Crossing the Nullarbor http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gorey/~3/298190378/2234 http://gorey.com.au/archives/2234#comments
Mon, 26 May 2008 06:43:04 +0000 Michael http://gorey.com.au/?p=2234 We successfully crossed the Nullarbor in two cars with four kids and arrived safely today in Moonta Bay on Yorke Peninsula in South Australia.
We’re resting here a couple of days while waiting for our furniture to catch up. We’ll head to Mount Gambier on Thursday and unpack on Friday.
We bought a house in Moonta Bay last year and will inspect it on Wednesday.
The trip across the Nullarbor was my second. Here are some observations and impressions:
Temperature: It’s more pleasant in the cooler weather. Last time I made the journey was in January 2006. It was okay then near the coast but sizzling inland and the car was smothered in bugs. This time round was much more comfortable.
The downside of driving in late May is fewer daylight hours. Hitting a kangaroo is more probable on dusk or dawn and overnight.
Oversize vehicles: See my next post .
Accommodation: Travelling alone you can drive as far as you want, as I did in 2006, napping in the car, getting there faster and saving a few dollars.
If Juliet and I had been driving in one car we could have taken the wheel in turns. As it was, in two cars and with four kids, we had to stop overnight.
We stayed at Eucla on Saturday night after driving more than 900km. It cost $160 for a single room with bedding for five. James slept on the floor.
Eucla was established in colonial days as a telegraph and border post. Today it’s a quarantine station with some accommodation, petrol stations, police and a weather bureau recording base. We didn’t linger to look around.
I was thinking though, for the 50 or so people who live there, to get a haircut or see a dentist, etc you’d have to drive 510km to Ceduna!
Ceduna was where Juliet and I lived in 1992-93. Kathleen was conceived there, but we didn’t mention that fact when we showed her the house where we used to live. At 14 she would have found the subject embarrassing!
That was probably the only coastal home we’ll live in with sea views. It was a 40 metre walk to the West Coast Sentinel office, which has now relocated. The former office is a Betta Electrical store.
The Sentinel used to sell stationery, which was a source of friction with the local newsagent and biggest paper seller Sprys. It didn’t make money either. We used to get excited when we sold a typewriter. Does anyone use them any more?
Ceduna looked fresh and modern. The main street has had a facelift, and although quiet (dead), on a Sunday was very inviting. A hardware store and rural supplies place had closed down though, suggesting agriculture is not as vibrant as tourism, property development and aquaculture.
Farming: Nundroo (140km west of Ceduna) is the historical edge of the agricultural zone before farming gives way to nature. Farming has gradually become less viable though along much of the SA West Coast and northern parts of Eyre Peninsula.
We saw some struggling attempts at cropping around Nundroo, Penong, Ceduna and Wirrulla. None of the crops looked all that promising until we reached Kimba, 300km east of Ceduna.
Crops in the mid north of South Australia around Port Pirie and Port Broughton appeared to be thriving.
Road kill: We saw an extraordinary number of dead kangaroos on different stretches of the Nullarbor in Western Australia. There was literally a dead animal every 500 metres or less.
Invariably crows were feasting on them and sometimes eagles. Juliet counted 12 eagles, I saw about six. Easy meals for them.
I don’t know what attracts kangaroos to certain areas, perhaps rain or the lack of it. Other parts of the highway were not as infested with dead marsupials.
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