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NULLABOR PLAIN
Sunset drinks on the track third the way to Cook...our overnight campWell its just gone 5 months we have been on the road in the van and already have done 10,000 klms. We were going to stay overnight at Nullabor Roadhouse but because it was such a dust bowl decided to push on and camp somewhere heading north west to Cook, taking in some caves along the track and a track it was! Wow..... rough and slow....120klm drive but for the first 60 odd klm we were averaging 5klm every 15 minutes! At least it wasn't wet but lots of rocks and uneven surfaces but our car and van stood up very well! After leaving Nullabor around 2.30 we pulled up just after 5pm and camped near Noels Caves, it is just amazing that there are caves just popping out of this flat, treeless plains like they just gurgled out of the ground! In the whole trip to Cook we did not see another vehicle or person, just a very startled wild dingo, who was in the small bushes and then decided to run along the ruts in the track we were following, he ran like the wind and kept looking behind to see what the hell we were doing! After about
NULLABOR PLAIN
Treeless plains for miles and a car that didn't make it 5klm he turned off the track and took to the bush and disappeared into the horizon. We set off about 10am after looking down into the caves and headed north west and finally came to an intersection, which was a kind of main road, much better road than we had been on and only 50klms to Cook which didn't take much more than an hour. I had rang ahead, after I had made contact with an ex worker from Cook, and checked with the caretaker at Cook to make sure we could stay there overnight, as this town is now owned by Pacific National, who run the rail. Anu (a lovely young Indian man) was a pleasure to deal with and made us very welcome to his little town, even offering us food and water but we were all self sufficient! The town was abandoned in 2006 and as Cook is a very important stop for trains, it was taken over by Pacific National. There are 5 permanent employees and at any one time there can be 10-12 train drivers staying there, so the train drivers dongers need to be kept clean and beds made etc. The Indian Pacific goes
NULLABOR PLAIN
A beautiful car it would have been in the day through twice a week and there are 3-4 goods trains everyday. As drivers can only do 11 hours they need to stop somewhere and changeover so that is where Cook comes in, also trains, especially the Indian Pacific, need to fuel up and put water on board.... all done here at Cook.The day we arrived in Cook the Indian Pacific came through on its way from Perth to Sydney, we actually talked to a couple of posh ladies off the train, one of them was from Williamstown and her friend was from the Mornington Peninsula, they were totally intrigued as to what we were doing there! Then after the train left a couple pulled up in their 4WD for a chat, they were originally from Alice Springs and now live in Willunga SA and actually knew people that we knew, The Lowes and Smiths from Mt Cavanagh! They had come to visit the grave of a brother who died at birth at a place down the rail line a bit Rawlinna. Small world it is! It was a totally amazing experience and to think that my parents made this journey thousands of miles from their home town of Condobolin NSW
NULLABOR PLAIN
Sunset over the treeless plains in 1954 after they were married and then went on to have me at Cook in Feburary 1956, is just mind boggling.... true outback pioneers they were!! Dad came out here to buy rabbits and had a few trappers working for him and the rabbits were put on the train frozen (he had diesel generated chillers to store them in) and taken to City Road, South Melbourne for processing and then exported overseas! It was a very rough life and my poor Mum a nurse in the day, been taken out here in the middle of nowhere is just unbelievable, what a legend she was and never complained. There was like a very small house with a nurse when I was born, no hospital then, so the nurse supported Mum while my Dad fainted! As you can see in the photos they make reference to the Tea and Sugar Train, Mum used to tell me how excited she was every week when the Tea and Sugar train came in, it was like a little supermarket on wheels, not only the basics of flour, tea, sugar they also had veges, household items and shampoo and bathroom products.... she loved that day
NULLABOR PLAIN
Our caravan routes so far of the week! I was only 18months old when we left Cook and then went onto Ivanhoe in western New South Wales. After spending the night in Cook and a couple of goods trains coming through during the night we took off about 8.45am to go back south to the main highway and onto Bunda Cliffs on the Great Australian Bite, arrived in the afternoon and chose the Bunda View camp area on the edge of the cliffs..... there is something magical about this spot, camping right on the edge of the cliffs! As we pulled up there was a van like ours a Olympic Javelin X8, first one we have seen on the road....an absolutely gorgeous couple....held them up far too long chatting...they were so interesting! He was born and bred in Shepparton but had travelled extensively overseas and met his Iranian wife in London and they taught in Dubai for like 13 years....now they have been caravanning around Australia for 15 months home schooling their two girls but are going to sell everything and head back to Europe, probably France so their daughter can do her last year before high school at a normal school. They rolled their
original van up near Mt Isa over a year ago and had another built and are on the road again. Loved our chat with them! Then all the vans that arrived during the afternoon disappeared and there is just us and a guy from Cardwell QLD on his Harley Fatboy camping in his tent cliff side.....was a bit worried about the wind that he may get blown away during the night but the wind subsided quite a bit as nightfall came and I am sure he will be OK! Alas by 1.30am we were awoken by the van swaying in the howling wind, John got up and moved the van to a slightly different position so that the wind was blowing head on into the front of the van....we were thinking of the old mate down further along the track near the cliffs....we were only a few metres from the cliffs and did not sleep that tight all night, did hear the Harley start up about 2.00am and he was gone, hope his little one man tent did not blow away. We also set of fairly early 8.30a.m. to get to the border crossing and on our way....all went well
NULLABOR PLAIN
It goes on and on except the woman asked John if he had prawns and he said no, thinking she said corn, but when she searched our freezer she found about 100gms of shelled prawns I use for pizza and had forgotten about them....god knows if we will get a fine in the mail! It just doesn't make sense what stuff you can take into WA and what you cannot, no honey! We are Australia - one country! No veges or fruit at all except if peeled and frozen....anyway all good except for the wind! We stopped Eucla for diesel and it was still blowing a gale and cold as! We also noticed the car was getting less economy too, instead 14-15lt per 100klm we were getting 19.1lt per 100klm which is still not too bad towing a 3.5ton van! We were going to overnight near Cocklebiddy but no point stopping if you are stuck in the van so on we went to the other side of Balladonia and camped the night in a free camp Harms Lake Rest Area, but it had private little spots scattered everywhere with lots of trees and spaces for many vans.... only two others we saw in here so
COOK
In front of the station was a good choice. Wikicamps is the best app ever for finding great camping spots, has paid and unpaid camps, caravan parks and points of interest, and people can review them so you get a bit of an idea what you are in for. Big day today 600klms took advantage of the extra two hours time difference. At this western end of the Nullabor is the 90 Mile Straight stretch of road and Madura pass nice to see some hills. PS: Just ran into the old mate from Bunda Cliffs 600klms down the road, that windy night he said he tied his tent to his Harley but when the wind picked up his tent and himself inside it....he said it really put the wind up him (literally) and he decided to pack up and get out of there at around 2am.PSS love hearing from you all, scroll to bottom of this post to leave a message xx
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Gianfranco (John) Gambardella
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Brilliant story telling!
Love the journey you bring to us - I'm not sure whether we would be that adventurous! Ciao till the your next journey. J&M