We crossed the Nullarbor!

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Walpole and the Tingle trees. Tingle Trees are big fat redwoods. They grow to about 75metres high and about 25metres round. And in Walpole they have loads of them in the Valley of the Giants. They have constructed a treetop walk which enables you to wander right up into the canopy of these lovely big trees. We ended the day in Albany - a lovely seaside town with rocky headlands and lovely sandy beaches. Definitely somewhere I could retire to.
Now inland, driving through miles and miles of wheat fields - to the iconic Wave Rock. The wave is actually one edge of Hyden Rock which is like a mini Ayres Rock - and a lot easier to climb. The wave is amazing though and worth the 700km detour.
The weather is nice and warm and sunny again after several days of rain/cold, but when we arrived in our next destination, Esperance , it was cold again and extremely windy with lots of intermittent showers (which was rather inconvenient as I had just done 2 loads of washing!)
Esperance has a lovely sandy beach which I am sure would have been lovely to swim from, but it was just too cold. Our first campsite was right next to the docks and there were trains running all night, and they blew their whistle as they came over the crossing, right behind the site. Needless to say, we moved on to the other side of town the next day. We spent the day in Cape le Grand National Park, which would have been lovely if it wasn’t blowing a gale. Still, we managed to get out of the wind at Lucky Bay and had a lovely lunch on the beach.
Syd developed a strange rumbling noise and was due for a service so we booked him in for an overhaul and spent the next morning wandering Esperance, homeless.
We then headed off towards the dreaded Nullarbor Plain, stopping at Norseman for a rather late lunch. We got talking to the lady in the visitors centre and before we knew it, we had signed up to play the longest golf course in the world. The Nullarbor Links. The course starts in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia where there are 2 holes and ends in Ceduna, South Australia, some 1365km later! Takes on average 4 days to complete a round of 18 holes.
This means that we have to do a detour to Kalgoorlie and Kambalda (only 188km each way!) to play the first three holes.
Poor Syd has picked up an injury. A road train went past and threw up a stone which has punched a hole in the windscreen, and now we have a crack creeping down the glass. Apparently we aren’t insured for it either which is a bugger.
Glad we went to Kalgoorlie - whilst we were being amazed by the sheer immensity of the Big Pit - the largest gold mine in Australia, they decided to dynamite a new section - nothing like watching a big explosion.
The Nullarbor isn’t nearly as unforgiving as we had been lead to believe. We have driven in much worse places - up the middle, along the top. At least there are lots of other people on the road, so if you did have a problem there would be someone to help. Playing golf certainly breaks up the journey. The holes are interesting - the greens are either made of plastic and impossible to putt on, or are made of sand and are full of foot prints! The fairways are generally rolling hills of sand with a splattering of prickly grass, rocks and a few bushes. (and a few snakes apparently, although we haven’t come across any yet). Finding the ball is the main problem (apart from actually getting the ball in the hole).
We have arrived in Ceduna. We have officially crossed the Nullarbor!!
Can't seem to get the photos to upload - will publish this then try again

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