January 9, 2017

OUR NULLARBOR ROAD TRIP Dec 2016 – Jan 2017

We did this trip to explore, learn and holiday together, NOT to just cross the country but to have new experiences – so most days we kept driving down to 4 to 6 hours.  To prepare for our 9 day road trip I researched printed out maps, noted points of interest, roughly worked out our timeline but not too tightly scheduled, and very importantly as our 13 year old was travelling with us and wifi and phone reception were limited I printed out lots of road trip things to do – spotto, scavenger hunts, logo bingo, roadtrain/truck spotting, word search and games such as tic tac toe, battleships, dot to dot etc.  They all worked brilliantly and most I got for free from internet searches (tip watch out for US centric ones though you need Australian ones!). READINESS WAS KEY to be READY SET GO…..

I actively encourage you to do this trip, the learning experience is valuable and the amazing things to see and do are wondrous!

WA GOLDFIELDS LEG

DAY 1 – Nature and BBQ shock

27 December 2016 we collected the hire car in Perth, intending to look around Perth before we took off on our adventure, however soon we found ourselves out of Perth and on the road.  We decided to NOT go via Kalgoorlie instead we headed south inland.

OVERNIGHT STOP: Hyden (approximately 330km outside of Perth)  – a small regional area ‘famous’ for a geographical feature called Wave Rock.  Robin had heard of Wave Rock as a young child so had some interest visiting here – me I knew nothing, and was happy to be informed, Kira well she had little interest really:-(

Nothing much in this town except the Wave Rock (see pic below so named re looks like a surfing wave) and nearby Hippos Yawn formation. Not open when we were there but may be of interest is a War Re-creation/Toy museum. I note the local tourist brochure was  trying to promote a 2 day experience at Hyden – to keep your interest and $ there.  If you did stay longer than a quick stop/overnight I’d think it’s best in wildflower season (when ever that is).

Easy access to the Rock and Hippos Yawn – mostly quick visit sites.  There is a small ($10 a car I think) fee to enter the ‘park’.  We were surprised at how many people were there, as really the township is out of the way for usual routes – but hey it attracted buses and lots of individual road trippers. Here is my tripadvisor review.

SUMMARY: interesting enough but a bit of a drive if not already going this way.  Probably good for school kids to view to learn more about formations. TICK DONE.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That evening we stayed at the Hyden Rock Wave Motel – the motel was fine plus had a pool we used. Strangely enough it had 3 bibles in our one room though???? However for dinner we were in for a shock.  The Bush Bistro was basically pay between $25 and $35 for your meat (even if just sausages) and then go to the BBQ and cook it yourself!  Yes there was a small buffet of basic items included but really, zero service and we did not find it quaint to experience Aussie BBQ at that price (not at our tiredness levels) BUT we were stuck with it as there was no where else to eat.  So we did. Here is my tripadvisor review.

DAY 2 – Cyclonic Cold Snap

We decided to visit Esperance approx 380 km down on the south coast before turning back to the start of the Nullarbor leg (Norseman).  We could have taken a dirt road direct from Hyden to Norseman but went the longer route, hoping for some gorgeous beachside scenery.  We passed the first of many animal crossing signs that are dotted throughout our trip – this one was in classic Mallee Scrub and naturally Mallee Fowl (we didn’t see any 🙁  ) but the sign was fun even if it was VERY cold walking back to the sign for the photo:-)

 

There was a cyclone hanging around and the weather was not travel friendly.  Dark looming clouds and on arrival in Esperance cold and windy:-( Poor weather certainly impacts your impression of a place. To us Esperance just looked like a typical seaside township.  The waterfront strip IS attractive and well maintained, but as we’re Gold Coasters we didn’t see anything extra special here.  I do understand it’s extremely popular for holidays (in fact originally I planned for us to overnight here but NO accommodation was available). Later in our trip I realised we should have stopped at the ‘skylab’ location that I saw a sign for as we drove past, (in truth I didn’t know debris also landed here – until we got to Balladonia and the big skylab debris).

Esplanade roundabout

Cold and Windy

Lots of garden pathways

We stopped for (i) quick look (ii) lunch at a kebab shop that was extremely slow (but good tasting kebabs, despite the occasional stink coming from the shop) and (iii) supplies at IGA – lots of water and car snacks.  Then we took to the road again for the approx 200 km drive north to Norseman.

