Well, I guess this was the big bit for us. The Nullarbor Plain is one part of the flat, arid, almost treeless area, that connects Southern Australia with Western Australia but somehow 'Crossing the Nullarbor' now refers to crossing the whole expanse from Ceduna in the east to Norseman in the west - a distance of 1202km, 747miles or 12 hours and 18 mins of continuous driving at 100km/hr (the speed limit for trucks and large vehicles such as ours)! The name comes from Nullus Arbor, which means treeless plain, and the Nullarbor is the world's largest limestone plain covering over 20,000 sq kms. There is only one road across, the Eyre Highway, which is incredibly straight and flat for the most part, and boasts Australia's longest straight of 146.6kms. There are no shops or towns on the way, just service stations, called roadhouses, and a few associated houses, where you can get fuel and eat. Water is not readily available so you are advised to take enough for the whole journey. Stopping somewhere overnight means camping in a rest area at the side of the road or stopping at the roadhouses and, to make matters more complicated, you can't take any fresh fruit or veg across the border, which is roughly halfway across if travelling east to west!

As you can see a certain amount of planning had to be done before we set off. We listened to other fellow travellers. Some people said it was dead boring and just keep driving to get it over with. Others loved it, said to take our time and go and visit all the lookouts and the few 'attractions' at the roadhouses. So, we planned meals, stocked up with food, tinned veg, wine and beer, filled Winnie up with water and fuel, checked everything and planned a 4-5 day trip with stops at the roadhouses. In actual fact, the driving was a lot easier than expected and we did the trip in 3.5 days!

First stop after leaving Ceduna (and before hitting the Nullarbor proper) was Penong - the town of windmills. These are not windmills as in England; these are windmills to pump up water from bore holes and look very different. The residents of Penong decided they needed to make drivers stop and use their village store/coffee shop so went about renovating old windmills. They now have a collection, including the largest in the world, so we stopped for the photos and signed their visitor's book! We had left early to give ourselves loads of time, and Bob had somehow persuaded me to set off without having had breakfast, so we had brekkie looking out over the windmills!

We didn't stop at the Nundroo Roadhouse but kept going until we came to the iconic camels, wombat and kangaroo roadsign at Yalata. We nearly missed the most important 'Nullarbor Plain' sign though and I had to do some smart braking. It was here that the scenery changed dramatically and there really were no trees, just saltbush and bluebush, which survive as they can absorb moisture through their leaves. It did look odd as you could see the horizon in every direction and it was so flat that you could see for miles! We turned off and visited the Head of the Bight Visitor Centre. The Bight is the name for the cliffs that stretch for 200kms overlooking the Southern Ocean, and they are spectacular to say the least, with different coloured limestone layers. In whale watching season you can easily see the Southern Right whales from here, it must be an awesome sight. There were only a few other visitors so we were able to take our photos and just sit and take it all in!

We arrived at the Nullarbor Roadhouse quite early, 2:45pm, but we both wanted to stay there as this was the very first roadhouse established on the Nullarbor. The original roadhouse (shed!) is still there along with other memorabilia. The story of the crossing being carved across the continent and opened up to travellers is basically told in the roadhouses as you cross. It was fascinating, and quite mind-blowing to discover that the road had only become sealed (tarmac) all the way across in 1976! The only thing that spoilt my stay was the 'Snakes have been sighted in this area' signs - apparently the lady in the roadhouse had also warned Bob because, as she said, they are so far away from medical help!! However, the parking area was so huge and open that you would have seen one coming from a mile away!

During the day we had hit upon the idea of taking a photo of the road ahead every 15 minutes. I wanted to show that the scenery did change and the road wasn't boring, and also it showed us how quickly the hours passed. Driving is a lot easier on the whole. The roads are very straight, it is easy to drive at 100km/hr so the vehicles stay spaced out and there is very little catching up and overtaking, apart from the very few cars that are allowed to travel at 110km/hr. We were greatly relieved when we realized this as our greatest fear was holding up and/or being overtaken by one of the huge road-trains but this never happened. We only passed them coming the other way, or pulled up next to them at the roadhouses.

