We spent the Monday morning in Kalgoorlie and visited the famous Town Hall with its sumptuous decorations, then drove about 180Kms to a rest area 20kms outside Norseman next to a huge dry salt lake with a railway line alongside. The trains run between the mines and Esperance, carrying the precious minerals, but fortunately not too often so our sleep was undisturbed. That night it rained heavily and in the morning there was water shimmering in the lake. On we drove into Norseman to stock up on water, food and fuel - we had to mentally prepare ourselves for the long drive across the Nullarbor – again!
To my delight, my new glasses were waiting for me at the Norseman Information Centre as planned, which saved us having to hang around waiting for them to turn up. We picked up another map of the Eyre Highway across the Nullarbor and off we went.
The first 200Kms were a doddle and then the heavens opened and we had the most horrendous storm of our trip yet. We had to pull off the road and sit part of it out as the rain was torrential and quite scary, especially when a road train went by. Fortunately there was hardly any traffic but the road was a sheet of water. We then discovered that we had a leak through the air-conditioning unit in the centre of the van. It was simply that the rain was so heavy and bouncing off the roof under the cover, so we had to put an open umbrella upside down on the van floor to collect the water – what fun! The worst however was the lightning and thunder that spooked Muffin and had her scratching and scrabbling. Once the storm died down, we limped onto the next rest area and found some high ground to park on.
The next day we covered 250Kms and started a new audio book called The Monster in the Box by Ruth Rendell. Listening to a good story certainly whiled away the time. We shared the driving in 50-60Km bursts and parked in rest areas or road houses to have drinks and food. We always prepared our own lunch and dinner as the offerings in these places are mainly sausage rolls and pies with hot chips. You only have to look at the road train truckies as they climb out of their huge trucks and into the road houses to see what eating that stuff everyday will do to your health and figure! Anyway Paul was frantically cooking up and using all our remaining vegetables and fruit, nuts and honey before we reached the quarantine checkpoint at Ceduna.
Crossing the Nullarbor this time round we were able to relax more on the journey as we knew what to expect and even where to stop and how much water and fuel we would need etc. Only the scenery was reversed of course, and was just as stunning, vast and remote! We saw Emus strutting in the bush and blue tongue lizards sunbaking on the red dusty paths. A ball of Spinifex chased us down the road and ended up stuck under the van. A wind storm kept us in the van at one stop and buffeted the van and sent dust into every gap but it was short-lived and, like the huge rain storm earlier, quite exciting.
Paul looked in the mirror and commented that he looked like a “wild man” and I had to agree... we were all unwashed and look like a native tribe, but there was something ‘freeing’ about not having to bother with all that primping and preening! And we had a good excuse that we were saving precious water. Toilets are few and far between, so I was grateful for our on-board cassette toilet. It is much nicer than walking out into the bush somewhere – especially in the Nullarbor, where there are no real trees to hide behind! Men have it easy of course... I might as well digress here (as I think we know each other well enough now) and let you know that our cassette toilet has only been used for No 1’s. We have cleverly devised a method using a plastic bag lining the base of the toilet bowl for No2’s. This means that we can have all the comfort of a modern toilet to sit on, but can easily and cleanly remove and dispose of the deposit. It makes emptying the cassette so much easier and pleasant too.
The sad part of this journey was seeing the road kill along the verge – some old and some new. The majority of animals killed are kangaroos and bob-tailed skinks (blue tongue lizards). At one point I managed to carefully avoid a pair of lizards crossing from my side of the road, only to see one hit by a truck coming the other way – and it’s not as though there is heaps of traffic. The driver did try to avoid it with a small swerve, but a back wheel went over one of the poor creature’s head. It was a quick death but horrible to see and all the more sad as these lizards have one partner for life. Fortunately we haven’t hit anything ourselves yet and really hope that never happens...
Our last rest stop for the night along the Nullarbor was magnificent and just on the edge of the amazing Bunda Cliffs. Excellent place to dispose of one’s spouse if so inclined.... The cliffs are Australia’s ‘Land’s End’ from which the Plain drops 90 metres into the pounding Southern Ocean. The Cliffs form an unbroken rampart for over 200km and the view looking along them is just extreme. There was only a little wind to gently rock the van and us to sleep.
We arrived back in Ceduna to be greeted by a light drizzle. We checked into the same caravan park as last time for three nights – very nice, right on the water front. At check-in I noticed that the clock on the wall said 7.00pm – very strange as my watch said 5.00pm... yes we had forgotten to change our watches on the way over the Nullarbor after crossing into SA, and somehow lost 2 hours! So Paul rushed off for a quick takeaway of fish and chips as we had finished up all our fruit and veggies before the quarantine checkpoint outside Ceduna. Sadly the fish and chips were dreadful and we threw most away. They were terribly greasy and with a watery, spongy batter. Yuk. We have of course been spoilt by the wonderful ones we got at home at both Dee Why and Frenchs Forest which we still dream about.
Little Ian kept us up some of the night wanting to go out, but nothing happening. Maybe he had a sore tummy. (He did eat some of those awful fish and chips!) And then the rain came pouring down the next day. No worries, as we just got on with the necessary chores after a Nullarbor crossing - clothes, towels, sheets, dogs blankets, dog beds all washed and tumble dried. 5 lots of washing @$3.00 each and 2 lots of tumble drying at $3.00 –a $21 worth of washing altogether and a good feeling to be clean again!
We arranged to meet some other travellers in the sea front hotel for a drink on the Saturday night and spent the afternoon catching up on emails and bills and of course the Blog, and planned the next leg of our next journey round the Eyre Peninsular.
To see our photos, right click the following link and 'open in a new window': http://picasaweb.google.com.au/paularcher001
