I met Andre and Jeanette on the Nullarbor at a roadside camp, we were admiring the sunset and anticipating the sunrise in such a fantastic spot. Andre and Jeanette were a couple of Germans (or Deutschers as they would prefer!) also travelling west. We were to travel together for the next three days.
Adelaide to Esperance via the Nullarbor - 7 days
I had stopped here early, I was overcome with the beauty of this desert meeting the sea just here. Whilst in South Australia the road follows the close to the sea, occassionally one catches a glimse or gets a better look at a rest area. At the Head of the Bight the white sand dunes suddenly give way to sharp cliffs.
Some things struck me about the Nullarbor, it is not treeless or featureless, the end-of-the-world abrupt meeting of the desert and sea is breathtaking, the road is not particularly straight, the plains not flat, and frankly, the drive not that boring. Every Australian should do it once (but maybe not twice?) Also, it is not one plain, but two. Beyond Eucla, at the WA/SA border, the road descends from the main plain to the lower coastal plain.
I started out from Adelaide on Monday, almost reaching Port Augusta. I slept in the car - which was hot and a little claustrophopbic - woken several times in the night by passing trains. Since then I have always slept in my tent which is so much more comfortable and, so far, well worth setting up.
On Tuesday I spent half a day in Port Augusta getting the transmission fixed, there was a minor fault which was causing some dramas, my car people in Adelaide thought it was fine but the Pt Augusta mechanic found and fixed the problem. As a result, I didn't have time to reach Port Lincoln by sunset, instead camping in a free campsite near Port Neil. Wednesday, after a morning swim and a chat with a local walking his dog, I set off into Lincoln and beyond to
Memory Cove Wilderness Protection Area. After a 35 kilometre sandy 4WD track into the cove, I was presented with a magical cove. Scratched into a rock at the end of the beach is a sign made in the 1800s by whalers, they left messages here for each other - it was their post office. The offical parks brochure is interesting though, it notes the rock inscription as being "1.2m ^" rather than "4ft ^".
I decided not to spend further time on the Eyre Peninsula, eager to spend time instead in the south-west corner of WA, the Eyre Peninsula being relatively close to home. So on Thursday I skipped Coffin Bay National Park, stopping only at a few monuments (why not?) and a look-out over some cliffs - our very own Great Ocean Road coastline. I couldn't resist stopping by Locks Well, a favourite beach of mine.
Beyond Ceduna I camped in
Point Bell Conservation Park, the drive out was a bit of a 4WD experience, not so keen on them I think. Beautiful beach, absolutely no-one there, although the mice kept me company all night long running over my tent (exactly what was so interesting about the tent to them?)
Friday was all new territory, I had only been as far west before as Ceduna. Fowlers Bay was interesting, I enjoyed reading all the history boards. Eyre made a four month expedition from Port Augusta to Albany droving sheep, the first crossing of the Nullarbor by Europeans. Can you imagine four months? There are monuments dotted along the way.
After the windmills of Penong - it was not art but function for all those windmills to be in one place - I succumbed to turning the iPod on. So far I had swapped between Triple J reception where possible, and silence, saving the tunes for the long Nullarbor drive.
The Head of the Bight was special, it is where the dramatic cliffs of the Nullarbor begin, ending the huge white dunes from Fowlers Bay. It was here I saw something I have not seen in a national park before. Someone saw a snake near the visitor centre, immediately the two ladies manning the counter ran out with a piece of polypipe and hit the snake. After several strikes, the lady asked the person if they minded her killing the snake. Not waiting for a response, she continued with, "hang on, let me finish the bugger off."
There were no whales to be seen yet. All the brochures say May to October is the whale season, but the sign on the road says June to September! Just to get you there...
My friend Kev has joined me for my four month trip. He was feeling a little deflated at first, but when he sat up front he perked right up. He was distraught at seeing so many of his friends on the side the road (roadkill), well to be frank, he is feeling a little let down by the whole experience. So he has retreated to his little pouch behind the front seat. I'm sure he will get back into shape soon and enjoy himself.
The price had petrol had been steadily rising from $1.23 per litre in Adelaide to $1.41 in Penong. The next roadhouse, at Nundroo was the same, but at the next one, Nullarbor Roadhouse, it was $1.71 per litre. The border was cheaper at around $1.61, but further west it rose again past $1.71, not falling to the $1.41 level again until Norseman. Ouch. But what can you do? None of them advertise their price on the roadside, why bother, where else are you to buy it? You just need the stuff. The Nullarbor provided ideal economy testing conditions, straight flat bitumen road with constant speed abilities.
Here I discovered that my car uses three litres per 100 kilometres less when driven at 100 km/h compared with 110 km/h. Upon leaving Adelaide I had resolved to limit my speed to 100 km/h, in four months what difference would 10 km/h faster make? None I'm sure, but the petrol bill will be smaller.
After spending the evening with Andre and Jeanette, we bid our farewells the following morning. Not for long though, I went off the main road at Eucla to check out the sand dune overrunning the telegraph station ruins whilst they ate their breakfast outside a nearby roadhouse. Here we met again. From here we were both going to be driving as far as we could, until almost sunset.
I reached Norseman, pushing a little further south to Esperence. I pulled over just before sunset at a rest area, the first one filled with other campers. After dinner who should pull up but my two German friends! We sat around and chatted and made plans for Sunday.
We rose early, driving south through the fog to Esperence. After a quick fruit and veg restocking - oh the grief of having it all confiscated at the SA/WA border - we drove out to
Cape Le Grande National Park. Here we walked the 15 kilometre Coastal Track, well most of it. We walked from Le Grande Beach to Lucky Bay, maybe some three to four kilometres short of the full trail. Somehow we still managed to walk 14.8 kilometres though! The park is spectacular, it is mainly low lying but interspersed with huge granite mountains rising some 200-300 metres.
The beach sand is white, the water azure blue. I had seen photos in magazines, but in real life, with the sun shining, the sand is white and the water azure blue! We ate lunch sitting high above Hellfire Beach, watching four dolphins play in the surf.
We shared a bbq meal together that night, the following morning we parted ways again. So sad, but nice to meet such travellers!
Now I have done some 3000 kilometres of driving, it is time to slow down and enjoy the south west corner of Western Australia.
Coastal Track, Cape Le Grande National Park |
Download kml file to view in Google Earth or adapt to use as a navigational aid in a GPS unit |
Drive from Adelaide to EsperanceView Adelaide to Esperance in a larger map
Tree Towers: these are bizare things. Very tall trees are selected, then a spiral-like staircase is constructed around them all the way to a platform on top. Don't think of some kinda sturdy spiral staircase, this is simply peices of steel rod nailed into the trunk at semi-regular intervals.
