Number 3. Drive Across The Nullarbor Desert

While the Nullarbor is affectionately known by many Australians as the "nullar-boring" this trip was incredible! Before I left every person that I spoke to about the trip that had done it before seemed to have a strong opinion on it - they either said it was amazing and they would do it again, or they said it was the most boring thing they had ever done. The name "Nullarbor" comes from the latin meaning "no trees", and while there are plenty of trees either side of the desert once you hit the Nullarbor plain the tallest natural feature are the salt bushes which only grow to a height of about 2 feet.

So, my trip began in Melbourne in Victoria, which is the state at the bottom coloured in blue, and ended in Perth which is on the otherside of the country coloured in pink. The trip is 3,600 kilometers through some of the most desolate country in the world. I did the trip over a few days, day 1 was Melbourne to Adelaide which I did on my own, I then spent a day in Adelaide with my half uncle and the next morning picked my mum up from the airport and continued on from there. I have broken the trip down into days to make it easier to keep track of...

Day 1 - Melbourne to Adelaide

I drove out at about 8am on Saturday morning, on the 27th of February 2010, knowing that the drive to Adelaide would take me about 8 hours and wanting to get to my half uncles place before he went out to dinner. There is something very exciting about taking a road trip, even though the first part was on my own, I cranked the music up and made sure I had plenty of coca-cola, water, and a bottle of V stashed under the seat where it would get hot. It was a gorgeous day and after a couple of hours I realised I needed to start with the sunscreen so I didnt end up burnt to a crisp - especially since the sun was only hitting one arm and my knee! I only stopped twice that day - to get a cold bottle of coke (my drink of choice...caffeine and sugar!) and have a bit of a walk around. I did think about stopping when I saw the "giant koala" on the side of the road. For those of you not from Australia there seems to be a bit of an obsession in this country with creating supersized animals and fruit out of fibreglass, from the giant pineapple and strawberry to the giant koala and kangaroo.

The second time I stopped was less of a planned stop and more of a necessity - I was coming down the massive hill into Adelaide when I felt something move under my leg - given I was wearing a miniskirt this concerned me. I though it might just have been a hair or something so I reached down to brush it away at which point I realised it was a bee. I swerved over to the side of the road, stopping more quickly than my bottle of coke appreciated and leapt from the car, arms flailing, and drawing quite a few confused glances from drivers passing by. After this I was definately awake which was proabably a good thing given I knew I was about to face city traffic and I was getting tired. Then again the most challenging thing about Adelaide is not the traffic but trying to get around the streets! I was definately greatful for the GPS on my phone and by the time I made it to my half uncles place I was hot and sticky and looking forward to sitting down and doing nothing.

I had a bit of a catch up with my half uncle and after he went out I wandered down the road, got myself a kebab / souvalaki / yiros (called different things in every state) and then promptly fell asleep.

Day 2 - Adelaide

I woke up to another absoluetly gorgeous day, made myself a cup of tea, and put my feet up in my half uncles backyard (pictured left). Had a very relaxing morning and when my half uncle and his lovely lady were organised we headed off to the South Australian food and wine festival that just happened to be on that weekend, not part of my planning but a very happy coincidence none-the-less! The food and wine festival was part of the Adelaide Arts festival which completely transformed the city. The streets had been cordoned off for the food and wine festival and there were people everywhere. It was around 30 degrees (celcius) and people were clustered underneath trees trying to make the most of the shade - Im sure the wine stands made a huge amount of money just because everyone was so hot and thirsty! They also had live music and you could smell the salt and pepper squid being cooked at little stalls on the side of the road. After a few hours of wandering around with two of the most popular people in Adelaide (I say this because we bumped into someone they knew every two steps!) we decided we were hot and hungry and headed home for dinner with my half uncles house mates and their extended families - it seemed to be the weekend for the whole house to have visitors!

After a lovely dinner we headed out into the city again to see an Art display by (if I am remembering correctly) a Swede - who takes photographs of old buildings and then puts the images onto a computer, paints them or colours them in, and then projects the coloured images back onto the buildings with massive light projectors. It was the second year this ahd been done in Adelaide, after it had been such a success in the first year and the buildings looked amazing. The pictures shown on the left are both of the same building with two different pictures being projected back onto it - the colours changed every few minutes and each building had about three or four different pictures. The buildings ran all the way along the street and you could spend a couple of hours just wandering up and down looking at the buildings and then the incredible colours.

