Port Augusta, South Australia to Nullarbor Roadhouse, South Australia - 765 kms 8:00 hours.
This is a shorter drive than usual - 8 hours instead of 10. Well past the halfway point of the drive, I will enter the Nullarbor. Destination - the Nullarbor Roadhouse - one of the first roadhouses dotted across the Nullarbor. It will be long straight roads with nothing around. Or so I am told.
I did not want to drive at dusk so though I set out late morning as usual, I did not stop apart from a quick bite and a fuel refill. I passed through Kimba, a town on the way. It is the home of one of the Big So-and-so attractions, the Big Galah. These attractions have a nostalgic feel for those who did road trips in the 70s and 80s, I guess. I did pass the Big Lobster at Kingston SE the day before but as I had been through there before, I did not even stop. This time, this was unexplored territory for me so I stopped for a photo.
I must admit - I may forget the town I was passing through but these big objects do seem to stick in your head. A Galah is a species of cockatoo quite common in Australia. There is nothing that is specific to Kimba but you run out of big icons after a while.
Well before 4 PM, I reached Ceduna. For me, this is the start of the Nullarbor. Just before Ceduna, the road from Pt Augusta joins the road from Streaky Bay. From here on, there is only one road across the Nullarbor. As I am trying to use different routes in each direction, this part of the road will be traversed in both directions - there are no alternative roads. For the next 1200 kms, it is the Eyre Highway and nothing else.
By 6 PM, I reached the sign marking the start of the Nullarbor Plain. The trees were already starting to thin out and now there were none.
Laid out in front of you was a pretty straight road that you could see for miles. This is pretty much what I came here for!
The distance to the roadhouse was eagerly eaten up - I rarely stopped for pictures. The usual distraction of a spectacular sunset was a few hours away. Soon I was at the roadhouse at 6:30 PM - a record for me. This was now in the middle of nowhere. The roadhouse had a motel that was not too bad comapred to some of the ones I was in. The tap water was a bit muddy and was not suitable for consumption. Including the petrol pump and the motel, it was quite spread out.
While there were a few signs warning about animals along the way, this one was in the roadhouse, well off from the road, nicely fenced just for tourists to take a picture. So I did.
Over the next few days, I did not see any of these animals. And I am grateful - this is the biggest hazard on the road. It may surprise some to see camels on the sign. They were brought over in the 1800s to travel acros the desert. When they were no longer needed, they were just left free. Like most invasive species, they proceeded to dramatically grow in numbers. They wrecked the environment and destroyed water infrastructure. Inspite of regular culling, they now form the biggest feral camel population in the world - numbered at 1 million. They are classified as feral, having descended from domesticated stock. Truly wild camels of this species are found only around Mongolia and number just 1,400.
The roadhouse is a congregation point for all vehicular traffic across the Nullarbor - road trains, caravans, cars and trucks. Everything is trucked in - especially fuel. It is commmon to see these petrol road trains here.
The longest trucks in most places is the B double. It is a truck hauling two semi-trailers. But out here, with straight roads and long distances, the Road Train rules the roost. They haul three full sized or four mixed semi-trailers. Working in the harsh environment of the outback, these behemoths are some of the longest and heaviest road-legal vehicles in the world.
In one of the rare cases where I am well settled in at my destination when the sun sets, I went about taking my usual sunset pictures.
The sun was getting ever closer to the horizon. I moved to the road where an occasional truck or car zoomed past.
Well before the sun dipped below the horizon at 9:00 PM, I had finished my dinner at the bar/restaurant. Beer on tap, a meal with dessert. Here I was in the most isolated place on earth and I was having a three course meal! I also filled up on fuel, probably the most expensive so far. It was $2.73 for Premium 95 and no Premium 98.
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