Well Day 2 of the Nullarbor crossing commences. We had set our alarm for 7am WA time which meant 5:30am SA time it went off buzzing. It was one of the worst nights sleep I'd had in a while, van rocking and noisy squealing wind. Oh well, l woke to a stunning sunrise, which was the first in a long time seeing l don't drag my butt out of bed for them anymore. I planned the night before that l would do my C25K run this morning, so up l got and set off. Felt like such an accomplishment running in the Nullarbor, for one running, and two by doing it on an ionic part of Australia. The road train truckies gave me a big wave and one even gave me a hoot on its horn. I bet there were a few confused people thinking l might have been one of those crazy people running the whole distance. Anyway, l felt like a billion bucks by the time I'd got back, super impressed with myself.
We were on the road by 9am SA time, which was actually 7:30am WA, the earliest either couple had been on the road ever. Amazing what a time zone change will do for travel times! We headed only 50kms down the road to the SA/WA border, all very excited. We had been warned that the quarantine was horrendous, very strict and time consuming. Well we must have come the day the slackers were rostered as we had a lovely stocky lady who was funny and actually looked over the car and van very quickly then took the girls inside for a quick education lesson on quarantine. Boo was super chuffed when she came out with colouring in pictures and info booklets, must have felt like she'd been at the show!
After a short stop for photos, we were off. The weather was again crap, cloudy, windy and now raining. There were no real lookouts to check out, and besides, the rain was a turn off. The only good thing about this wind and being so strong is that it was a tail wind, so in a sense we were getting pushed across the Nullarbor instead of having the head wind that we were expecting. No real sightseeing, the only interesting thing we saw was this cool roadhouse at Cocklebiddy which had amusing and quirky Australian humour written all over it with their signs and replica around the place. There was also four clocks above the counter, one with SA time, one Cocklebiddy time, one Balladonia time and Perth time. Very confusing to say the least.
We actually got on the 90 mile straight after lunch in the early arvo when everyone was going a bit loony. The 90 mile straight is the longest straight stretch of road in Australia. It has literally no bends in the road for 146.6kms!! We knew it would be boring but god it felt like forever and when we actually finished it and turned the steering wheel around a slight bend there was cheering over the UHF. Matty had started going a bit kookoo before the 90 mile straight and by the time we had reached Norseman he was definitely over the edge!!
It had been a long day in the car, around 9 hours in total and our bumbs were so numb!! The kids were bloody insane and ran around crazy at the tourist info place, letting off a few days worth of energy in a matter of minutes. I imagined this is what an asylum would be like, that's how cabin crazy everyone was. Matty had even started pronouncing Norseman as if he was a retard or deaf, which had us all in hysterics. Little did we know that this pronunciation would stick forever anytime we said 'Norseman'!! The info lady wasn't too helpful for free camps and there was no was we were paying $35 pn for a caravan park here. So we had passed a rest area that had a concrete slab as we drove into town, so we headed there and set up for the night. We have now got it down pat that kids and us do separate vans for dinner and evenings, which after spending 9 hours in the car with them we were all glad for the break. My chicken curry that l had prepared the night before was amazing, cooked to perfection in our new toy, the Thermopot!! It's like a slow cooker but doesn't need any gas or electricity. Just another thing we have picked up on due to traveling with new people. Like I've said before, we learn a new way of doing things with every couple or family we meet. Was quite funny that we were all ready for bed at 7pm, this time difference thing is what l would think jet lag was like. Anyway, not much more to say except it had rained the whole day and actually begun to bucket down as we went to sleep!!! Hopefully we will sleep more than the last few nights!!!
To summarise our Nullarbor experience, l will state that the SA side is much more stunning with the lookouts to see of yhe Great Australian Bight but the WA side did have the ionic 90 mile stretch and quirky roadhouses. I now have a much greater appreciation of what nothingness is and what it looks like.....But l must hand it to the kids, they did well, we even got some school done which was good. Great we did get to tick off another thing of our list which was to cross the Nullarbor, and we even stayed married!! Lol.....
Bell Xxx