Nullarbor Plain.

After a few days in Ceduna restocking supplies and giving the car a check over it was time to head west on the Nullarbor (aboriginal meaning No Tree Plain), in distance terms it is 1200km from Ceduna in the east and Norseman in the west, as you can imagine it is quite a journey to undertake considering there is only the occasional roadhouse for fuel and accommodation. For us it meant fuelling up in Ceduna with 130ltrs of diesel, we would stop soon after in Penong to top up to minimise fuel required at the more expensive stops along the way.

A few people we spoke to said how it takes 3-4 days to travel this section of road connecting east with west, for us it meant we needed to stop short of the West Australian border as we had a dinners worth of vegetables to consume before crossing. And so it was we just kept driving that first day past the Yalata aboriginal reserve and past the next roadhouse at Nullarbor before pulling of the road at a spot 50km east of the WA border. After a nice dinner of vegetables we took a walk towards the coastline near by, about 50m away we had the Great Australian Bight, 200m below the cliffs we were standing on!. After trying to get a few pictures it started to get too dark and the weather was closing in, so much so it changed our ideas for the rest of the crossing.

Waking to the sound of rain on the caravan, not something we have had to deal with much this trip, we made a hasty departure from our roadside stop. We turned off for a couple of the lookouts but with rain and cloud cover we quickly retreated to the comfort of the car, and so it was we came to the West Australian border on a wet and chilly day, this did not stop the quarantine inspector being thorough but finally we were in WA. It took some effort for me not to break out the Fluoro PPE being that WA is one of the big mining states in Australia but I resisted and onwards we went.

Just over the border is Eucla, one of the few places for fuel on this stretch of road, I had heard it was the cheapest so filled up the tanks with 60ltrs at $1.98/ltr, considering other places were $2.07/ltr this was the best choice. Also at Eucla towards the coast is an old Telegraph Station which is worth a visit, although now disappearing under the shifting sands it is still a fun story to hear about the station. Apparently during its time of operation the two states WA and SA occupied the building, if WA received a message to pass on they wrote it down then passed the note through the window to the South Australian manning their side, funny but the way it was done.

Now we were on the move again and rolling west, under grey and wet skies we passed Mundrabilla Motel,  had an ice cream stop at Madura Pass, and checked out the blowhole at Caiguna Blowhole. After this point you reach the longest straight in Australia at 147km, so straight we stopped a short way into it for an overnight rest, by now the clouds had cleared but for us it meant we had nearly completed one of the iconic road trips in Australia.

The next day we had a delayed start so the kids could catchup some schooling, topping the fuel tanks up with the jerry cans we had we continued on the longest straight before finally reaching Norseman, this meant we had completed the Nullarbor and could fuel up for the next leg south to Esperance.

For those that need to know we used about 170ltrs of diesel for the 1200km from Ceduna to Norseman. :)