Crossing the Nullarbor

The Nullarbor Plain is the semi-arid desert that divides South Australia from Western Australia, and crossing it is a bit of a rite of passage for Australians. ‘Nullarbor’ just means ‘no trees’ from the Latin, and that’s basically what it is, a big, shrubby, deserty plain.  We were excited to cross it because it symbolized a big stage in our trip – crossing from East to West - and we were intending to do the 1400 km in a couple of days. We drove from Ceduna to Esperance, and it wasn’t hard to navigate – it was a 1400km straight drive except for one left turn! (I saw a great ad for tourism in Esperance saying, ‘come visit us: just chuck a leftie at Norseman’ – that made me laugh. Especially because it's true.) It also includes the longest stretch of straight road in the world – 92 kms.

The trucks that drive the Nullarbor are impressive – called ‘Road Trains’ most of them are two or three times the length of a normal truck. Being overtaken by a road train is quite the experience. Hitting kangaroos is also a real danger - especially at dusk - and so as it neared nightfall we tucked in behind a truck with a good kangaroo bar, which was some good advice that we followed. 

Crossing state lines in Australia is interesting because there is a quarantine in place between most states for fresh fruit and vegetables and other live plants because of the threat of things like fruit flies and grape rot etc. They are EXTREMELY strict about it and our van was stopped and searched very thoroughly (and very nicely, I have to say, the young guard was very polite about it all as she had a good rummage in all our cupboards and storage lockers). We had already gone through the process crossing into South Australia from Victoria and so we knew not to carry more fruit and veg than what we could eat before the crossing, so at least we didn't have to throw out anything. Travellers at rest stops before and after the border are often giving each other bags of fruit and veg if heading in the opposite direction. I think we unloaded some potatoes to some travellers heading east before the border, and scored some lemons after the border as we were heading west. 

Our GPS at the start of the trip - 1200km to the first turn!

This is an iconic sign on the drive - and sadly you do see a lot of dead roos at the side of the road. 

We’d been warned to fill up with petrol whenever we could, and while it was true that there could be more than 200km between roadhouses (and really, there is nothing else en route) it also wasn’t a big problem.

Panorama of one of the road houses en route - not really a lot there...

Now that's a straight road

This welcomes you to Western Australia - and yes, we do enjoy vegemite on toast

Road train! That is just one truck...

Did I mention the road was pretty straight?

One of the picturesque stops just off the highway

The nice Dutch woman who was cycling the Nullarbor - good on her (I can think of prettier and more pleasant bike rides, to be honest...)

We drove about 750 km our first day and spent the night in the campground of the roadhouse at Caiguna – it was pretty rough but fine and the night sky – as expected – was amazing. We also met a nice Dutch woman who was cycling across the Nullarbor, in fact, she was cycling alone from Perth to Sydney. She’d been on the road more than two weeks by the point we met her and she was really grateful for a coffee and some chocolate in our camper van.

Caiguna

Caiguna at night