Friday, 15 Mar 2024
In the morning, we got ready and drove into Ceduna. We went to the information centre and got a lot of great advice about what to stop and see as we cross the Nullarbor Plain. This Plain is 1200 km long and is made of a solid mass of flat limestone rock. Because of this, it is unique in the type of soil and plants that will grow on it. Trees have a hard time taking root partially because of the rock and also because the moisture goes straight through it into aquifers below, at least that is what I understand. So, the treeless plain is what it is known for.
After getting that information, we topped up on a few groceries and checked out the jetty by the sea and then headed off west. There wouldn’t be another stop for supplies other then petrol until we reached the other side in a few days time. One thing was sure, the flies and the heat were a lot better now. We found that a relief.
Our first stop was at a windmill museum. This included Australia’s largest windmill. These windmills were mostly built by farmers out of whatever they had on hand on their farms to pump water for stock on their land. Nowadays diesel pumps are used to pump water, so many of these windmills have been retired. After the windmills we took a small detour to see a pink lake that sits right next to the sea with only a road separating them.
After lunch here, we got back onto Eyre Highway and drove around 200 km to the Nullarbor Roadhouse. On the way there we passed a sign that told us we entered the Nullarbor Plain. It was very obvious to us that this had begun. The road dropped down onto the plan and it was clearly different than where we came from. It was flat and endless with only shrub like plants. At the Nullarbor Roadhouse, turned off the highway down a dirt road for 10 km where we camped for the night.
Saturday, 16 Mar 2024
In the morning, we explored the Murrawijine Caves. There were 3 caves which from a distance were invisible to the eye. The were just holes in the flat ground. We went into 2 caves, and Darren went into the 3rd cave without us because it was a little steep. In one of the caves we found aboriginal hand print artwork on a wall. It was really neat to try and count how many handprints we could see. Many were nearly faded away. We contemplated about the people that made these prints. After this, we headed back the highway. On the way we spotted four wild camels in the distance! Camels are an introduced species in Australia and are a pest. The people here are trying to irradicate them because they do a lot of damage, but it was still neat to see them.
For lunch we stopped at Gilgerabbie Hut, which is an old pastoral hut for those tending their livestock out here. We were able to get in the hut and eat at the table. We thought it would be neat to turn the hut into a house and live here.
We carried on for another hour or so and stopped to have a look at the Great Australian Bight and the Bunda Cliffs. It was truly spectacular. We wished it was not such an overcast day, but it was still very breathtaking. These cliffs went on for hundreds of kilometers along the Bight, which is the curved area under Australia. In this place the sea floor is quite shallow and in the winter Right Whales come to give birth in these sheltered waters.
After this we carried on to the Koonalda Homestead ruins. Back in the early 1900s the Eyre Highway was just a dirt track. We had to drive across this old track to get to the homestead where people used to come for a pitstop and to get there cars serviced. The house was made in post-World War 2 fashion, out of old railway sleepers and ties. Lots of old cars were lying around as well. We found the old outhouse, which was a hole in the ground with a drum over it, with a car tire for a seat!
One of the neatest things we saw here was a blow hole. Because the entire Nullarbor Plain is made of porous limestone, there are inumerable caves and cavities in the rock under the ground. In some places these caves open up to the service with just a hole and the equalising pressure creates a strong wind coming from the ground. We had a lot of fun playing here with the cool air. We had a lot of good laughs.
After what was a really enriching day, we went back to the Eyre highway and drove onward to the West Australia Border. We settled down for the night on the old highway track.
Sunday, 17 Mar 2024
In the morning we cooked up the last of our fresh potatoes and ate some of them for breakfast. We were going to cross the border in to West Australia and they don’t let you take any fresh vegetables or fruit. We had eaten the rest that we had over the last few days. After crossing the border into WA we went to the small roadhouse area of Eucla. We checked out the ruins of the original telegraph station that was used in the old days to translate and then sent on the telegraphs from Perth to Sydney and other places in easter Australia. Aparently the two sides of the country used different morse codes and this was necessary. It was really neat how these ruins were being buried in the sand. We were very close to the beach here.
After this, we out to see Weebubbie cave. We were really hopeful to go inside this one, as the reviews showed some really neat photos, but when we got there we realized that it had caved in a couple years ago and it was not safe to go in. It was really neat though to see the giant hole where the cave was. Then we drove to the Mundrabilla Roadhouse. We decided to eat lunch here. It was a neat experience eating at a roadhouse.
After lunch we headed to Madura Cave. This cave was not as impressive on the outside looking in. We looked around for a little while and entered the cave on the left side, which was very shallow. It had a vew kangaroo skeletons inside but that was it. We were about to leave, but decided to have one last look on the other side of the entrance and found a small opening that we had to crouch to get through. We were so glad we did have that second look, because inside the cave opened up into a very large room that kept going and going. There were many branches. We explored for a while and found a group of sleeping bats on the ceiling. We explored a few branches for just a little distance. In a few places the ceiling had some holes that let in light from the sky above. It was a really neat experience.
One thing we really took note of was how green the desert was. After the recent rains, it was really coming alive. shrubs were beginning to flower, and there was a green carpet of seedlings and grass growing everywhere. It was so beautiful. I thoroughly enjoyed the scenery over the many hours of driving across the Nullarbor. We stopped near Cocklebiddy roadhouse for the night.
Monday, 18 Mar 2024
On this day, we drove a lot. This was the day we crossed the longest straight piece of road in Australia. It is 90 miles long. You could see a car coming in the distance in the opposite lane and it would take several minutes to get to you and pass you. The shrubs did seem to be getting a little taller on this end of the Nullarbor. We did stop breifly at the Cocklebiddy Roadhouse. They had two wedgetail eagles in an aviary here. They were injured a number of years ago when hit by cars on the highway. Wedgetail eagles are the largest in Australia. Their names were Bruce and Samantha.
The only other thing we stopped for was at the Balladonia Roadhouse. They had a little museum inside. It talked about the history of the place. One interesting bit of history is that in 1979, the United States Space Station fell out of space and landed behind the roadhouse. They had several large pieces of the ship in the museum to look at. We read some of the newspaper articles about when this happened. All over West Australia, people could see the burning ship falling through the atmosphere. After this, we finally made it out of the Nullarbor Plain. We stopped for the night south of Norseman at the Bromus Dam. We hoped to see wild Brumbies here, which are wild Australian horses. We only saw their droppings.
Katherine, I have a guide book and have been reading as you go! Pretty 😎
Very cool! Glad you can follow along.
I’m thoroughly enjoying your travels – living vicariously! You’ve all seen and experienced so many cool things. 4 of us drove across to Perth in the mid 80’s, but time was limited and we were on a mission to get there. So I’ve enjoyed seeing some of the things we missed, as well as familiar things.
Safe travels the rest of the way x
So wonderful to be able to document and share it! And happy you are enjoying it too. It’s been such a neat trip and a good reset for us. Missing you guys, happy sabbath!
Enjoying your stories across Australia! Especially enjoyed the photos of the kids at the blowhole in this episode 😆
It was the neatest place!