The long drive

After a spectacular day of scuba diving, I began the long journey across the nullarbor (Null-a-bor). The Nullarbor is the stretch of land along the southern edge of Australia that looks like a long bite was taken out of the central southern part of the country. It's named the nullarbor because there are null (no) arbor (trees). Although, Australians colloquially refer to the entire drive from Ceduna to Norseman as the Nullarbor, despite the areas with no trees and Nullarbor national park really only being about 400km of the 1200km journey. Nonetheless, the drive is an undertaking. 

Ceduna is the last town on the east with a grocery store, until you reach Norseman, which barely has a grocery store to speak of. It's the last chance you have to prepare for your next few days. It's the place to fill up water tanks and buy food. As Quentin and I met up to continue was I told him not to buy much fresh fruit and veg cause I heard there is a quarantine check at the Western Australian border and that they take it very seriously. He was not happy to hear this news. He informed me that 2 days ago he bought a cauliflower, a bag of potatoes, 30 oranges, 20 avocados, carrots, and onions. None of these would be allowed across the border. Poor mate could not understand that a country can have a quarantine check within the country. We discussed this ad-nauseam, which ultimately solved none of our problems, and we agreed to spend the day and a half feasting on these vegetables before we hit the border. We (mostly he) ate almost all of it in the next day in a half. I do believe he ate 15 avocados in 36 hours. I can't imagine his stomach felt good. We also made a lot of orange juice which he squeezed by hand. It was a feat of stomach capacity and determination to not throw away any food, the burden and commitment to which mostly lay on his shoulders.

Along the journey there are many beautiful stops, but few of those have any signs of civilization. About every 400 kms there are one or two gas stations. The will sell you gas for 2xs the price in a town, but you don't have another choice. Road houses, where the gas stations are located often have population signs, boasting large populations of 4 people in the 400 or so km stretch. People traveling without camping I think are able to rent a room in the road houses, but when a can of coke is $7 I'd be afraid to ask the cost of a hotel room, or dinner for that matter. 

On the first day, I stopped at the Head of the Bite visitor center. It's the last stop before nullarbor national park and the visitor center allows you to pay for entry to lookouts over the cliffs. The boardwalks take you along the cliff edge where you can see Southern rite whales raising their calves. It was a windy day, but it was still easy to see into the clear ocean water below and I saw 10 whales and 3 calves. A few of the mothers breached as I sat and watched for a few hours enjoying the absolute splendor. The light rain in the distance produced beautiful rainbows, as well as, the spray from the whales blow holes. It was magnificent. 

In the afternoon I met up with Quentin at our planned campground. We sat on the top of the tall cliffs overlooking the ocean. A few more whales passed by and we and the other campers joyfully looked on. We sat by a fire and roasted veggies and enjoyed a night of relaxation under the stars. The next day we spent the morning going on a walk along the clifftops and then in the afternoon we finished our veggie feast. Funnily, when I mentioned potatoes with our eggs for breakfast Quentin laughed, I later learned he thought it was a joke. Apparently potatoes are not a breakfast food in France. I was appalled. No hasbrowns??? No homefries??? They are missing out. Anyway, after the feast we headed west, crossed the border (there was a thorough investigation of the cars, they really don't want you taking veggies across) and left the Nullarbor. 

This is where I got confused since Aussies refer to the whole journey as the Nullarbor, despite it only being a small portion of the journey. See I thought we made it, we got past the Nullarbor. We had a long way to go still though and with not being able to bring much fresh food across and no grocery stores its a bit of a journey. Luckily, I have an entire pantry in my backseat that could probably feed me for 2 weeks if needed, so we didn't get in too much of a pickle, although the meals did get more creative. Pasta with tofu or lentils are an easy meal when needed, and ramen is a delicious breakfast. 

Our next stop was a campsite out in the middle of nowhere, but it was fantastically beautiful. With recent rains many small annual flowers were in bloom and we enjoyed a bit of exploring in the area before another long day of driving. 

Our final day driving across the bite ended in a beautiful park where we wandered finding wild sundews and orchids and it was absolutely lovely. Our next stop would be Esperance, a town I have heard a lot about.