Crossing the Nullarbor Plains

We hit the road early, for us anyway. We left Haslam @ 8.30am and we had a total 1270km ahead of us. But we were prepared. We were told to fuel up at certain petrol stations as they have the cheapest fuel. We topped up at Ceduna before starting our long trip. 

First day we travelled 468kms. Which got us 100kms East of the WA border on the Bunda Cliffs at Dorry Lookout.

The start of the drive across the Nullarbor was quite hilly and trees were as tall and thick as some of the  bush around home. It felt like the ocean was ages away. The road was  windy as well. We past a couple of the Nullarbor golf link holes.

The first petrol station we came to was Nundroo, one of the ones we were told to fill up at. $1.42 per litre pretty good. We had paid that on the Eyre. We let the boys out to stretch their legs. We saw a Victorian couple (Sandra & Woody) pull in and fuel up, we ended up following this couple all the way across.

The landscape changed slightly I’m guessing due to shallower dirt and the cliffs starting and coming in close. Trees weren’t as high and thinned out.

Then it became more arid. Small shrubs, a bit more dirt. The changes in a few hours were amazing. The land was still undulating more than I expected.

We stopped at the Nullarbor Plain sign and saw a car with a Shepparton on there license plate. So we said g’day to them. Then Sandra and Woody pulled in behind us so we introduced ourselves.



We moved on. Not far up the road we came to The Head of the Bight. To my surprise there were sand dunes to the East and to the West were the most beautiful cliffs. And out in front nothing, not one thing for hundreds of miles.



This was roughly where we expected to get to for the first night but we were all traveling really well so we pushed on. We went into two different camps along the cliffs until we camp across the one we were happy with.



We got all setup then Woody and Sandra pulled in and set up camp too.



I have been so worried about the boys going near the edge and Matt kept telling me I was overprotective but after seeing the overhang on some of the cliffs and this massive fracture in the cliff I don’t think I have been overprotective at all.



I even found a wildflower while exploring with the boy’s.



This experience is one I would recommend to everyone and I’m so glad we did it. Staying the night on the cliffs was breathtaking. Watching the sunset, so fast and watching the sunrise was just one of those moments that I know will stay with me forever.



Sunrise



We hit the road early again. Wasn’t long until we got the Great Australian Bight lookout . which is the first lookout of the Bight coming from the West. It was so different then the start of the Bight on the Eastern side. There where cliffs to the East but they had got smaller and  to the west you could see sand. Little beaches. There where camps along this part which next time I would like to stay at.  

From here it wasn’t long til we came to Border Village. Apparently the dearest petrol coming across so I checked out the price. And yep it was (We didn’t fuel up  here). 

Our phones automatically changed the 3 hours before we even got to the border. We had left that morning at 8.30am when our phones changed back the time was 7.30am. It was going to be along day.     

We got a great young guy at quarantine and he only searched our food areas which was good.

Eucla is only 5 minutes down the road, with cheaper fuel so we fuelled up ($1.68) and took a drive down to the telegraph station. The sand dunes are slowly moving and covering it up. 

Going to telegraph station I was surprised that we went down a steep hill then I realised it was actually the cliffs, they  leave the coast and head inland. As you head west from Eucla you actually go down through them and travel along the bottom of them until Madura. 

We were so out of whack with the time that we all ate our lunch at 9am WA time. 

We put more fuel in at Madura ($1.73), saw the people from Shepparton again. We thought that this would be be our camp for the night but it was way too early to pull over so we kept driving. At Madura we drove back up on top of the cliffs/ridge. It was pretty cool at the start as you could still see the land down below. You couldn’t really see the cliffs. Then we got further away and it was just plains. It was up here that we came across the most road kill every couple of hundred meters.

Wasn’t long after here that we came across the longest straight bit of road. I drove all of it except the last 5kms.  

It was at this point that we had both had enough so we started checking out some of the camps and decided that our second one was the one, Afghan Rocks. It was a great spot and we had a fire. We were only about 5kms from Balladonia.  

Through the 650kms that we travelled that day we saw so many changes in the landscape but unfortunate I didn’t take many photos. The heights of the shrubs changed from short to tall and the thickness of the shrubs changed be scattered to becoming a forest. It was amazing. Every few hundred kilometres it would change. 

We also saw a few beautiful, big wedge tailed eagles. 

The next morning we  fuelled up at Balladonia, $1.78.  The landscape across got quite thick and tall, a real forest.

   
   We planned on staying at Norseman the night but when we got there it was only lunchtime so we drove around then decided to head to Kaligoorlie. 

Throughout our trip over we discussed how so many people think this is boring but we found it interesting how much the landscape actually changes. I would say it wasn’t  as interesting after living the cliffs but then there was some stations and some pretty good camps. So I guess it really depends on what you call interesting.

Take care. Xo