We were able to leave Balladonia Roadhouse early this morning with a 520 kilometre drive ahead of us to Border Village on the WA / SA Border. The day started out nicely but it became more windy as it progressed. The headwind reduced the overall range of our car by 110 kilometres today.
Just after leaving Balladonia Roadhouse we came to the ’90 Mile Straight’ where there isn’t a bend until we reached the next roadhouse at Caiguna.
The country was flat and uninspiring. I found that my BMW’s assisted driving feature was a real asset along this road. With its help, I could engage cruise control and not only would the car maintain and adjust its speed, it also followed the centre of the lane, really steering itself. All I had to do was keep one hand lighty on the steering wheel and driving was easy.
We stopped at a number of parking spots along the way for a stretch, coffee and lunch. There is somewhere to pull off the highway around every thirty kilometres. Some places were just a clearing by the roadside and others had a network of tracks that spread a few hundred metres into the scrub . These have been made by people using these stopping spots to ‘free camp’ overnight and get away from the highway noise. One stopping place even had a memorial
Just after passing Caiguna, we found that we were in an informal time zone that made the time between Caiguna and Ceduna 45 minutes ahead of West Australian Standard time. Whilst this is a bit confusing, it will actually help us because daylight saving time has started in the eastern states but not in WA. Over our return home, we will have to adjust for three hours of time difference so a 45 minute time difference here will mean that we have three steps to adjust, rather than just two.
At Madura, the highway makes a descent off an escarpment to the coastal plain. A lookout let us see just how flat this area actually is.
The escarpment continues for hundreds of kilometres to Eucla and beyond.
At four places along the highway there are emergency landing strips on the roadway for use by the Royal Flying Doctor Service. The RFDS provide the only medical service in this area and they are a much loved Australian institution. Piano key markings define the ends of the runway sections and white posts along the road have been removed. At one point along the length of each runway, an apron has been formed so that aircraft can park and the crew can load their patients.
During the day, we passed around twenty vintage cars travelling the other way. Some were in convoy, others on trailers and some driving solo. I understand that they are going to Perth for a vintage motoring event and then travelling back across the Nullabor as part of that organised event.
As a kid, I used to think that the term ‘Nullabor’ was an Aboriginal word but of course it is a Latin term – nullus (meaning “no” or “none”) and arbor (meaning “tree”). The actual area without trees on the Nullabor is quite small. but the plain extends for over 1000 kilometers. Today we found a few tree-less sections and drove through them wondering at the beauty of it all.
Although we are in the middle of nowhere, there is a constant stream of traffic along the highway. Road Trains move tons of freight in both directions. Travellers with 4WDs towing caravans of all shapes and sizes are equally common. There are a few people like us just travelling in cars. I would estimate that we pass a road train every two or three minutes.
This tanker was parked at the roadhouse tonight but it only has two trailers. The maximum size is three. There are many B-Doubles and B-Triples on the road. When coming from behind to overtake these long transports, you have to look for a long strectch of clear road and count the shadows of the truck to determine just how long it is.
Tonight we are staying at Border Village, just a hundred metres inside South Australia from the WA / SA Border. It has a good number of rooms, a bar, restaurant and a shop. Obviously, it has a service station. Its a bit weird watching TV in our room – the news content comes from Melbourne but the commercials are for Darwin based businesses.
Petrol tonight is priced at $3.14 per litre – a little higher than at Eucla ($2.96) where we filled up earlier. At Eucla our petrol fill came to $105. A 4WD at the next pump towing a caravan bought $299 of diesel fuel.
