of the roadhouse and uploaded the blog I had written in Balladonia. Then we visited the ruins of the old telegraph station, which is slowly being buried by the sand dunes that have nothing to anchor them down since the rabbits destroyed all the vegetation decades ago. Back on the road, we crossed the border back into South Australia (no excitement this time) and soon reached the part where the road runs right next to a spectacular stretch of limestone cliffs – over 200km long and 80m high. Unfortunately, it was bitterly cold and windy, and getting out at the lookouts to admire the view became a challenge! At one place we were rewarded with a mother and baby whale, moving towards us in the clear water right in front of us. But apart from that it was cold and bleak, and we were wondering if we were going to have to abandon our plan to camp in one of these roadside stops. Finally we found a place on the other side of the road, not exactly scenic but at least sheltered, with plenty of trees and places for a campfire.

The next morning we stopped at the whale watching centre at Head of Bight, where long boardwalks and viewing platforms have been built – probably to stop people falling off the cliffs and to protect the cliffs from erosion by tourists. Despite the attendant’s warning that there were hardly any whales around, we were thrilled to see at least four mothers with calves, some of whom were frolicking really close to us – the babies playing together with the mothers keeping watch nearby (Andrew called it the “whale child-care centre”). My only disappointment was that I just couldn’t get that fancy shot of a tail sticking straight up in the air. The whales were really just swimming around, not jumping up or diving.

From the Head of Bight it was a couple of hours’ drive to Penong and then 12km of dirt road to Cactus Beach: world-famous surf beach, playground of Andrew’s youth and our next campsite.

Captions for pictures
- Corny but fun
- Ruins of the Eucla telegraph station. Actually I think it's amazing that they built it in the first place
- Obligatory arty shot
- View of the Plain from above Madura Pass (one of the most scenic places)
- Tree-climbing games as usual in the bush camp on the Nullarbor
- The eastern edge of the beautiful Bunda Cliffs that stretch nearly 300km from Head of Bight into WA
- One of many, many whale shots
- Tahlia took the only "tail shot"!