Next day we set off after breakfast (I think I may have been a bit grumpy first thing the day before?!) and visited all 3 lookouts over the Bight for some amazing views and photos. They were down unsealed, but short, tracks so Winnie could get there. The cliffs are very unstable and you could see chunks about to break away, but still people chose to ignore the warnings and climb over the fences to get to the edge. Mad! Then we came to Border Village. It was a good job I had read an account of this, as we were heading towards the quarantine checkpoint when I suddenly spotted Rooey, the giant kangaroo holding his jar of vegemite. You can get in his 'pouch' for another obligatory photo so I made Bob swerve and detour back to Rooey! Then onto the checkpoint where we met by a nice Scottish quarantine officer. I had quartered and frozen some lemon and limes the night before, and topped and tailed a few remaining carrots (everything else we had eaten!) so we were let through. We stopped at the SA/WA sign for more photos then drove onto Eucla where we had planned to stay the night. However, we were now in a weird, unofficial time zone called ACWST, which stretches from Border Village 340kms to Caiguna. The locals have invented it to help travellers as it splits the 1.5hr difference between Central and Western times, so making a 45min difference. However, we had a 1hr 45min time change due to daylight saving, and then another 45 min change further on at Caiguna. We had to put our clocks back, which gave us extra travelling time.

So, as Eucla was pretty run down, and we had made such good time (having forgotten to factor the time change into our plans!), we decided to visit the Old Telegraph Station and then carry on. Well, this was probably our biggest disappointment of the trip. It was 4km down a very rough, unsealed track, difficult for Winnie, but this was the Telegraph Station that first allowed Perth to communicate with the rest of Australia in 1877 - until then communications took months! We knew that the sand dunes were encroaching and, sometimes, the ruins were covered, but we were not prepared for the graffiti that covered the exposed walls. So sad! We wondered why more wasn't being done to protect such an historic place?

We then drove down the escarpment onto the plains and headed for Mundrabilla Roadhouse. This was lovely, our favourite of all of them. It wasn't busy, had friendly staff and the facilities were lovely and clean. It also had a pool table, free of charge, so a few drinks were had while playing a few games of pool! We were the first van in and the last van out the next morning, after having slept for 10 hours! Just after leaving we saw a sign for water, so headed down another dirt track towards two large tanks. We managed to fill Winnie up despite not having the right connector. Next stop was the Madura Pass - quite spectacular as the road climbed back up the escarpment giving expansive views of the plain below. The photos just didn't do it justice. This was the first day that we drove and drove - mainly because there was nowhere else to stop. We took turns and it wasn't stressful, but suddenly the vastness of this place hit us. I know this blog isn't going to convey the huge distances we travelled, and how small we felt when we could see for miles, both in front and behind, and couldn't see anyone else! I think everyone feels the same because, when you do pass a vehicle coming towards to you, everyone acknowledges each other. Some waved, some raised a finger (politely) or two, some did a thumbs up - it amused Bob greatly who started practising his own wave style, at one point using a fly swatter to the amusement of the people coming the other way!

A stop at Cocklebiddy Roadhouse for lunch was a highlight, as they had two Wedge-tailed eagles in an aviary. Apparently they had rescued them and, because of injuries, they can't be released back to the wild so they built a $36,000 enclosure, underwent mandatory training on how to look after the eagles and kept them. The guy explained that if they bit you it wouldn't hurt but their talons could break your leg! We then passed through Caiguna and gained another 45 minutes so decided to tackle 90 Mile Straight - Australia's longest straight road. And it was straight - but strangely interesting!