Day 3 - Adelaide to Port Augusta

I picked my mum up from the airport at about 10 or 11 am on the Monday morning and after stopping for a coffee we jumped straight in the car and began driving towards Port Augusta. We had discussed how far we would go the first day and it was either Port Augusta or continue on to Ceduna which was another 3-400kms further. Once we hit the open road we realised it was crazy to try and get to Ceduna as it meant we would be driving through Kanagroo country in the dark - not smart in my little, overly full, Lancer. While we didnt do a huge amount of driving the first day (roughly 600 kms) we certainyl did a lot of catching up! It had been 18 months since I had seen mum, and even though we talked on the phone almost every daym, its just different when you are catching up in person.

Day four - Port Augusta to Nullarbor Plain

This was the first of the "big days" of driving - roughly 796 kms - which seems a lot more when you travelled 600 kms the day before... a cycle which would only make the following days seem bigger and longer! We made it to Ceduna about mid-morning and stopped for a bite to eat and to stretch our legs. It was definately an interesting stop! We went and had a meat pie at one of the bakerys in town - an excellent meat pie actually! Then we wandered down and had a look at the visitors information centre and met the evil dragon lady on a power trip that was managing the visitor centre - when I say met I really mean observed her being rude to a tourist and decided not to buy anything! Went back to the car and realised the the bottle of coolent I had been badgered into bring had indeed (as I had predicted) exploded in the car and gone all over my laptops and the floor of the car. It was at this point I burst into tears and sat in the passenger seat feeling very sorry for myself - this was the only break down I had on the trip and I think maybe I just needed to get it out of my system! Mum went over to wash the mat out at the Holden dealership - kudos to the guys in there for beinf so nice! And, as only mum would, went to ask the two bikies on the side of the road if coolent would damage the laptops. The bikies assured her that they would be fine as long as we dried them and after frantically drying everything and wrapping the now saturated car mat in a bag we set out again.

Our next stop was a town called Kimba, which proudly boasts that it is halfway across Australia, not sure how accurate that is but it's their claim to fame so fair play to them! It also happens to be the site of the giant cockatoo.

Yet another giant fibreglass animal, don't worry it's not the last!

I was also fascinated to discover that at the little shop in Kimba they also sell rocks for 50 cents... the exact same rocks that you could pick up from the car park outside. Wonder how many tourists got sucked into that one?! Kimba's only other claim to fame is that they have some of the worst coffee in Australia...even the bikies were complaining about it!

After Kimba we drove on toward the Nullarbor plain, we were hoping to be able to stop in Yalata, but the town had been closed. Not exactly sure how one would go about closing a town but thats what the sign said and it looked pretty deserted but we drove on. The sun started to dip in the sky and mum and I are keeping our eyes peeled for Kangaroos...partly because they are dangerous when your travelling at those speeds and partly becuase we really wanted to see one. One of the things I had done before the trip was prepare a scavenger hunt list - a list of things we had to see between Ceduna and Kalgoorlie - it was a long trip and gave us something to do - was hysterically funny in the end...but more on that later!

Driving onto the Nullarbor plain was incredible - there was literaly nothing higher than about 2 feet as far as the eye could see - not one tree...not even one! It doesnt necessarily sound that impressive but its quite stunning when your there. We pulled up to the Nullarbor Roadhouse - the only place to stay for at least 600 kms in either direction - and noting the number of motorbikes parked outside we raced inside to ask for a room wondering what we were going to do if they said they didnt have any. Fortunately for us they did and the lovely guy behind the counter handed us the key as well as an invitation to the 'staff BBQ' that night when they finished around 10...and making sure that mum knew the invitation was for both of us! When we walked out from the reception and back to the car there was a wild dingo wandering around the carpark. The dingo came right up to us - at which point mum made a beeline for the car - and I pretended to be the dog whisperer (the little shush noise worked on the dingo for those of you who know what Im talking about!).

Once we had escaped the dingo (it really looked cute rather than vicious) we both headed to the bar...looking forward to a nice glass of wine and something to eat after a long day in the car! We sat at the bar and chatted to the bar-man, who told us that he really was serious about the staff BBQ, and we chatted to the bikies who explained to us they were having their anual general meeting down in the south of Western Australia, which was the reason there were so many of them on the road. We had a little snack and went back to the room for a rest before we headed out with the staff at 10pm... it had started to feel like a very long day! At 5 past 10 there was a knock on the door and we opened it to find two of the boys who had been working in the bar standing there and asking if we still wanted to come up for dinner. We rugged up as warmly as we could - it may have been summer and 30-40 degrees during the day but it dropped to 7 degrees that night and we were told it had something to do with winds from Antartica coming straight up across the Nullarbor as there was nothing in the way to stop it.

So there we were at half ten standing in the middle of the desert with a glass of my favourite wine by a roaring fire made from the wood of an old shack at the back of the staff house - while the chef cooked us the most spectacular meal using only one frying pan and a camping oven. We had morrocan prawns (a dozen each at least) for starters and then scotch fillet stakes for main course with a greek salad as a side. Really incredible for one frying pan and a little gas stove top!

