If you're in South Australia and you want to visit, say, Perth, then there's pretty much only one sensible way to get there. Fly. But if, by chance, you're heading around Australia in a kombi and you get to Ceduna, then unfortunately flying is out of the question, so to reach Western Australia you have to drive straight. Straight across the Nullarbor Plain.
According to Wikipedia, the Nullarbor Plain is part of the area of flat, almost treeless, arid or semi-arid country immediately north of the Great Australian Bight. The word Nullarbor is derived from the Latin nullus for 'nothing' or 'no one' and arbor for 'tree'. And that's pretty much what's out there for about, oh, say 1197km.
It's the world's largest single piece of limestone, (impressive, huh?) and occupies an area of about 200,000 km². This said, Luke and I were understandably a little apprehensive about tackling the trip. We'd heard good and bad stories from fellow travellers, so it was with a mix of nerves and excitement that we got up super early (5:30am! Wasn't this supposed to be a holiday?) and set off into the darkness at about 6:15am.
After you leave the last South Australian town of Ceduna, it's a long 1200km before you see anything that resembles a 'town' until Norseman in W.A. So here's the few things that kept us entertained whilst driving (at about 95km per hour, mind you) across the Nullarbor.
Roadhouses
These pop up every 200 kilometres or so - there's ten Roadhouses across the plain, most with accommodation and VERY expensive fuel. The most we paid was $1.91 per litre. But you've got no choice but to cough up, unless you fancy a long, long walk or a long, long wait for a tow truck. These Roadhouses also have pretty average looking accommodation (Motel rooms and powered sites for caravans and tents) and very average looking food. Fancy a week old pie from the warmer, anyone? Our tip? Take plenty of water and snacks with you. Luke couldn't do without a morning cappuccino and paid very dearly for the privilege of drinking long-life milk froth. $5.30. Ouch!
Road Signs
You would have thought the Commonwealth Bank or McDonalds would have bought up all the road side space along the Nullarbor to advertise with big billboards, but the only signs you'll see along the stretch are either warnings for strange outback animals (camels, emus, kangaroos, wombats) or to let you know that there's an insanely long road coming up. Here's a few of our favourites.
After about five and a half hours of driving, we finally spied the quarantine station up ahead, handed in a few apples and a jar of honey and crossed into Western Australia! Whoo, hoo!
Road Workers
When we were fishing on the jetty back in Ceduna, we met a local lady who said her husband drove the grater along the Nullarbor for council, cleaning up the sides of the road. Once he got to the W.A border, he'd simply turn around and travel back the 600km to Ceduna where he would start all over again. She said it took him more than a month each way. What a job! We saw them working away in the 37 degree heat near the Eucla Roadhouse. I hope he has an 80 gig iPod.
Although there are stretches with no trees at all, believe it or not, there's plenty to see whilst driving the Nullarbor. The kilometers of native grasses meld into coastal scrub as you weave in and out from the ocean. And the view of the rocky cliffs that are over 90 metres high, are just a few kilometres off the side of the main highway. They're part of the Great Australian Bight National Park and are spectacular. It's like being on the end of the earth!
Road Trains
Besides the odd caravan and camper van, road trains make up the bulk of the Nullarbor traffic. These trucks are three and four trailer deep. And being in a kombi, we were overtaken by our fair share - now that's a scary experience. Having said that, when you see one on the horizon speeding towards you, we had to hold onto our seats and just hope that the kombi didn't rattle to pieces. See for yourselves!
Luke and I started out with the plan of staying overnight along the Nullarbor, midway at Eucla, but after the temperatures reached 37 degrees, we decided to keep driving into the afternoon. Next think we knew, we'd programmed the final destination town of Norseman into our Navman and decided that we'd rather try and do the whole stretch in one day than face a second day on the road. The kombi drove like a dream (although both Luke and I were sooo nervous when the car coughed and stalled at the final Roadhouse, with 200km to go). We finally arrived at Norseman Caravan Park at 8:30pm that night, after driving for 15 and a half hours. It would have been 10pm, had we not changed time zones!
Phew! A shower never felt so good! We made it!
Yours excited to be in Western Australia and oh so proud of Jefro the Kombi,
Odette
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