The crossing follows the Eyre Highway from Port Augusta in South Australia to Norseman in Western Australia with not much in between aside from one of the worlds longest straight stretches of road and endless miles where nothing grows.
25 March - Adelaide to Port Augusta
Onwards on our own today now that my parents have left us. We are heading out of Adelaide and up to Port Augusta where we will stock up on supplies in preparation for our epic journey across the Nullarbor Plain. On route, we stopped to stock up on a few road trip essentials including a fuel can, puncture repair kit, a few engine belts and a weeks worth of food. And of course filling up a 10 litre bottle of water, a 10 litre jerry can and filling our van to the brim with diesel. Preparation is key out here where there are no towns and no one to help you out if you get into trouble.
After a short 300km drive we arrived in Port Augusta. We thought we would stop by the tourist information to locate a campsite for the night. As soon as we saw the building we realised we had been here before, on our last trip. The information centre has an interactive historical display spanning the dinosaur era up to the present day.
We selected a lonely looking campsite, Port Augusta Big4 Holiday Park, for $40 and settled in for the night.
26 March - Port Augusta to Ceduna
Today marks the first day of new beginnings. The road trip so far has mirrored, almost exactly, the same trip we drove 4 years ago. It was during this trip that we headed north out of Port Augusta and up through the long dusty roads of the outback to Ayres Rock and Alice Springs. Today however, we are heading west and we will continue west until we hit the coast on the other side.
That excited feeling has grown in our bellies again, hungry for new adventures.
Before we set off we thought it would be a good idea to get some exercise in and went for a run. The long days ahead are going to be sat down driving all the sunlit hours so we thought we would be active whilst we still could.The days drive west wasn't all that exciting, passing nothing but a long mountain range. We drove straight across the top of the Eyre Peninsular and stopped in Ceduna.
Ceduna is a fair sized town with a few shops, a supermarket and a few campsites to choose from.
Big4 Ceduna Tourist Park was our camp for the night for $30. The lovely couple running the campsite told us that it was the 'Grey Nomads Migration' AKA all the retired oldies start travelling to follow the sunshine. It was also a great time for fishing. They even gave us some crabs to eat, fully cooked and ready to go. Shaun and I were more than happy to oblige to a free fresh tasty meal. And to top it off we had some nice cold wine too.
27 March - Ceduna to Nullarbor
So today didn't quite go to plan. We had planned to visit a remote surf beach called Cactus Beach which is only accessible via a dirt road, perfect for putting our 4WD into action for the first time and camping on the beach. When we reached the dirt road however we were annoyed to find a corrugated dirt path which shook the van almost to it's death. We drove down the path about 8kms before retreating back to the main road. Cactus Beach may be absolutely amazing but we will never know, the 21km road was unpassable. You don't actually need a 4WD to pass the road just a new car that will not shake to pieces. At 21 years old Delilah wasn't up for the job.
We continued on and drove to the next remote camp spot on Fowlers Bay, this one was half a sealed road and half horrible corrugated dirt road which we powered through at a snail's pace. The setting was too beautiful to turn around; amazing clear blue skies and endless snow white sand dunes. We finally reached Fowlers Bay which didn't quite match up to the brochure descriptions. There was no beach, only a shallow section of sand lining the waters edge and the 'eco' campsite was a fair sized caravan park. It didn't look idyllic but desolate among the huge sand dunes.
After convincing Shaun NOT to drive up the sand dunes for fear of getting stuck in the middle of nowhere we decided to stop for lunch next to the bay. As we pulled into the carpark, no sooner than I turned to tell Shaun NOT to drive into the small sandpit we were already stuck in it. Sheer terror crossed Shaun's face as he put Delilah into reverse which only dug us deeper into the sand. He put her into 4WD and again tried pulling away and reversing - S#*# now we were in trouble! Shaun then remembered we had an A/T mode, he switched it on and Delilah revved high until the tyre bit and we were pulled out of the sandpit, phew!
Lucky we didn't take on the sand dune, we got stuck in the carpark!
We powered on back to the main road. It was getting late in the afternoon so we had to find a place to camp. The next town would be Penong. We actually drove right past it. Turns out the 'towns' are nothing but petrol stations with camping in the carpark.
We raced against the early setting sun to the Nullarbor Road House and camped in the car park for the night for $20. They warned us about walking around at night as there are lots of dingoes around. Needless to say I didn't get out of the van for the rest of the day! On route we passed the infamous Australian road sign ... camels, kangaroos and wombats next 92km.
We watched an incredible sunset from the comfort of our warm bed. It gets pretty chilly out here during the nights.
28 March - Nullarbor to Eucla
We are officially driving across the Nullarbor today. The section where the highway passes through the worlds largest limestone bedrock which results in nothing being able to grow. The Aboriginal word 'nullarbor' translates to 'treeless plain' and that it exactly what we encountered. Vast open plains of nothing as far as the eye can see.