Day 5 - Nullarbor Plain to Norseman

This day was the longest of our trip - roughly 1100 kms - the only reason we could do it in daylight was because we crossed the border and crossed timezones which gave us an extra 3 hours of daylight.

But before we could leave we had to get a couple of picci's of the Giant Whale... in the middle of the desert there is a giant whale... oh the irony!

Not to mention the sign that says to watch out for camels!

We also stopped briefly at the Great Australian Bight - it was the wrong time of year for us - but usually this is one of the best places to come and see the whales... yes, this is the real reason for the giant fibreglass whale! The next stop was border village...and you guessed it... a giant kangaroo!

This was the point where we crossed from South Australia into Western Australia and changed timezones. We saw there were a couple of trucks in the line to be inspected before crossing the border and mum was in desperate need of a coffee so we stopped in at the roadhouse and bumped into the same bikies that we had spoken to at the Nullarbor roadhouse - they were all going in the same direction so we saw them at almost every petrol stop after this and they started to look out for us - having a look at the tyre pressure on the car etc to make sure that everything was working as it should be and still safe. They were so lovely to us the whole trip - even when I harassed a big six foot lad in leather about wearing sunscreen...

Once the trucks had all passed through and we had fresh coffees we went through the checkpoint - you have to stop and get out the car and open it all up so that they can make sure your not carrying any fresh fruit etc across the border - quarantine is a big deal is Aussie, even between the states. I swear the guy blanched when he saw my car pull up, loaded so full with everything I own that the suspension actually sat lower down. Fortunately I had read up on border village before we came so the only food I had was in a wicker basket in the boot - right at the top so it was easy to show him what I had - didnt take very long at all in the end.

We stopped more frquently on day five because we knew it was the biggest trip and we wanted to pace ourselves... and we couldnt resist when we saw another giant whale in Eucla...especially underneath the 'emu export' sign. Eucla was where the scavenger hunt really became funny as well - when mum and I ran up to a cop who was filling his 4WD police cruiser with petrol and asked him if we could have a photo with his car. He looked at us quite suspiciously at first and then we repeated we wanted the car in the photo, not him, and could he please take it - he finally cracked a smile at the two mad women in the little green car and took the picci for us. (Picture is not being put up out of defference to the fact that my mum may not want to be published on the world wide web...)

After Eucla there is a sign - see left and kudos to mum for taking this out the window - that says that it is the longest straight stretch of tarsealed road in the world - 146.6 kms of dead straight road... We stopped in a little town called Mundrabilla for something to eat and shortly after this is where we stopped again to take photo's walking down the middle of this ridiculously straight road. Not usually safe to stand in the middle of a hwy where everyone is doing around 120 kms per hour - but on a road this straight you can see for miles!

We stopped at every town for petrol as we were told to by the bikies - they mentioned that while 200 kms between petrol stations was manageable - the issues arose when the petrol stations ran out of petrol and you suddenly have to go 400 kms. Finally, after about 11 hours on the road, we pulled into Norseman where we found a motel and booked a room...we payed a whole $5 extra for a room with a spa bath and the second we were in we filled it full of cold water, cucked on our swimsuits, and climbed in. The room may have been horrible but I dont think anything could have prevented me from sleep that night!

Day 6 - Norseman to Perth

Another big day, but the last day so we were excited, actually I think we had gone a little crazy. At the end of every day we seemed to find everything hysterically funny and would laugh like lunatics in between singing at the top of our lungs with all the windows down. On this, the final day, we seemed to start out as lunatics and I don't think it wore off till we were unpacking the car at the other end! There is a tradition in the Nullarbor desert - it's called the Nullarbor wave - which just means you wave to everyone you pass because everyone you drive past is going all the way you have just driven. Mum and I took this to the next level - waving both hands in a frnatic fashion and grinning like idiots - the truck drivers were the most friendly, sometimes waving back but sometimes flashing their lights and hooting their horns as well as waving. It got to the point where mum and I were convinced they were warning each other on their radios to watch out for the nutters in the little green car.

The biggest challenge of the drive has to be trying to overtake the road trains - I had never seen anything like them before - these things are like thebiggest trucks you have ever seen with a second truck trailer the same size attached to the back. I get nervous overtaking trucks anyway, especially with that shimmer on the road that stops you from being able to see whats coming, but overtaking a road train is like asking for trouble. I managed on a few occaisions but on the final day I was too tired to handle the stress so mum and I pulled into a side road and jumped out for a bit of a walk...

All in all it was a great trip - filled with laughing and music - I think the only way you could think the Nullarbor trip was boring is if you have no imagination!