Entry
1 – 2026 – January - Driving West across The Nullarbor to Esperance,
Western Australia
2026 is the commencement of year 14 of our retirement
years.
For us it has been a delightful, wonderful period of
our lives.
The 2025 Christmas period was heart-warming. We were
delighted to have our whole family together. 2017 the last time we had our family
together over the Christmas period.
It was a good
family gathering with many of Steve’s extended family also joining us for
Christmas day activities. It is a fabulous time of the year, providing a
special incentive for the extended family members to catch up with one
another’s news. There was the Christmas day special food. Activities for the
day included the establishment of a back yard cricket pitch. There were a table
tennis table and a totem tennis set up. The kids enjoyed skipping rope
challenges. Steve’s mother, 92 years and 10 months enjoyed the activities.
A few days
later we fare welled Jude and Corey on a day with an expected temperature to
reach 38 C degrees. Around 40 hours later, they arrived back at their Canada home
with minus degree temperatures. Corey sent a picture of him needing to clear
their driveway for vehicle access. He provided a caption, “I’m missing
Australia already.”
Once all our
Christmas to New Years activities were over, we were in need of chill time for
a few days providing our bodies with a much-needed recovery rest time.
Our tow tug had
spent a week with the mechanics, having some major work performed. It was a disappointing
scenario; one we had to push, for a satisfactory fix. On the positive, Toyota
Australia had recognised the problem and had extended the warranty period on
the problematic parts, with no monetary cost to us.
With the
return of our tow tug we undertook a couple of distant trial drives, including
one with the caravan in tow, assessing all was correct.
The tow tug
and caravan were loaded up and we were excited to be off on our next adventure.
Our first stop
was at Port Augusta, staying with Port Augusta based friends Sandra and Robert.
During day one, the temperature had hovered around 36 C degrees. Day two we
stayed put with the temperature reaching 46 degrees. It was an extreme
temperature, even by Australian standards.
It seems our
departure timing coincided with a heat wave period. We were in need to consider
additional strategies to deal with the heat wave. There was consideration of
our body requirements and also our tow tug, whilst towing our laden caravan.
Day three the
temperature was predicted to be around the mid-thirties. With the alarm set at
5.30 am, we had an early start for the days driving. Within the first 15
minutes we encountered three kangaroos standing at the roads edge, watching us
drive by. There was an added level of alertness looking out for those
additional dangers encountered during early morning driving along Australian outback
roads.
Our stop for
the night was at a road side rest area just past the town of Ceduna. The
following day the temperature was predicted to be around 47 degrees. The town
of Penong was about 40 kilometres down the road and we decided to stay at the
Penong caravan park for the day, connecting to a mains power supply to help run
our air conditioner.
By 10 am the
temperature had reached 42 degrees.
We booked into
the caravan park at 10.45 am. The Bureau of Meteorology web site showed
Penong’s temperature around 1 pm at 48.5 degrees. A short time later the BOM
web page for Penong stopped displaying the temperature.
Recently, we
had obtained a thermometer for outside use. Of note all the thermometers we had
looked at, had a temperature display capability to show maximums up to 50
degrees. We suspect the Penong temperature on the day had exceeded 50 degrees
and the BOM equipment may have imploded? The following day the BOM site wasn’t
displaying temperatures for Penong, even though the temperature was much
cooler.
Neither of us
could remember experiencing temperatures of 50 C degrees ever.
It will be a
memorable day for a long time. The Penong caravan park amenities block was
about a 30 metre walk from our caravan. When Steve walked to the amenities
block, he could feel his fingers tingling from the heat. Attempting to place
his posterior onto the rather hot toilet seat was a challenge. The liquid hand
soap almost burnt his hand and the tap water was untouchable.
Interestingly,
at the same time, Jude and Corey’s Canadian province was experiencing an arctic
blast with many locations experiencing minus 50-degree temperatures. Our brains
struggled to contemplate that temperature difference on the human body.
We did enjoy
Penong’s windmill’s attraction.
The following
day we set camp at Scott’s Beach campground located at Fowlers Bay Conservation
Park. It was a nice beach setting. During the night strong windy conditions
developed, rocking our caravan about. We were grateful for a sand dune
protecting us from the direct impact of the ocean winds. It was uncomfortable to
be on the beach with the wind creating a punishing sand blasting effect on the
body.
We decided to stay
put for a second day, admiring our beautiful views from within the confines of
our comfortable caravan. The wind continued to rock us about. The strong winds
eroding the soil/sand from under our vehicle tyres.
