We made it!!
Trip Start
Apr 20, 2009
1
33
79
Trip End
Sep 06, 2009
Esperance, Western Australia, Australia
Friday, June 5, 2009
The trip itself is amazing - the landscape is everchanging - one minute its totally bare with no trees, water or anything else, the next its small salt and blue bushes and nothing else. Then the road butts right up against the Baxter Cliffs and from the roadside we could see whales playing in the ocean. There are massive craters in the land - the Nullarbor was once part of the seabed and it is riddled with sinkholes, caverns and caves. There are occasional places for the cars to pull in and rest and random emergency phones (one of which was stolen - very handy) and Emergency Flying Doctor landing stips on the highway.
Thursday morning we got up and went to the Head of Bight which is the very middle of the Great Australian Bight. The Aboriginies own this part of the Nullarbor and have set up a viewing site to see the whales which use this area to have their calves. The day we went there were some whales about 2kms to the east of the Bight - we could only just see the blowing, but the view itself was amazing and it was great to be somewhere that we had heard so much about at school.
We then drove for miles (and miles and miles) and we saw whales up nice and close to the coast as we were driving - so we pulled over and watched them play for a while. We finally hit the WA border which was very exciting! We put our clocks back 45 mins (i know - for the first part of the drive the locals operate on Central Western Time which is different to Perth time) and we went through our first manned checkpoint where the car was searched (for fruit, honey and of course when they see a kombi and boards - drugs :) although they didnt say that). We then stopped at the first town we had seen in ages (and it consisted of a petrol station, caravan park and motel) Eucla. We drove to the Eucla Telegraph Station - opened in 1877 as the station that linked WA to the rest of Oz. It was to be the site for the town, but a rabbit plague in the 1890s destroyed vegetation and destabilised the local sandhills and the buildings were covered in sand. We continued driving till we got to Caiguna - the next roadhouse where we stayed the night.
We got up early this morning (set our clock to Perth time) and started our drive with the longest straight stretch of road in Australia which runs for 90 miles or 146.6kms and it was bloody straight! The signs along the road warned us of Emus, Kangaroos and - Camels. We believed them about the kangaroos - WA do not cull roos and there would have been 1 every 10kms sometimes less (there was one point where there was 5 in a space of 10meters). We did not believe them about the camels and for days we made jokes about camels. This morning when i put my head down to read something, John started screaming "CAMEL CAMEL!" and there, on the side of the road was a MASSIVE dead camel! Amazing - and we believe them now.
We drove for miles (and miles and miles again, this time through patches of rain) and finally made it to the first large town - Norseman - named after a horse that scratched the surface of the ground with his hoof and found gold. We continued to drive and finally made it to Esperance. We have just cleaned up the kombi and are working out what we will do for the next few days. At this stage we are staying here for 2 nights.
Stats for everyone for the past few days -
Day 1 - Port Augusta to Nullarbor Roadhouse - 845kms, $196.93 on fuel, $22 on accomodation
Day 2 - Nullarbor Roadhouse to Naiguna Roadhouse - 530kms, $172 on fuel, $25 on accomodation
Day 3 - Naiguna Roadhouse to Esperance - 589kms, $88.29 on fuel (and an empty tank now), $30 on accomodation
Dead animal count so far (entire trip) (the rules - has to be fresh, and did not count dead wallabies on Kangaroo Island - they were every 2 kms)
Roos - 48
Wombats - 12
Foxes - 6
Rabbits - 4
Possums - 2
Magpies - 1
Sheep - 2
Deers - 1
Echidnas - 1
Cats - 1
Eagles - 1
Camel - 1
Cars - 7
Total kms so far - 7597
Total cost of fuel - $1638
Most expensive fuel (premium) - 182.9 (middle of the nullarbor)
Cheapest fuel (premium) - 118.5 (melbourne)
Total cost of accomodation - $1177
Repairs to Kombi - Slave cylinder and clutch - $850
States to date - 5 (NSW, ACT, VIC, SA, WA)
Comments
kazjohnmum
Just checked the map. It must have been hard getting the Kombi over all that water!!
Re: kazjohnmum
Your right - i fixed it, its hard though cause some of the locations dont exist and so i have to put somewhere thats sort of close.
kazjohnmum
Thats a nice new photo you have on your homepage!
Re: kazjohnmum
yeah I agree :) That's a great photo of you guys!
So where to next?