Norseman East Rest Area

Every journey is a voyage into the unknown, this one probably more than most. We were in Port Augusta, South Australia. Our destination was Norseman, WA, Norseman, which was 1,660km away.

We knew there was fuel available every 250-300km, but not water. We had stashed an extra 15 litres of Tasmanian water under the bed, extra food, filled the tanks with fuel and water, dumped the grey and black water, got the washing done, and took a deep breath. We were as prepared as we could be.

Our RV, a 2014 Jayco Conquest on a Fiat chassis, had been that way before with a previous owner but we hadn’t. So, after a warm night in mid-May, we left Port Augusta, and headed west.

The first day we covered just over 300km. Not much in the scheme of things, but more than we usually cover in a day. It was our 46th  wedding anniversary. We turned off the highway at Minnipa and found a camp for the night – Tcharkulda Rock, a large granite outcrop. The rock was used in the early days of settlement as a catchment for water, with a low wall built around the base to channel water into a catchment area along with the kangaroo poo all over the rock that would have washed down too. The whole area was quite spectacular with panoramic views over the surrounding countryside.

Some days we covered more ground than others, but each day was different, interesting and varied. There was a town with silo art, another with windmills, a blowhole next to the highway, and lots of rest areas where we were able to get well off the highway to camp.

The condition of the highway was very good, with one lane each way and very few passing lanes, but  they weren’t really needed most of the time as there wasn’t that much traffic. Not one road gang was sighted in the entire length. Traffic was made up of huge road trains, caravans and motorhomes with a few cars, a couple of motorcyclists, and one guy riding a pushbike. Maybe at different times of the year proportions of traffic might be different. The temperature was really pleasant too. On the debit side there were at least 10 abandoned or burnt-out cars strewn along the length of the highway.

The word Nullarbor means “treeless plain”. There are areas of no trees, but it was far outweighed by areas of trees, low scrub, saltbush and other desert varieties, and wildflowers. There was so much variety of landscapes, from farm land, a huge military firing range, and vast areas of unfenced land with repeated warnings to watch  out for kangaroos, emus, camels, wombats and cattle.

Rain on the Plain’ at a Nullarbor campsite

‘END’ OF CIVILISATION

Ceduna was our last real sight of civilisation for a while. We visited the supermarket, and topped up again with fuel and water. Walking on the long jetty reaching out into the bay we were delighted to see a dolphin with a calf swimming towards us through the clear water, then we headed into the Nullarbor proper. Just out of town we lost mobile phone contact, which didn’t return until we reached Norseman on the other side.

One morning, just past the Baxter Rest Area, we had a close encounter with a kangaroo. It was going to cross the road come what may. Fortunately we travel fairly slow most of the time unlike one car we saw that hit a kangaroo at 110kmph. Not sure who came off worst in that encounter. 

We had some spectacular free camping spots, in the bush with beautiful sunrises and sunsets, and on the clifftop with views of the Southern Ocean. We met fellow travellers, some repeatedly, as we all headed west.

A majestic clifftop lookout

Before the Western Australian border, the road comes close to the cliffs overlooking the Southern  Ocean. At the first lookout there was a strong smell of seals and enough flies to populate the whole country. We stopped at most lookouts, finding a beautiful clifftop camping spot away from the flies.

A few days before, we had noticed a little pool of water on the ground under the RV. John had installed a tap to make it easier to drain the fresh water tank. We left a trail of drops over half the Nullarbor before we finally fixed the problem on that rocky clifftop overlooking the Southern Ocean.

The Western Australian border quarantine inspection would have to be the most thorough inspection you could wish to receive. They went through every drawer and cupboard in the RV, even under the bed. The only potential fruit fly source, our rubbish, was rejected as our responsibility to dispose. I walked back into South Australia to find a rubbish bin.

Reflection time at Tcharkuldu Rock

Just over the border into Western Australia is the town of Eucla. It consists of a motel, fuel station, fast food source, caravan park and not much else. Nearby, half buried in the encroaching sand dunes, we found the ruins of the Old Telegraph Station. The whole town of Eucla was moved to its present location away from the sand dunes.

In South Australia, we didn’t notice much road kill but the first hundred or so kilometres past the border the roadsides were littered with dead kangaroos. Crows were everywhere on the Nullarbor. With all the road kill around there was plenty for them to eat, but where did they get their water? I was watching a few of them hanging around when cars were stopping at a rest area. They waited until the vehicle moved off, then drank from the pools left by air-conditioners.

The Nullarbor landscape is varied

We topped up with fuel again at Balladonia Roadhouse, as we did at  most places, and had a look at their displays of Skylab relics (Skylab crashed to earth 40 years ago), the Redex Trials that passed through in the 1950s, and the construction of the road across the Nullarbor. Sealing of the highway was only completed in 1976. To see what the road would have been like before sealing you only had to look down the few dirt roads that branch off the highway. Most had 4WD, or dry weather only signs on them. To venture on any of them would have shaken the RV to bits.

In some places on the map where you would expect a town, there was just a road house, a place to stop, refuel, rest, and move on. Roadside rest stops are scattered at regular intervals along the highway. Most are just that, an area away from the road to rest, some even had a rubbish bin. In South Australia there seemed to be a shortage of roadside toilets and dump points. Over the border in Western Australia, they weren’t plentiful but there were a few. Fuel was available every 200-300km. Although we  didn’t need it, we topped up whenever we could. It was that fear of the unknown again.

Reaching 90 Mile Straight

EARTHLY COLOURS

The curve at the end of the “90 Mile Straight” (146km), the longest stretch of straight road in Australia, is signposted and comes as a bit of a surprise after such a long straight stretch, but the most surprising  thing about the Nullarbor is the colours. The trunks of the Salmon gums and Gimlet gums seemed to be reflecting the colours of the red earth. Saltbush, the Eremophila and other low desert shrubs were a beautiful grey-blue surrounded by areas of red earth, and the sunsets and sunrises were spectacular.

The Nullarbor is also the home of what is claimed to be the world’s  longest golf course, the Nullarbor Links. It consists of 18 holes stretching some 1,365km of the Eyre Highway. The greens were far from green and the countryside not quite like a normal golf course.

As we approached Norseman, the terrain became more undulating. We spent our last night in the bush at Norseman East Rest Stop, then on to Norseman to refuel, and refill the water tank.

The Old Telegraph Station near Eucla

On our return trip a couple of months later, feeling much more confident of the logistics of the trip, we took our time even more, delighting once again in the country we passed through. We had an encounter with a huge kangaroo in the bush, saw a wild dingo, spent another night on the clifftop, called in to the whale watching nursery at Head of Bight, and even encountered rain and a rainbow on the Nullarbor.

A stunning sunrise at Baxter Rest Area

Category: Unknown
Written: Fri 01 Nov 2019
Printed: November, 2019
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