Nullarbor...ing

Happy to say the Nullarbor is done because on the whole, it was a complete bore.  I was particularly annoyed most days as the wind was around the clock in my face full on.  It never quit.  Headwind, headwind and more headwind.  It wasn’t fun and this stretch reminded me of the desert crossing in Turkmenistan. 

If you want to know what it felt like crossing the Nullarbor just park yourself in front of three or four fans and turn them all on full blast.  That is more or less what we had to contest with.  Right from the get go when we woke up straight into the night.  Even when setting up and packing away our camping gear the wind was super annoying blowing everything away.  I was yelling at it pretty much every day for a good few hours.  If you passed me on the road I probably looked like a crazy person just yelling at no one.  Trevor can tolerate wind better than me.  He never got pissed but got pissed at me for getting pissed at the wind. 

It took about 10 days to cross the Nullarbor from Norseman to Ceduna covering about 1200km in the process.  If the wind wasn’t mental in our face every day we probably could have done this much quicker.  But of course the wind enjoys toying with me.  I feel whatever direction I am going the wind gods that be will go out of their way to throw strong winds my way.  Then laugh at me while I get annoyed. 

The scenery was rather dull as one would expect.  Just a lot of bush.  One section called the Nullarbor Plain was treeless. 

We met lots of friendly people en route and a couple of them gave us their fruit as one cannot bring fruit over the state borders.  So we gobbled up the free handouts on the spot. 

After finishing up the Nullarbor in Ceduna it actually got even more boring as the terrain was just wheat fields all around.  We passed through small towns that looked like ghost towns from the early 20^th century. 

We are now heading south towards Adelaide and are just outside a town called Wilmington.  Looking forward to the latter half of Australia.  Just hope that the wind will calm the fudge down from here on and stay out of my face.  Unfortunately I am not that optimistic. 

Leaving Esperance I was fully stocked to the max with many bags of oats and muslei, canned spaghetti and pasta.  This is what I ate for about 2 weeks straight.  Had some difficulty early on packing everything.  I managed in the end but it felt like I was driving a tank. 

A dried up salt lake.

One thing the Outback provides is great photo opportunities for sunsets and sunrises.  

The start of the 90 mile.  I had plenty of podcasts to listen to so it wasn’t that bad.  But it could have been a lot better if the wind cooperated. 

A roo.  We saw many and I learned on one of my podcasts that kangaroos provide one of the most environmentally friendly meats as they don’t emit much methane like cows.  I would be keen to try some roo meat if the opportunity presents itself.

Enter South Australia.  Nice start but that soon wore off as the shoulder disappeared and the rest areas weren’t all that great compared to Western Australia.  Definitely like Western Australia better.  

The Bunda Cliffs. 

Dying of dehydration.  Really frustrating with the water situation on the Nullarbor as we couldn’t always rely on every roadhouse or water tank to provide water.  This particular day was the worst as the heat increased big time and we had to cover about 180km without any place to top up on water.  I was completely drained and had to lie down as I wasn’t hydrated.  I went through about 7 litres or so that day.  Cannot emphasize enough how important water is, especially in the driest state in the driest country in the world.  The following day I barely made it to the Nullarbor roadhouse.    

Pretty hardcore to cross the Nullarbor on this bike I must say.  Respect.  

Bandito Trevor.  He has been having problems with his lip as it stings like crazy in the sun.  So he is resorting to this look right now.

Trevor in Ceduna downing some vanilla custard.  It had been almost 2 weeks since we stocked up in Esperance so it was really nice to go in a supermarket once again even though it was Foodland and not a Coles or Woolworths.  Unfortunately I was off my game and missed a number of reduced dairy items and dropped my blackberry jam outside.  Perhaps all the excitement of being at a supermarket got to me.

Had a few kangaroos jump out in front of us on one occasion but they probably should post more cautionary emu signs.  Those birds go crazy when they see us coming and really book it.  Just these past few days I saw a few sprint and crash right into these barb wire fences.  I felt a bit bad when I saw them do this as we of course mean no harm. 

Well said.

And well named.

Getting there slowly but surely...

The most dangerous thing we have to deal with are road trains.  Really have to be careful when they zoom by as you sometimes get a wind rush and get tossed around.  Not fun.  This huge piece of machinery pictured has to be the largest we have seen transported thus far.  As you can see it took up both lanes so I took a breather on the side while it went on through.  Many heavy duty mining equipment is transported back and forth. 

We made it to Port Augusta today and went to our first Coles since Albany many, many kilometres ago.  So there was reason to celebrate.  As such, I splurged and went for the Tim Tam slam.  Grant introduced us to this back in Perth and it is genius.  Get some Tim Tams and a drink of your choice.  Milk is always a good option.  Bite off a bit from opposite ends and then use it as a straw in your selected beverage.  It tastes really good.  Who would have thought using your chocolate biscuit as a straw… genius I say.  Genius.  I now want to experiment with Twix and Aero bars as we don’t have Tim Tams back home.  Argh.