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18th April 2009.
Leaving Streaky Bay, we're heading for the long haul across The Nullabor back into Western Australia, which is reputedly one of Australia's longest and most boring drives.
Crossing the Nullabor:
We'd been warned by everyone en route that crossing the Nullabor is possibly the longest and most boring section of the whole trip around Australia and usually takes anything up to 3 to 4 days. After looking at the map and calculating all the distances, we decided we could do it in two days and get it over and done with as quickly as possible.
We set our target for the first day to reach Eucla by sunset which was just over 600 kms and off we went. Stopped at Ceduna for a break and some supplies then back on the road. Next major break was Nullabor. This was a real surprise as we were expecting a town at Nullabor, but no, it's just a roadhouse out in the middle of no-where with some wild dingos roaming around scrounging for food. Next stop was at The Great Australian Bight National Park to film the rugged cliffs and hopefully see the whales frolicking. Unfortunately it was pouring with rain and although we looked long and hard, definitely no whales in sight and could hardly even see the cliffs.
Disappointed, we headed on to Border Village and the West Australian border where all vehicles are searched for fruit and vegetables at the quarantine check point. It's best to get rid of all fruit, vegetables and honey before reaching the border coz there's big fines if you're caught with anything.
It was then only a short stint to Eucla where we were going to spend the night. As it was getting late, we decided to treat ourselves to a take away curry from the hotel and guess what, it went straight into the bin coz it was probably the worst meal we've ever tasted. I wouldn't even give it to the dingos, it was an absolute disgrace. Anyway, we nibbled on leftovers from the fridge to get something into our bellies ready for a good nights sleep.
We got a big surprise here as we'd always thought WA had only one time zone with no daylight saving. WRONG. Although Eucla and Caiguna are in Western Australia, they are 30 minutes ahead of the rest of WA due to daylight saving, so be fore warned about closing times.
On the road again and we're still travelling in the rain, fortunately it's much lighter today with the occasional break. Big tip here which ever way you're crossing, east to west or west to east. Fuel is expensive crossing the Nullabor, but Mundrabilla has consistently been on average 10% cheaper than anywhere else on the crossing, so always try and plan to take advantage and fill up here.
We now head across Australia's longest straight road of 146.6 kms as we continue onto Balladonia, which is well renowned for the dramatic crash landing of the Skylab space station in 1979 and there's lots of memorabilia in the roadhouse including the mini museum.
We then carried onto Kalgoorlie, via Norseman and Boulder having travelled just on 900 kms today in just on 10 hours including stops. We caught up with our good friends Sally, Carol and Greg and a late night was had by all.
Next morning we made the final part of our trip back to Perth. As the realisation finally sunk in that this was the end of our "Trip of a Lifetime", it was a very melancholy drive with our minds drifting back over the past 12 months remembering all the awesome experiences we've had and all the unbelievable places we've seen
Life on the Road:
We stayed the first few nights with Sean and Tarm (our eldest son and his wife) as there were still tennants in our place. Fortunately the tennants were moving out before the lease was up and we were lucky enough to get our house back early.
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