We Have Finished with the Nullabor

We had a longer journey today with a long 500 km drive from Eucla to Balladonia Roadhouse and Motel. 

Our first stop was just 100 mwetres from our motel at Eucla where we had to make a compulsory stop at the Western Australia border quarantine station. They asked us to open all the car doors, glove box and boot to check if we were carrying any fresh fruit, vegetables, honey or plants, all of which annot be taken in to WA. We had eaten our last banansa for breakfast, so we were all clear and could continue. I guess that WA has 2000 kilometrres of desert as a barrier to protect its agriculture from disease and contamination.

There were not many places to stop along the way other than some roadhouses and fuel stations. Our car gave us an easy way to travel with its assisted driving function that steered the car and maintained our speed as long as I kept a finger on the wheel. Unfortunately our sat-nav function has failed but this is not a large problem as we can continue to use Apple Car Play with Google or Apple Maps. I don’t rely on these apps for diections (there has only been one road). I just need to know how far we have to travel to our next destination or stopping place..

For well over a kilometre the road paralleled an escarpment to the north of the road. Remembering my high school geology, I deduced that this feature was a very old geological coastal cliff face. The plain on which we were travelling is very flat and, because the bedrock is limestone, I thought that it was probably originally the bed of an ancient sea. My thoughts were confirmed after consulting ‘Proferssor Google’ who told us that about 14 million years ago, an uiplift caused the land to rise and created the beginnings of this landscape.

Near Madura, the road climbed up to the plateau above this escarpment. We stopped at the lookout to see a view of the flat Roe Plains over which we had been driving.

For most of the way, we continued over flat plains that alternated between lightly wooded scrub and areas that were without trees. This area is generally still known as the Nullabor Plain but the real treless area ended before Eucla.We drove through this type of scenery for hundreds of kilometers. We were suprised that we did not see any wildlife (apart from one small lizard) and almost no roadkill.

The most intersting features that we passed were the three major road houses that we stopped at for a look or a coffee. They all sold fuel (at very high prices), and consisted of a motel, restaurant and store. Most had shower and toilet facilities for the long distance truckies.

Mundrabilla Roadhouse

Caiguna Roadhouse

Balladonia Roadhose has a little museum that includes a piece of space junk from NASA’s Skylab space station which crashed nearby in 1979. It is said that President Jimmy Carter even rang the roadhouse to apologise for littering the local area. The local council issues a fine to NASA for littering which was paid in full.

Before reaching Balladonia. we drove across the longest straight stetch of road in Australia – nearly 147 kilometres without a bend. Some people think that this is the longest straight stretch of road in the world, but a road in Saudi Arabiia has a stretch of road without a bend that is over twice as long.

We stopped along the roadside to take a photo to show the environment that this road traverses.

Tomorrow, we leave these flat plains behind us as head to the goldfields region of Kalgoorlie.