21 - 23rd February 2009
We only stayed one night in Ceduna. The caravan park was great (cheap with good facilities and free grapes). The caravan park manager identified on a map the best places to buy fuel in Ceduna and along the Nullarbor. The price differs from $1.20 a litres to upwards of $1.70 a litre so it was very handy.
Ceduna is basically the beginning of the Nullarbor.
Kim preparing for the Nullarbor
After leaving Ceduna we passed through a strange little town called Penong. Penong was strangely characterised by dozens of small windmills and an absence of a town centre.
The next interesting spot was Yalata that warned you of the sorts of animals you could encounter across the Nullarbor. Unfortunately, we didn't see any at all - except dead roos on the side of the road.
Kim managed almost 500 kms before we found a spot to camp for the night at Bunda Cliffs where the Nullarbor meets the Southern Ocean.
We arrived at Bunda Cliffs around 4.30pm and started to settle in for the night. It was interesting the way other campers seemed to sense it was a safe spot and before long more than half a dozen other caravans and campers had collected to stay the night on the cliff face. It was strange to think that we were camping in the middle of the Nullarbor.
Kim took some photos of the sunset,sunrise in the morning and got up at 2:00 in the morning to take photos of the stars. This photo is the sunset.
The following day we left amid heavy mist and decided to pull over until it had passed. We found an oversized vehicle with police escorts in a similar position. Apparently this spot (near Border Village) near the border is an area best known for the most UFO sightings - easy to imagine.
After travelling a short while we hit Border Village and passed through the quarantine inspection station on the Western Australian border. Western Australia forces you to throw away all fruit, vegetables, honey and other items before entering.
We continued on into Western Australia and found another rest stop where we stayed the night (Baxters Rest Stop).
Kim:
Chris forgot to mention a few things: The stars during our first night on the Nullarbor were mind blowing - the sky was just amass with them. I can't post any photos at the moment as I don't have the right software to use (different setting on my camera) but they were incredible.
On our second morning, the mist was also amazing. It was in front of us and behind us but I never felt like I was in the middle of it. The most amazing thing, though, was the white rainbow it created in front of us. I took a photo but it really doesn't do it justice. This is just one end of the rainbow. It was much stronger than the photo depicts:
I quite liked Baxters Rest Stop - nothing flash but there were plenty of trees and again, about half dozen other caravans/campers. The dunny was a real stinker though. For the first part of the night, we had lots of quite strong wind gusts. It didn't worry me but it did worry Chris. Anyway, it died down for the last half of the night and we managed to get some sleep.
From Baxters Rest Stop, we made it all the way to Esperance. We had plenty of little stops on the way and I was really looking forward to making it to Norseman- the end of the Nullarbor trip. Norseman was interesting - all the way in, it had signs up for ATM, supermarket, cheap fuel etc Pretty much everything you didn't have access to on the trip from Ceduna through. That was pretty much it though. It looks like a sad, dying, lonely little town. Most of the shops were closed or up for sale and even the real estate agency was up for sale. But, we made it! We crossed the Nullarbor and I did it on my bike!
From Norseman to Esperance was only another 200 kms so off we headed and pulled in around 4:00 p.m. to the caravan park. It's the biggest caravan park I've ever seen and some of the rigs here are just phenomenal.
I found crossing the Nullarbor really interesting. It changed every now and then and had very distinct sections of lands. I didn't feel particularly isolated in the S.A. side as there were roadhouses quite often, but once we hit W.A. I felt very much like we were out in the middle of nowhere. It took us 3 days without any access to mobiles, internet or radio and I found being on my bike with no outside world lovely and peaceful. Once we hit the other side of Norseman, there were farms with fences etc and a complete change of atmosphere.
We are staying another night in Esperance as we need to catch up on things like clothes washing, grocery shopping etc. I would like to look around but we have been having rain, lightning and thunder. Not the sort of weather I particularly want to be riding in.
Well, tomorrow is another day, and it'll be interesting to see what it brings.
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