Before leaving the roadhouse we took the track to the Murrawijinie Caves. The guy at the roadhouse of course told us it was 'just down the road' and a 4WD is not necessary.
We followed his sketchy hand drawn map behind the roadhouse for hours and made pain stakingly slow progress along the bumpy dirt road 10km into the middle of nowhere. We felt very exposed and vulnerable out here. It was starting to look a little like something out of Wolfe Creek! Looking around all you see is dirt, there would be no way we would be able to find our way back to the main road if we lost the dirt track.
Eventually we found the caves ... but unfortunately you cannot go inside. We peered over the top of the 3 caves and set off back to find the road.
Murrawijinie Caves
Murrawijinie Caves
Murrawijinie Caves
Murrawijinie Caves
Murrawijinie Caves
Murrawijinie Caves
The Eyre Highway parallels the Great Australian Bight and there are several detours from the main road down to the magnificent coast. The views are breathtaking. And we are told that if you are in the right season you could spot whales from the lookouts.
We passed through the South to West boarder in which you have to hand over all vegetables and honey due to quarantine restrictions. It was at this point we also gained 45 minutes then a short distance down the road we gained another 45 minutes.
Reaching our driving threshold we stopped in Eucla to camp for the night for $20. When we were mid way through cooking dinner and a bottle of beer we thought we had better ask what the time now was - 3.30pm. We were cooking dinner and drinking beer at 3.30 in the afternoon! Needless to say we had a long evening in the van playing chess and watching movies on the laptop.
29 March - Eucla to Norseman
With all of this driving we were craving some exercise. We took the opportunity to go for a morning run down to the ocean and we are so glad we did. We passed emus and kangaroos and just stopped to watch them as they watched us with interest. It felt really special to be in their company in their natural habitat.
At the end of the dirt track is the old Telegraph Station which now belongs to the sand.
Today we drove one of the worlds longest straight roads. You could literally set cruise control, jam the steering wheel straight and take a nap in the back for 90 miles. This may be a pretty cool thing to tick off the bucket list but it was so boring! Nothing to look at but a straight line ahead.
We had planned to stop at Caiguna for the night but like all the other rest stops there is nothing there but a petrol station and a camp ground. Instead we hammered through all the way to Norseman, which marks the end of the Nullarbor crossing and back to some kind of civilisation. When we arrived we were gutted to find the supermarket closed. We have been dreaming about fresh fruit, vegies and cold water for days!
So we can now tick off the Nullarbor crossing and one of the longest straight roads in the world but never again.
It was a long and boring few days. We did meet some interesting people who became familiar faces as we stopped at all the same photo opportunities and campsites, including a mental couple cycling the distance for charity. We managed to see some live wildlife as well as all the roadkill. The road trains on this stretch of the road are something else, they are bloody scary as they race behind you and you have to veer out of their way. We were somewhat unprepared with food, we should have stocked up on more tinned vegies to get through the quarantine. Our breakfasts consisted of egg wraps, lunch was a tuna wrap and dinner of chick pea curry the entire week as we have no fridge. The so-called 'towns' in the brochures are nothing more than petrol stations where you can purchase slightly increased price petrol (don't believe the rumours of extortionate fuel prices and limited petrol stations), drinks and sweets.
Now time for a celebratory cold beer.
30 March - Norseman to Esperance
With the worlds most boring road behind us we are heading for the south coast to hopefully find a real town and some beach time. 203km south of Norseman is the beautiful town of Esperance.
The landscape changed again on this stretch as it turned to farm land. Endless field after field but with dry salt beds scattered in between.
A couple of hours later we spotted the Pink Lake. Well, the one we saw wasn't actually the Pink Lake, it was the one next door which has a slight pink hue due to the bacteria reacting. We later found out that the actual Pink Lake isn't pink at the moment. Anyway, this means we had finally reached Esperance. Our phones starting beeping like mad as we finally had signal after 5 days in the dark. We have never been so happy to see commercial chain stores ... it's a real town.
We stopped at the information centre to stock up on maps of Western Australia. The wonderful lady behind the desk was the most helpful person we had ever come across in an information centre overwhelming us with maps, trails, leaflets, tide times, weather forecast and recommendations.
After re-stocking at the supermarket, finding a caravan park (Gateway Caravan Park for $30 for a powered site) and throwing our yummy lunch down our necks we headed back out to explore. We followed the road west along The Great Ocean Drive. Our jaws dropped as we came over the hill and the most gorgeous beaches lay before us. This is the whitest sand and bluest waters I have ever seen. We stopped at West Beach and dipped our feet in the surf. The curling waves were huge with a few surfers taking their chances. Coral beds line the shore which means it can be pretty dangerous for surfers. But the view was incredible. We continued on stopping at every opportunity along the 20km stretch of coast to take photos and dip our feet into the finely milled sand and aqua water. You can check out my review of the Great Ocean Drive here.
Bring on WA!
A la perchoine, Jodie and Shaun x