We stopped for a break and then we were hit by the dust-devil, a small whirlwind that formed suddenly on an otherwise calm, sunny day. Bob was outside and I suddenly saw, and heard, this column of swirling dust pass by the back of Winnie and then down her side towards the door. Bob saw it too and his first instinct was to shut the door, but he left himself on the outside. The devil then passed and disappeared as fast as it had come. Poor Bob opened the door, hair everywhere and covered in dust and twigs. As we had the windows open, the whole inside of the van was covered in dust - our bedclothes had to be shaken outside, work surfaces wiped down, windows cleaned and the floor swept. Oh, and Bob had to be brushed down too! We laugh now but it could have been far more serious - next time he has promised to get in the van first! We carried on to the next roadhouse, Balladonia, which turned out to be the hottest, 35 degrees, and the noisiest. There were large road-trains coming in and out all night so not much sleep was had as you can hear them changing down through their hundreds of gears from miles away! The facilities were also the worst - my morning shower was a nightmare scenario. I am not scared of spiders but when I opened the door to the first shower there was a VERY large, hairy spider on the wall. Not knowing whether it was poisonous, or not, I almost gave up on my shower but decided to try the next-door cubicle. However, my eyes were glued to the top of the wall in case said spider decided to venture over the top! Saying all that the museum there was fascinating as it contained a load of info on, and parts of, the Skylab that broke up prematurely over Oz in 1979. There were pictures of locals with parts that had fallen on their land. Apparently, Jimmy Carter, US President at the time, phoned to apologise as it was meant to break up over the ocean!

Then it was off on the last leg to Norseman. There was a complete change of scenery with orange/red dirt and salmon gum trees that were eerily beautiful. However, Norseman itself, when we eventually got there, was disappointing. We had travelled for hundreds of kms to get there and were looking forward to buying some fruit and veg, but there was very little in the tiny store there - a marketing opportunity missed methinks! However, Norseman is still hundreds of kms from anywhere else so maybe we were expecting too much? The man in the Tourist Info signed our 'Crossing the Nullarbor' certificate and we decided to push on again and get to Esperance. We were feeling decidedly jaded by the time we arrived as it got very windy and a storm warning was issued. We were glad to arrive at the site, even though they had no powered sites left and we had to go unpowered next to the tents! We have since been able to move to a powered site, phew! We needed a few days of relaxing after all that driving! So now we are in Western Australia, which is huge. If it were a country it would be the 10th largest country in the world. It has 12500 kms of coastline and the state's surface area is 11 times the size of the UK.

So, what did we make of all that? We were quite emotional when we had got across - the enormity of what we had just done hit home and we were relieved as much as anything I think. The fuel was obviously going to be expensive but one man we met was not happy! What did he expect? We had made the decision to refuel at every chance as we didn't want to hit a roadhouse with little fuel left only to be told they had run out of fuel - it has happened! We paid $1.86 at one point, which is still way, way below UK prices and people were moaning. We had utmost respect for those drivers delivering fuel and goods to the middle of nowhere. And what about the people in the roadhouses? They live in the harshest of conditions with nothing! There was little fruit and no veg available until Norseman and then it was minimal and expensive. An apple in one roadhouse cost $2. Bottles of drinking water were available at a cost, but all the roadhouses had signs asking people not to ask to fill up their tanks with water as it was in short supply and they would have to refuse. The roadhouses themselves used bore water and generators for electricity. We also drove over 4 Royal Flying Doctor Service emergency runways! These were just places where the road was widened and they had made an exit turnaround for the aircraft. They were, again, in the middle of nowhere but made you realize how far you were away from help if you had an emergency, and these people in the roadhouses live with that! The wildlife was disappointing too. We saw a dingo, wild wedge-tailed eagles and some brumbies - feral horses. The only wombats and kangaroos we saw were roadkill, which was one reason you don't drive after dusk! We couldn't get our heads round the two cyclists we passed - just why??!! The rest of the traffic obviously had a purpose -to get from A to P (Adelaide to Perth)!

Overall, the whole experience was awesome, we enjoyed it far more than we thought we would, we only put a CD on once (the radio wouldn't work!), the rest of the time we chatted and we didn't fall out either! We both agreed that we had been worried in the beginning about the distance involved and the fact there was nothing there, but actually, if you had broken down or had a problem, anyone would have stopped to help you, it was that sort of 'we're in it together' atmosphere. Would we do it again? Yes, we would, just not tomorrow!!