The thought of driving across
the Nullarbor from South Australia to Western Australia seems daunting. However, we recently took the courage and gave it a go. It turned out to be a most enjoyable road trip. Yes, its a long drive a total of approximately 2775 kilometres. But don't let that put you off. You can do it in as many days as you can afford the time. We did it in 5 days, stopping overnight in Port Augusta, Ceduna, Border Village and Norseman. We chose to stop in these towns to spread out our driving hours per day.
The Nullarbor Plain itself stretches from Ceduna in South Australia to Norseman in Western Australia and it's about 1200 kilometres in distance. The word "Nullarbor" is Latin and means "no trees". So as the name suggests you will not see any trees along the route. The highway itself is called the Eyre Highway and is considered as one of Australia's self-drive best road trips. You will also drive along Australia's longest straight road, 146km without a turn.
Along the way, there are no shortages of lovely country towns to stop for a photograph or two, so I will mention a few that impressed us most.
First, there is the town of Kimba which is halfway across Australia, famous for its Big Galah, Edward John Eyre Sculptures and the Silo Art.
Our next point of interest was Penong, a very unusual small town called "The Town of 100 Windmills". Another photo opportunity of some of the really big unusual windmills.
Next is the Head of Bight, a whale watching site. For a small fee, visitors can take a clifftop boardwalk to viewing platforms to see whales and their calves during their migration season from June to October. Even without the whales, the view was spectacular.
On reaching the SA/WA border, there is a big "Rooey ll" statue, a big kangaroo holding a jar of vegemite.
On reaching Western Australia, we stopped overnight in Norseman, a historic gold mining town. Here you can go to the Visitors Centre and for a small charge, you can get your Nullarbor crossing certificate.
This is one iconic journey and we are glad that we did it. We can now say that we have crossed the Nullarbor.
There are of course many more towns and sights to visit and see. For a comprehensive guide of the Nullarbor, Australia's Great Road Journey visit the Australian Tourism
website.
