Day 15 of the "Jeez...nearly dozed of there for a second" Tour 2012

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We woke up in Norseman on Day 15 and it was time to start across the Nullarbor. The Nullarbor is a large sheet of limestone that stretches for hundreds of kilometres and its literal meaning is “No Trees”. It was a fine clear day and a good day to travel the straight roads of WA.

Not 30 km’s outside of Norseman and, low and behold, the blues and twos were in the rear view mirror! First and, hopefully, the only speeding ticket awarded to Mr Colman O’ Brien! I got a sneaky picture of them writing up his infringement in the wing mirror! Away off with went again after the little altercation and our first (scheduled) stop was Balladonia. This place is only a roadhouse on the side of the road but they did have an interesting museum dedicated to the crash landing of the Skylab there in 1979. Pieces of the Skylab were on display there and it was the second item that had been in outer space (the first being a meteor that was on display outside Albany’s Old Gaol). Coley also got a quick complement for a German girl that was working behind the counter of the roadhouse when she said that she liked his t-shit. He was delighted with that result!

With Coley in good spirits with moved on and around the next corner from the roadhouse was the longest stretch of straight road in Australia! 145.6 km’s or 90 miles of straight road! We stopped for pictures with the sign and I hopped into the driver’s seat. For over an hour I didn’t have to turn the wheel! I must say I enjoyed every minute of it! At the end I didn’t know what to do when I came to a corner.

We drove on another couple of hundred kilometres to Cocklebiddy where we pulled in and threw up the tent for the night. As we were camping on limestone we could barely get the pegs into the ground (we were using a rock as a hammer) and there were a few casualties in the form of bent pegs. We gave up eventually and used rocks for the guide lines instead of pegs.

The only other thing that happened that night was at about 10 o’ clock. We saw five truck driver’s (All driving road trains) come out of the roadhouse and I presumed they were just jumping into the beds in the truck for the night. This was not the case however and shortly after they pulled out onto the road one after the other. A proper convoy was on its way into the night. As soon as I realised what was going on, I went in search of my phone to record the trucks setting off into the night, but I just couldn’t find it, so not only did I not get a recording of this mignicifint sight I actually missed it myself, well, most of it anyways! Disaster! I really hope I see something like it again tomorrow night, as I reckon the truck drivers pull in the nearest roadhouse at dusk for a few hours R & R and to leave dark fall as it is dusk and dawn when most kangaroo, camels, cows, etc are to be found on the roads. They then all take off at the same time and then possibly take turns at the front of the convoy to clear the roads for the rest! Cole actually heard a lorry driver say “I hit another shagging camel last night” at a roadhouse earlier!

That’s all for today.

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Photos

Straightest road in Oz
145.6 km's

Norseman
Camels in the middle of a roundabout

The Nullarbor Nynph
I called dibs on her

Straightest Road
Over an hour drivinging with no corner

Rocks for pegs
Pegs just wouldnt go into the ground like!