2023.12 - Crossing the Nullarbor Plain

Xander, Leanne & Erica go for a really big drive.

This post is part of my epic summer 2023/2024 road trip adventure, spanning Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania, also featuring Leanne and cameos from other adventurers.

To start at the beginning click here.

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Caiguna Blowhole

The Nullarbor Plain is a lot of driving with not much to see or do, we made a point of stopping to checkout any interesting land forms we found along the way.

The first such stop was the Caiguna Blowhole, which is part of a much, much larger cave network spreading throughout the Nullarbor. Notable for being the driest Karst (limestone) area in the world, and having prominent ‘breathing’ (due to their small openings) with wind speeds of 72kph having been recorded.

The Caiguna Blowhole is filled with rubble, leaving only a small opening to what lays beyond, but when you crouch down it's easy to feel the movement in the air.

Wear and Tear

As the journey wore on so did our makeshift bike cover. It was also around this time that we realised our fridge was struggling to stay cool again.

State Border

The border village was one of the few places we had stable phone reception on this leg of the journey, so we lost an hour catching up on some urgent life admin, but we still took a moment to appreciate the local ‘big thing’ featuring a spectacular Aussie mashup.

The Great Australian Bite

After you cross the border you are still very remote, the quarantine for South Australia isn’t for quite a while, the next day in our case, instead you get to enjoy some spectacular cliff views in the no man’s land in between.

The light was fading as we rushed between each of these viewpoints, but that made for some spectacular sights.

The only downside being that when we checked into the Nullabor Roadhouse at what we thought was 6:05pm butwas actually 9:05pm and the attendant was trying to close for the day. Needless to say, no pub meal for us that night, and given the time it was straight to bed.

The Next Big Thing!

The next day we reentered civilisation, replaced our vegetables and found some new Archies for me.

Continuing on we passed through Kimba, a town proud of being the halfway point across Australia and featuring The Big Galah. We made galahs of ourselves trying to trying to match it’s pose.

Flinders Rangers

The closer we got to Port Augusta the more the limestone fell away and was replaced by iron ore country resembling the Pilbara. We drove straight through town and onto the mountain pass.

Distractions

Entering the mountains, with Melrose less than an hour away we began to get excited and distractible. The first thing to catch my eye was a mountain bike trail-head. Online information on this trail wasn’t forthcoming, but I later found out it loosely follows the highway down the mountains to the east.

The circumstances where it would work well are few, but eastbound mountain bikers could use this spot to unload there bikes and have some passengers ride down the range instead of drive.

Lookout

A little further along the road we followed a sign for a lookout which gave us sweeping, but glarey views over the Spencer Gulf.

Melrose

We made it to Melrose well into the evening local time where we were met by Alan, Leanne and Erica’s dad, along with my dog-in-law Echo.

It was past 8 by the time we stepped into a local pub and they seemed like they had been closing up. That being said the lady working the bar was very quick to change gears and provide us all with a hearty meal which we enjoyed together gazing up at Mount Remarkable.

Reflections

Looking back over our time crossing the Nullarbor I was left with the feeling that the detours weren’t worth it.

I love Esperance, and could probably spend a whole summer there, or even live there, but trying to make a visit work on a tight schedule just wasn’t worth it. We didn’t get the weather or time to enjoy it properly, and the 3 extra days would have been more valuable further from home.

If you’re a Western Australian heading east keep Esperance for it’s own trip and cross the Nullarbor as quickly as you can safely manage. I also recommend splurging on comfort, 10-15 hour days in the car are much more tolerable if you have a soft bed and hot meal lined up for the end of the day.

Trail Tip

One thing that did work well for the long driving stints was finding an audiobook we could all agree on.

For us that was Daughter of the Deep by Rick Riordan. This is a new book by Leanne’s favourite fantasy author set in a world inspired by 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea.

The themes of ocean and adventure are very relatable for Leanne and myself. Plus Erica and I enjoyed laughing at the inexplicably sexy intonation of the narrator.

Links

Daughter of the Deep - goodreads.com

Next post Monday 2024.03.11

At last we unwrap our bikes and get to experience all the mountain biking that Melrose has to offer. Join myself and Leanne as we warm up at the Willowie Forrest Trails, ride crowd favourites like Dodging Bullets and Casting Copper, then ruin ourselves on the Mount Remarkable Epic Trail.