OVERNIGHT STOP: Norseman.  We had not pre booked anything so Robin just drove and found the Railway Hotel – every town has one:-).  This one was very dated (in fact crumbling building) and at first I thought maybe not a good choice.  In the end it was a good room with spa AND wifi that we all used.  The hotel was full of character, sweeping down the staircase I  imagined the prior grandeur of the place and history. Plus the very cheap price. $99 for 3 of us, I think, included self serve brekky the next day.  For dinner I walked down the interesting main street to the pub and I picked up food for all (Pizza from memory). All that was missing to complete the picture was the tumbleweed – even the local Kingdom Hall of Jehovah Witness was for sale!).

SUMMARY: Unseasonal cold and windy day however all rested and ready to start the Nullarbor crossing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EUCLA LEG

DAY 3 – Spaced Out, Emu Excitement and RFDS encounter

Today we made our way to Cocklebiddy (approx 440 km East).  To our delight this was a genuine thrill a minute drive.

First Balladonia Roadhouse (my tripadvisor review here).  A rather interesting museum (free entry) with SYLAB debris and lots more; animal poo samples, wood samples, history of local caves, general region history etc.

I couldn’t resist purchasing skylab tourist items, plus some gifts for the grandkids – certainly unique.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a disruptive car issue just after leaving the roadhouse, but eventually sorted that out.  Then WOW the first thing we saw was a tall Emu crossing the road right in front of us (and I mean right in front of us, by the time we realised what it was and slowed down it was just an arms length away). Strolling it was, talking it’s time (although we all missed grabbing cameras to capture it as it was such a delighted surprise).  The Emu stopped, looked at us as if to say g’day then strolled on over the road.  Sounds silly I know but that excited us all.  We SHOULD have expected it as there are signs to flag animals cross the highway (image below).

 

Somewhere around there we came to  Australia’s (and possibly the world’s) longest straightest road known as 90 miles straight (146.6 km see pic).  It’s straight for sure but not FLAT – there are small ups and downs.  It does however result in illusionary mirage like  effects.  And we all experienced the same effects/mirages, not just the driver. It was a very interesting experience.

 

The next thrill was an unusual (for us) sign ahead – and a change to the highway.  Turned out it was used by the Royal Flying Doctor Service as an emergency runway!  (later we came across more of these but have to say this first one was rather exciting).

Then just before Caiguna there was a sign for “Caiguna Blowhole Information” (I knew there was  a blowhole but assumed it was closer to the coast) – so when we turned off the Eyre Highway, all of 50 metres, and the info board was there it was a puzzle – UNTIL Robin turned around and said hey maybe that hole over there is it and BINGO it was!  It wasn’t exactly what I was expecting but it was a blowhole nevertheless and was part of the many caves and caverns under the Nullarbor.  We stayed for a picnic lunch there. Corny I know but rather enjoyable actually even though it was middle of the day it was still windy and a little cold thanks to the cyclone.  We drove on and spotted 2 people WALKING the Nullarbor (I had walkers on the spotto list 🙂 )  We also went through another RFDS landing strip – no planes 🙁

We missed the turnoff to the Cocklebiddy Caves (pic right). Apparently it’s not signposted but those in the know know.  Well we didn’t and did miss it.

We could have turned back when at Cocklebiddy but we didn’t as we were told you can only go to the entrance not into the caves unless licensed and with diving gear. The pic on the right comes from one at the roadhouse.

 

 

OVERNIGHT STOP: Cocklebiddy Roadhouse (my tripadvisor review here). Probably the worst of all the motels we stayed at on the trip. We did have a nice apple crumble though and the meals were giant truckie sized and good enough however the room smelt of cigarettes:-(  When grabbing dinner to take back to our room I noted the 2 walkers we spotted earlier had made their way here for the evening.

A bonus for us was that the roadhouse had 2 quaint ageing technology items that amused us all (a working very old jukebox and a frogger/pac-man machine).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another sign that amused us was this one (below) remember the old don’t ask for credit signs well WATER is so precious in the Outback/Nullarbor it is now expressed similar to that credit sign.  OK maybe we’re easily amused or maybe straight road driving tires the mind??? I prefer to see it as simple pleasures can bring great enjoyment:-)

PS for golfers all the stops are part of the Nullarbor Golf Links where you play a round at each place to complete the full course from Kalgoorlie to Ceduna (or vice versa).

Originally I wanted to stay at the Eyre Bird Sanctuary (coastal where more than 230 bird species live – now WHO would expect THAT on the Nullarbor?).  However there had been a fire there earlier in 2016 and they were closed until early 2017, plus due to the fire it wasn’t as glorious as at other times.  Which means NEXT trip we’ll stay there:-)

We did however spot a number of different bird and animal varieties in our travels, I had prepared a birds of the Nullarbor list to help us identify them:-)  We also saw a stub tailed lizard.

