Blogs from Nullarbor Plain, Western Australia, Australia, Oceania - page 2

Leaving our secluded campsite after breakfast with the family of Magpies we made our way back to the Eyre Hwy and headed west towards Balladonia. After passing more of the magnificent semi arid shrublands dominated by Mulga (s) we arrived at Balladonia. This arid shrubland is one of the world's oldest landscapes, containing seashells millions of years old from when the area was ocean floor. The Balladonia roadhouse (eating & fuel again!) has a cultural heritage museum setting it apart from all the other roadhouses exhibiting Aboriginal dreaming, Pioneers, Afghan Cameleers and the crash landing of NASA's Skylab in 1979. Balladonia is also the end of the 80 mile straight. We enjoyed a morning coffee here served to us by a young lady from Mildura. Like us, she is struggling with the sunlight at 4.00AM. No ... read more

Et voilà, on est de l’autre côté… Nous avons passé la grosse étape de la plaine de Nullarbor qui fût en soit une très belle expérience, une bonne trace, pleine de magnifiques paysages désolés, de tranquillité au milieu de l’aridité. Tout cela a ravivé encore plus notre faim des kilomètres ! C’est une chose qui nous manquera sans doute lorsque nous ne tracerons plus par nos propres moyens dans quelques semaines. Revoyons un peu tout cela en détail : La plaine de Nullarbor est une énorme région plate aride à semi-aride d’environ 200'000 km2 qui se localise entre l’Australie Occidentale et l’Australie du Sud. Nullarbor vient du latin « nullus » et « arbor », littéralement « aucun arbre ». Ça veut un peu tout dire. Bon, des arbres on en a vu quand même mais ... read more

I check out at 10am and headed over to the train station as my train wasn't until 11:55am I had to wait a bit. Turns out Jo was also there as her bus left from the same station and she is on her way to another country pub. So we got to have a hug and say goodbye again. No matter how many goodbyes I go through they never get any easier. I hopped on the train and was asked to switch seats with a guy as he wanted to sit next to his gf so that was ok. I had a seat to myself until we got to Kalgoorlie. The train zoomed past Southern Cross one last time for me. I made sure to wave. I'm in the red service cars and while they aren't ... read more

Hi All, Firstly an apology for not updating this blog for a while, however things happen and some days there is no internet connection, even if the creative juices are flowing. Crossing the Nullarbor is a bit of an Australian tradition I would think, similar in some respects to crossing the equator, as it requires (particually many years ago) time and an arduous bit of adventure. Today the road is excellent, there are sufficient overnight stopping and refueling facilities, and the traffic is a higher volume, but you can still drive for an hour or more at times without seeing another vehicle. The Nullarbor itself is about 250.000 square kilometres in area, treeless, and is basically a limestone slab, initially part of the ancient seabed. There are a lot of sinkholes, caverns and caves and a ... read more

Day 235 - Cape le Grande to Woorlba (Eyre Highway) We’d done a lot of our packing up last night before we went to bed as we wanted to make an early start this morning to ensure we make as much headway along the Nullarbor as possible. I woke up far earlier than I needed to so decided to go for a walk along the beach and leave Dar to get some extra zzz’s. The morning is as predicted, very bright with a shining sun and the bluest of blue skies. It looks like it will be a lovely day here today and at least the sun came up before we left so that we get a glimpse of how good this stunning area is at its best. Walking along the beach seemed a bit too ... read more