Annelies woke us up at sunrise so we peed, dressed, wrapped up the tent, had breakfast, and set off to the ‘70s/’80s (?) music “On the Road Again” which had become our theme song!
It was a beautiful dry morning with lots of clouds in the sky and some sunshine. We are driving “Australia’s longest straight road – 146.6 km” or 90 miles.
We stopped in Balladonia where the Skylab space research laboratory crashed in 1979. The original entry location was planned for South Africa, but the lab burned up over the coast of Western Australia scattering pieces in a 150 k radius around Balladonia. NASA was issued a $400 littering fine which remained unpaid until a local radio station stepped up and paid it.
The Nullarbor incites freedom: freedom of thought, freedom of space, and freedom from all (or most of) man’s made needs and desires. Your mind is pulled into the moment like a magnet attracting a piece of metal towards it; it is too tired to worry about yesterday or tomorrow, and remains alert and sharp letting you experience the natural world which surrounds you. It is one of those rare places in the world where nature remains supreme.
There is nothing dull and boring about the Nullarbor; itssatbush landscapes and disappearing horizons hold boundless curious phenomenons begging to be understood and respected. In the past few blogs I have captured but a few of them.
We entered the town of Norseman, so called because of a horse. The information board told us that Laurie Sinclair tethered his horse one night and in the morning found the horse lame and with a sizeable chunk of gold bearing quartz in the horse’s hoof. The horse was named “Norseman”.
A little further on the road, we came to a town with some lovely metal camels and discovered a flowering gum plant. We then turned south and drove through a forest which had had a huge fire last November in which 4 people were killed, a local farmer and three German back packers. We stopped in Salmon Gum for the loo before heading past some little salt lakes. We came to Esperance and found ourselves back in the land of horses. We went to the supermarket, the bottle store, and then had lunch in a howling gale on the front.
A little further on the road, we came to a town with some lovely metal camels and discovered a flowering gum plant. We then turned south and drove through a forest which had had a huge fire last November in which 4 people were killed, a local farmer and three German back packers. We stopped in Salmon Gum for the loo before heading past some little salt lakes. We came to Esperance and found ourselves back in the land of horses. We went to the supermarket, the bottle store, and then had lunch in a howling gale on the front.
The final leg of our journey took us into Cape le Grande National Park and a camp site on the edge of the ocean. Before dinner Ray and I went for a beautiful hike on the Coastal Trail from Rossiter Bay to Lucky Bay where the camp site was. We hiked through the coastal heath, up over some rocky hills, and down into the heath; we went around some lovely bays, and then a final climb and descent onto the massively long beach of the camp site; we watched the sunset from the beach and the dying sun’s rainbow reflections in the water lapping on the shore. We watched some guys drive out for the sunset on the rocks, then head back along the beach. That was how we knew where the camp site was. We were the only two brave enough to do the hike, and we got back to the camp, just after dark, and just before dinner! It was a beautiful evening.
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