Late on day
two, we relocated, closer to a nearby sand hill which helped to eliminate the
uncomfortable rocking, providing a better night’s sleep.
In the lead up
to our “Nullarbor,” crossing we had read a number of peoples reviews on
crossing the Nullarbor and watched even more vlog videos to acquire
ideas/highlights worthy for consideration during the long drive. For us from
our home base to our first targeted Western Australia location it was a drive
of around 2,500 kilometres.
The most
consistent publicized highlights had been on the South Australian side to the
WA border. It was a distance of around 1,000 kilometres from Port Augusta to
the border.
In reality for
us, many of the publicized highlights were a stretch of imagination. It was sad
to see abandoned, dilapidated buildings with lots of rubbish lying about. Most
of the publicized viewing stops were worthy of a few minutes look, all failing
to generate any excitement. There was nothing worthy or stimulating to entice
us to stop to soak in the setting.
We continued
to drive, clocking up the kilometres. There were three lookouts with signage
displaying a camera. Lookout 1 for us the best, then 2 and 3 being different.
Admittingly we
were travelling across the Great Australian Bight, a huge expanse of ocean.
Oceans are generally a windy location with windless periods a rarity. The wind
may have been blowing a bit stronger than normal due to a low developed by the
tail end of cyclone travelling south through Western Australia at the time.
Capturing a good photograph was almost impossible due to the presence of a wind
developed ocean mist and the land background shrouded by dust.
We did capture
pictures of some unique signage as we drove by.
We had
pencilled in a number of different camp locations for consideration. We seemed
to be happy, “just driving,” as we hadn’t come across that location to entice
us to stop. By the time we arrived at titled “peg 13,” meaning 13 kilometres to
the WA border we were ready to stop for the night.
It was a small
gravel surface road side stop with no facilities. There were a number of
vehicles generated tracks scattered about to the ocean side of the road side
stop. We followed one of these tracks a few hundred metres, parking up for the
night. There were a number of other campers present, with plenty of separation
space.
We had parked the tow tug facing into the wind to
minimise the wind rocking effect on our caravan.
We thought it was the nicest setting we had seen
since Fowlers Bay Conservation Park. Though it didn’t deliver enticement to
want to stay any longer.
We had also pencilled in peg 10 as a location to
stop overnight. We decided to “just have a look.” The tow tug was barely up to
operating temperature when we were stopping just 3 kilometres down the road. It
was another small gravel road side stop with no facilities. Again, we followed
tracks off to the rear of the road side stop. We seemed to idle along for
around 3-4 kilometres, meandering around low bushland.
When the views of low bushland dissipated, we
were greeted by a grand ocean view. It was quite satisfying on the eyes.
The wind was still blowing at an uncomfortable
level. We parked up and sat in our caravan, enjoying a hot chocolate drink
admiring our view. It wasn’t long before Mary said, “We could stay here for a
few days!” Our feel-good scenes appreciated the magnificent view.
Technically we had driven a whole three
kilometres down the road and decided the new setting worthy of a stay. One of
our shortest drives for change of camp location.
There were a large number of camping areas
created by people. Initially we were saddened by the extent of damage sustained
by the fragile bushland ecosystem. As we were very close to the WA/SA border
our thoughts went back to the recent Covid 19 times. WA had closed their border
entry point for an extended period not even allowing WA residents to return to
their homes. We suspected this may have been one of those locations people had
waited out for the reopening of the border crossing? There was easily enough
open space to cater for 100 or more caravans/motorhomes.
Next, we were at the SA/WA border. The WA
quarantine officer, inspected around inside our tow tug, viewed the contents of
our caravan fridge and many of the cupboards and draws. We were given the
thumbs up with no onboard items requiring confiscation. Pictures attached
showing the SA side of the boarder and the WA side.
The next two
days were occupied with driving duties. For us not much in the way of special
viewing. We did take a few photographs of displayed signage.
Our drive
across the Nullarbor Plains ended at the town of Norseman. We set camp at
Norseman’s RV park for a couple of nights. Once camp had been set, we obtained
a much-appreciated walk, stretching out our weary bodies, making our way to the
local supermarket, obtaining some fresh food. We inspected Norseman’s iconic
roundabout and its occupants. Our second day at Norseman coincided with a 40 C
degree day where we spent the day with-in the confines of our air-conditioned
caravan.
Leaving
Norseman, Mary drove around the camel roundabout heading just down the road to our target
destination of Esperance.