By the way we made the error of thinking that all of these locations were towns – almost ALL are simply a roadhouse with motel rooms! (check out Cocklebiddy sign above:-)

SUMMARY: An exciting day full of surprises and events.

DAY 4 – Wedge-tail Eagles, Roadkill, an Unexpected Lookout, Whales and White White Sand

Today we headed for the Border (WA/SA), we had a booking at Border Village (approx 284 km away).

The roadside was literally littered with roadkill in various states of decay, a few times we stopped and studied (studied NOT touched) some bones, with me expecting snakes at every turn as all roadhouses had poisonous snakes on display and warnings to visitors to report all snakes.

We were all taken by surprise at one stage with a recently killed kangaroo in the middle of the road being eaten by a wedge-tail eagle.  We stopped but mostly missed catching the incredible close up view on camera that we got when we first saw it.  Turned out there were 2 wedge-tail eagles eating away.  We got some distance shots (below).  But for the 3 of us the up close view in the middle of the road was an experience for sure!  On the walk back to the car we spotted shells on the roadside which is an indicator of historical geographical formation, and were also on the road trip spotto I had put together for Kira to do.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another surprise awaited us there was a sign for a turnoff to a LOOKOUT.  I said to Robin “what? how can there be a lookout when we’re on flat ground?”  Surprise – driving 150 meters or so into the lookout and to our shock we were actually on a plateau which is called ‘The Madura Pass’ Lookout.  It had nice sweeping views (pic below) and for the shock alone was worth the minor minor detour.  (note driving further on it is obvious that you are driving down so there would not have been a shock driving west but driving east it was:-)

Also on the road trip spotto I created was Whales and Whale Bones and we certainly got those. Whale Bones were located at Mundrabilla (where apparently there used to be a small pet farm – but not there anymore) whale bones in the image below were still there. Robin laughed as he had seen them on the spotto list and had thought I was crazy.

Eucla (lots about this lovely place below) also had a giant whale (pic below), as did the Nullarbor roadhouse (more later).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We travelled on 3 more RFDS runways during this leg of the trip.

Stopping at Madura Roadhouse curiosity got to me as I had seen the sign (image left) at some other roadhouses.  SO I said to the bar maid ‘Ok I bite what does it mean’.  She explained – it was amusing and an innovative way to raise funds for the Flying Doctors.  I’m not posting what it was here for all to see, if interested ask me:-)  ps some signs have an S before the TY.

Driving on from Madura we started to get a look at what turned out to be the start of breathtaking scenery. The combination of this scenery change and the on going mirage effects was alluring and kept us all guessing what we were approaching:

Was it snow, was it waterfalls, was it a city, was it a spaceship?? (see pic below)? And NO we hadn’t been drinking anything except water, and coffee for the driver.

It was EUCLA – Well the white was actually the amazing white white sand of the Eucla National Park. Eucla Roadhouse is on top of a cliff with a nice drive down to the Eucla Old Telegraph station (buried in the sand) and the national park.   I so wish we had stayed here – even a 2 night stop would be worth it.  NEXT TIME.  Here is my tripadvisor review.  I suggested to Robin that even though we had pre booked Border Village (just 12 km down the road) that no $ had been exchanged and we could cancel and stay at Eucla – it WAS tempting, but those who know us know we’re people of our word with high integrity so we didn’t do that.

What we did do was this though – we checked out the Eyre memorial and museum at Eucla, drove to the old telegraph station, that had played a critical part in Australian History and Telecommunications,  (my tripadvisor review here), and ate a yummy burger at the roadhouse. note: the food to date hadn’t been bad – most places mastered burgers and fries to an old fashioned juicy large beef pattie standard. Kira was pleased with Chicken Schnitzel, Spaghetti Bolognese and Ham and Cheese sandwiches along the way. We hadn’t had our usual supply of fruit and salads though.  And according to my research fruit and vegies were taken off you at Border Village so we consumed the last of our Esperance supplies at Eucla.

Seriously Eucla was an oasis for sure there was even a gorgeous flower garden created for outdoor eating.  I do STRONGLY Recommend this as a must stop on the trip. There were lots of typical outback sticky flies (as there were elsewhere) but by then we were used to them.  Many pictures below on Eucla to enjoy.

 

Driving Down to the Old Station	Changes Red to White Sand
First Sighting of the Station	What you see depends on the shifting sands
Doorway lots of buried rooms	Inside

How time Flies…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And at the Memorial and Museum

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OVERNIGHT: Border Village.  So after that Eucla Oasis we drove the short trip to Border Village to be greeted by a very ugly giant red kangaroo and a world cities sign post.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was nobody at the border crossing so we just drove through.  Later I hear it is mostly for East to West travellers not West to East and we did get a fruit and vegie check at Ceduna later.

