We crossed the rest of the Nullarbor Plain today, travelling almost 800 km from where we were camped yesterday. For all those who think that driving across the Saskatchewan Prairie is boring, forget about your complaint, as it can’t compare to the very long and mostly monotonous terrain across the Nullarbor. The road is very straight, and in many places goes for kilometres between curves. The longest straight stretch is the “Ninety Mile Straight”, which is 146.6 km long. If not the world’s longest straight stretch of road (there are a couple of other candidates, one in Saudi Arabia and one in North Dakota), it’s near the top of the list. There is a fuel stop and restaurant, a roadhouse, every hundred or so kilometres. We stopped at most of them to stay topped up with diesel, which was never cheap varying between $1.80 and $1.92 per litre.
However, it’s not really well named, because there are quite a few trees. Quite a number of the larger trees have been “decorated”. We saw one with a Santa Claus and Christmas decorations. Another was on a Winnie-the-Pooh theme. Many others had hats, shoes, other kinds of clothing, tinsel, and one with cutlery.
It was a good day to travel, not too hot, as there were some scattered clouds. We stopped a few times to see things (though frankly there’s not a lot to see) including the Caiguna blowhole, which is the mouth of a large underground cave. The blowing refers to air rushing in or out of the mouth of the cave when the air pressure changes.
We planned to stop at a free campsite that is supposed to be 16 km east of the town of Norseman, but when we drove by there was no sign of it. We’re not sure if the book is wrong, or if it’s been closed. We ended up going right into the town, and stopped at the caravan park. We crossed two and one half hours of time zones today, so we are feeling a bit “jet-lagged”. On the clock it’s approaching 7 pm, but we are just finishing the laundry, and it feels a lot later. We’re both tired from a long day of travel.