the nullarbor

or so they say...

nullarbor. null arbor. no trees. filthy lie.

there are trees in the nullarbor. not much else really. trees, low-lying shrubbery, animals. that’s it. the nullarbor is technically only a small component of the 1900km drive from Norseman (200km north of esperance) to Adelaide, but it’s generally considered to be all of it.  it is painfully boring to drive. it’s the kind of drive where roadhouses get surprisingly large dots on the map, even though there's absolutely nothing else around said roadhouses. it’s such a long drive that by the time we finish, we will be over half done the entire amount of km’s that we plan on doing for this whole trip! We have been teased with signs suggesting that camels, emus, cows, wombats and kangaroos like to prance across the road but have yet to see anything other then the occasional ‘roo carcass.

tangent: because here’s the thing that kind of shits me about WA (i’m saying WA only because i haven’t yet experienced the rest of australia…). australia has the most magnificent coastline. honestly. it might be all sheer-cliffs falling into dangerously cold looking dark blue water or it might be all white-sandy-beach with lazily lapping turquoise waves or anything in between. but fact of the matter is that it’s really, truly amazing. and yet for some reason, WA absolutely does not want anyone to know that it even has a coastline, let alone a spectacular one. you can drive for hours in WA and not know that it’s even on the coast because for some reason, roads are nowhere near the coast. ever.  and so, as we drove across tree-plenty nullarbor, we saw nothing but trees, grass and dirt. no water. no coast. no crashing waves. nothing. the nullarbor sits about 60km north of the coast, save the very (very!) occasional glimpses of the water (only once you hit Eucla, approx 8 hours after you leave norseman!) the drive is painful enough as it is, why- i ask why?- would you not even have some “scenic tourist drives” that stretch from the nullarbor down to the water. yes yes, i know. it’s convenient for trucks, nay, road trains (an altogether different thing when you’re being passed by one) but still. surely some other tourists would appreciate the option to stray from the main road to take in the sights. or * gasp * have lunch overlooking something other then the roadhouse or a dirt “parking “ area. i digress.

tee at the par 4 near one of the road houses

there are a few interesting things along the nullarbor (believe it or not). first: the world's longest golf course. though we don’t have any clubs with which to hit a ball, we have stopped to look at a few (actually, only one) of the holes along the road. there are intermittent stops along the way where you get out, hit your par 4 then get back into your car. i think it’s only a 9-hole course but i’m not sure. it’s not on most maps and we generally can’t be arsed asking at the roadhouse.

two: the longest stretch of straight road in australia is the 90-mile straight. thrilling no? (why they refer to it in miles given that australia has wholly embraced the metric system -unlike we wavering canadians- i don’t know. probably sounds better then the 146.6km straight i suppose). for 90 miles the road is dead straight. set-your-cruise-control-and-go-to-sleep straight. not-even-a-blip-in-the-road straight. then you hit Caiguna and it diverts ever so slightly to the right and then bam! straight again. only not for as long, so they don’t name it this time.

RFDS emergency landing strip sign

three: the royal flying doctor service (conjuring up many a good image in my mind) uses the highway as, get this, their emergency airstrip. yup. there are random signs along the way with the image of a plane and a few hundred meters later there are white stripes painted across the road and then a few hundred meters later the second set of white stripes are painted across the road. i can only imagine what it must look like when they need to make such an emergency landing. someone in their car, totally dazed and hopped up on caffeine thinking “gee that plane looks close. is it getting closer? closer? closer!? aaaaaaah!”.

nothing else really exciting about the nullarbor.  there’s the occasional (poorly signed) turn off suggesting we go look at some special rock/outcrop/field but for the most part, our drive consists of this: shrubbery. road train road train road train. ‘roo carcass. road train. RFDS airstrip. shrubbery. trees. trees. shrubbery. ‘roo carcass. 

we are now more then 1/2 way across the continent

so, here we are on the eastern end of the nullabor, 2 full days of driving (and then some) later. thanks to good music (very cleverly wired in by john) and lots of caffeine- the drive was somewhat enjoyable.

we are now in a very random place called the nutbush resort (loose term here again), just outside of port augusta. there are hundreds of sheep baaa-ing, waiting to be sheared, nay, crotched (look it up...), right beside our "campsite". i think/fear that they will be lulling us to sleep shortly.

xo