Here is my Border Village tripadvisor review

 

SUMMARY: a whale of a time – a day full of surprises, things to do and see and learn about.

NULLARBOR LEG

DAY 5: GLORIOUS GLORIOUS BEAUTY – STUNNING STUNNING SCENES

 

WOW Day 5 was amazing – we had already had lots of excitement, surprises and things to do and learn about – on this day, the last of 2016, we soaked ourselves in glorious natures beauty which was exactly what we wanted to do to end the year.

Interesting fact even though the entire trip is referred to as Crossing the Nullarbor this leg from Border Village to the Nullarbor Roadhouse (approx 184 km) is the only part that actually crosses the real Nullarbor Plain and even weirder fact the crossing parallels the coast and is mostly all about ocean views and the stunning Bunda Cliffs and Head of Bight!

First our animal crossing sign changed replacing emus with wombats (image right).

Between Border Village and the Nullarbor Roadhouse, where we chose to stay for New Years Eve, are a number of lookouts over the Bunda Cliffs. we especially wanted this unique experience.  Where you visually see and experience the edge of a continent with a sheer drop that merges desert into the ocean. We were NOT disappointed!  Well 2 of the lookouts were closed so we only got to see an un named lookout plus 3 named others before the Nullarbor roadhouse then the Head of Bight viewing post the roadhouse.  But still it was stunning especially lookout 2 – it has a dramatic walk to the very edge (get dizzy and afraid you will fall or the cliffs will crumble feeling). We visited all looks outs that were open.  I should have packed a picnic lunch to enjoy and just sit and enjoy the visual delights!  Each lookout has it’s own merits, for us number 2 was dramatic up close and personal all others were distant views and entirely worthy.  At one (number 3 I think) there was a bus (small) of tourists where their noise detracted from the peace and enjoyment so we didn’t stay there long.

The pictures below tell the story, no words needed (click on pic for a larger view):

The signs of wear and tear and cracking were there – which only means over time more of the cliffs will subside into the ocean so GO SEE THEM!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE HEAD OF BIGHT
Here is my tripadvisor review. 

DO NOT MISS this when in this area! Glorious views west to the Bunda cliffs, and east to (I have no idea) and during Whale Season (June to October) this is apparently a popular whale watching spot.  It’s beautiful with easy walk boardwalks and viewing platforms see pics below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stunning colours

Could watch for hours

Before we went to Head of Bight we had lunch at the Roadhouse – THE BEST FISH BURGER I have ever eaten.  White white delicious fish coated in

pepper and fresh fresh salad on the burger bun.  Maybe I was just hungry but honestly it was delicious.  We discovered later that night that the Nullarbor Roadhouse must have fantastic chefs as we had gourmet tempura fish, prawns, an amazing warm chicken salad and a very tasty beef and Guinness delight for our NY eve feast washed down with Moet of course:-)  the pic on the right does not do the salad and pie justice.

We welcomed in 2017 at the Nullarbor Roadhouse!  Kira put on an evening dress and entertained us with twirling of glow sticks. Later in the evening we went outside to a clear clear evening sky to spot the galaxies – and we did easily observe The Magellanic Clouds – but sadly it was VERY VERY COLD (still thanks to the cyclone) and Kira and I went back indoors – so slack we should have put on more clothes and observed more, given the unique opportunity we had.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SUMMARY: SIMPLY STUNNING DAY

CEDUNA LEG

DAY 6 – Oyster Feast

We hit the road to make it to Ceduna (approx 400 km away) for lunch. Ceduna is apparently known for their Oysters and we planned to have an Oyster feast for NY Day. Nothing much happened on this leg. We got there and had to pass a fruit and vegie inspection on entry to the township.

We easily found the Foreshore area and a restaurant – where we indulged in Oysters, and Kira had Blinis – she loved the Blinis so much she had a second serving!  Here is my tripadvisor review.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Who expected prawns, oysters, fish, and salad on crossing the Nullarbor?

That ended the journey – well no it didn’t we then travelled to Port Augusta and onto the Gold Coast via Broken Hill, Bourke, Lightning Ridge, Cobar and Moree. Travelling more than 5,000 km in total from Perth to our home on the east coast. However I’ll stop there as this post is about the crossing of the Nullarbor – Sneak pics of Back of Bourke and Lightning Ridge below fyi:-)

I highly recommend all Australians and visitors to do this trip, the learning experience is valuable and the amazing things to see and do are wondrous!  In fact I think all politicans especially the Prime Minister and Cabinet SHOULD all do this trip to get to know More about this great wide land!