Bound for South Australia……..Heave away….Haul Away!

Hi all,

Yesterday was our last day in Esperance where we decided to take it easy due to having some big drives coming up. So we started with a swim in the open saltwater lagoon at a beach 2 minutes out of Esperance, then a lay in the sun. Went into a great Turkish bakery and picked up some lunch. We sat with the sealions on the main beach and had our lunch.

Today we awoke with the fact in mind that our stay in WA was drawing close to an end.We left Esperance this morning at 7.45am with the goal of reaching Cocklebiddy at the very least, or perhaps Madura if we had the stamina.

The road was very empty heading east, with many road trains heading west. Petrol escalated from $1.20L at Esperance to $1.69L at Balladonia and it barely got better then that, until we stopped at Madura where the station was famous along the Nullabor stretch for cheap petrol at $1.40L.

The Nullabor was an uneventful drive, but at the same time was quite beautiful. Some stretches had just knee to waist high shrubs and one or two trees as far as you could see. At the time we were playing some tracks from Paul Simon’s Graceland album. With the African background harmonies and drum beats of some of Paul’s songs you could certainly picture the scenery as being the Seregeti Plains rather then the Nullabor! One straight we drove along was the longest in Australia, at around 146klm. The straight did go up and down in undulation, but no curves for all that time.

Anyway, a road train overtook us and sucked us along for the ride, which was handy as our petrol consumption was halved due to the strong headwind we had. The result being that we crossed the South Australian boarder, and we are now spending the night at Boardertown SA. It is really just a truck stop, but never the less we were happy with our efforts. We travelled approx 935klm today, which topples our previous record by 25klms. It was not a hard decision to press on with driving today as there are no stops or towns or anything of natural interest like bushwalks etc. We saw many emus with their young during the day, and a few big grey roos towards dusk, so that was our hint to call it a day.

Tomorrow we plan to get up early and continue our trip through the Nullabor national Park and onto Elliston near Port Lincoln SA, where we may spend a few days. On the way we plan to stop at one of the many lookouts (only about 20klm up the road from where we are at Boardertown), where I plan to cook Emma and I a pancake breaky with coffee whilst overlooking the majestic cliffs of the Great Australian Bight.

Anyway, off to bed for a rest.

Good night.

Love Adam and Emma xoxoxoxo