THE BIG DASH: Going straight

Turning east at Norseman meant only one thing: we were well and truly on the way home.

Norseman in WA is separated from Ceduna in South Australia by about 1200km and what people commonly call the Nullarbor.

It is the iconic crossing that must be done to get home from WA via the southern route. There is only one bitumen road – makes the navigation easy, I guess.

To be accurate, the actual Nullarbor Plain is only part of the journey.

Nullarbor means ‘no trees’, and the signs either side of the Nullarbor Roadhouse mark out about 23km of treeless plain along the highway.

It’s certainly flat, open, dusty and fly-blown out there, but other parts are surprisingly verdant and some are spectacular.

Sounds like our whole six-month road trip encapsulated.

Thirsty work

It’s just been labour for our Kia Tasman X-Pro, Tas, this week.

He was not uncoupled from our MDC Forte SR19 caravan from Monday morning in Esperance to Thursday afternoon, when we arrived in Ceduna and parked up at the pristine Foreshore caravan park.

On each of our three nights out on the Nullarbor, he stayed hooked up on a drive-through site. Talk about carrying that load!

Crossing the Nullarbor proved hard and thirsty work for Tas, as we copped a crosswind coming in from the north-east rather than the tailwind we’d been hoping for. As a result, fuel consumption often sat above 20L/100km as Tas battled into the breeze in sixth gear or even fifth on what appeared to be flat roads.

And straight roads too, including the legendary 90 Mile Straight between Balladonia and Caiguna.

By Thursday a hot wind was blasting out of the north, pushing on the side of the combination. But as I’ve said before, it’s all pretty stable thanks to the work done before we left.

But you do have to pay attention because it’s a single lane each way and there are plenty of road trains and other traffic. At our 95km/h target speed, we were caught more often than we caught others, so the UHF came in handy to make sure everyone was on the same page.

I feel sorry for one caravanner who caught us, though. After he’d patiently followed us for a few kays, I went to pull off the road at a parking stop so he could get by. I indicated left, only to realise too late the bay was on the right. So the indicator went off and we travelled on. Gosh knows what he thought we were up to.

We let him by a few kays later.

The next day, at one of the viewing sites at the Bunda Cliffs, he pulled out of his parking spot, almost hitting us. I don’t think it was intentional payback.

Wildlife was one potential hazard that we didn’t have to deal with. There was little roadkill and none of the eagles that you can see out here feasting on them. Lots of lizards scampering about and many insects spent their last milli-seconds getting an up-close view of the Kia’s controversial nose.

So to this week’s fuel numbers. Rather than run the tank down low, we topped up pretty regularly as we headed across the Nullarbor. A bit of safety first and a way to give ourselves and the dogs a leg stretch. Every roadhouse was charging well over $3 per litre for diesel, topping out at $3.68 at the Nullarbor Roadhouse. The best number was just under $3 at Ceduna.

Better than the $4 we expected, or worse, there being no diesel at all.

Litres consumed: 213.5
Kilometres travelled: 1200
Consumption average: 17.79L/100km
Amount paid: $712.19 (best price paid: 295.9 cents per litre)
Kilometres per dollar: 1.68km (was 2.69km per dollar last time)

Things we’ve enjoyed this week...

Fraser Range Station: It’s pretty common to chat to other travellers about where you’ve been and where you’re going.

Almost inevitably, when we mentioned we were headed home across the Nullarbor, we were urged to spend a night at Fraser Range Station.

It’s all right, we’d say, we’ve heard of it. Not just from other caravanners but a friend from Melbourne who relayed his memories of working there decades ago.

“I spent three weeks out there looking after the place on my own,” he told us. “There was no TV, only ABC AM radio but spent nights with a couple of joints, Pink Floyd cassettes and the endless cosmos above. Utter bliss.”

About 100km east of Norseman, Fraser Range is a working farm that’s been in operation since 1872.

In the 1980s, as the grey nomad wave built, it added a caravan park.

There are drive-through sites with power, clean amenities and even a licensed restaurant that serves a set menu each night. We were served a chicken parmigiana about the size of a cow’s head. Kid you not, Jane and I shared one between us!

There are also various walks mapped out on the station and we trekked up to the summit of a nearby hill for a panoramic view of the vastness. After months in southern WA, no doubt we’re back in the outback.

The Great Australian Bight: There are three official lookouts on top of what are called the Bunda Cliffs. The one closest to the eastern end is the most spectacular, with sheer limestone cliffs plummeting up to 120 metres into the Southern Ocean.

But all three are worth stopping for a gawk, just to take in the vast panorama.

The cliffs are in South Australia, stretching across about 200km. People used to just pull up and camp along the clifftops, with tracks heading off everywhere. Early on in our trip a fellow traveller told us it was the highlight of his entire journey.

But this practice is now banned because of the danger of cliff collapses.

Not so cool

A few weeks ago I reported my suspicions that the cooling function of our Dometic reverse-cycle air-conditioning system had failed.

Definitely correct! By the time we left Esperance, I’d arranged for it to be inspected and hopefully fixed in Port Lincoln, the next Dometic repairer on our way home.

Just a few days too late, it turned out. No, we didn’t cop a heatwave crossing the Nullarbor. It waited until Ceduna.

Wicked hot winds blasted out of the north, pumping the temperature up to the high 30s. So we toured the local area in Tas, air-con blasting.

Thankfully, by 6pm the cool change had come through and we could cope. By the time we got to Port Lincoln for repairs, the temperature was in the low teens and the rain was literally sheeting down.

Stu, the repair ace from EP Temperature Control, traced the problem to a cracked pipe connecting the compressor and condenser. With a replacement installed, the problem was solved. All under warranty.

Of course, we haven’t really needed to use it since!

Roadhouse stays

So what are the various caravan parks like as you cross the Nullarbor? Apart from Fraser Range, we stayed at the Madura and Nullarbor Roadhouses.

While Fraser Range is something special, the other two were more literal: just dirt areas set aside for an overnight stay, with drive-through sites to park your caravan for the night.

Yes, they have power and amenities, and you can get a meal and a drink at the roadhouse restaurant, but they are utilitarian places.

Madura is on a slope, so get out your levelling ramps, while Nullarbor is open and unprotected from wind gusts.

At least Madura was located in a grove of trees at the bottom of Madura Pass, where the Eyre Highway descends from the Hampton Tableland to the Roe Plains. That offers a bit more protection and there are even some farm tracks to walk the dogs.

We’re told Eucla, just on the WA side of the border, is the pick of the roadhouse stops, with a great view out to the ocean. We’ll try that next time.

For now, though, it’s on to the Eyre Peninsula and Port Lincoln...