Location: Mt Remarkable National Park, South Australia
Date: 6
February 2012
Days: 8 - 9
Places Stayed: Margaret River, Karridale, Walpole, Cape Riche, Esperance (Cape Le
Grand). Fraser’s Range, Madura, Nundoo, Mount Remarkable
The act of
reminiscing is inevitable when you are confronted with certain experiences that
force you to depress the stop button of your life for a moment of recollection
and wonder. There is no telling when
these moments will occur. It may be a
familiar taste, a horrid smell, the sound of music or an intense view. Your senses become overwhelmed and you slowly
fill your lungs deep with the surrounding air as your head tilts skywards, eyes
half close followed by a slow and satisfying exhalation. Reminiscing can either be of happy memories,
of people close to you or perhaps sad memories.
Whatever the nature of your thoughts, a moment of recollection is
usually accompanied by anticipation of the future.
The Great Australian Bight |
The sound of
waves crashing against the wall of Australia mixes my thoughts and brings me
back to lucidness. A smile grows on my
face as I open my eyes to reveal a blue sky littered with fluffy white clouds. Deep below I see water exploding up the cliff
face as it slowly eating away at the coastline with such relentless force. My attention is brought to the horizon. The sixty metre high cliffs of The Great
Australian Bight run of into the distance both eastward and westward. The enormous cliffs clearly define the
country in a map like clarity.
Sunset at the edge of the Nullarbor |
A week has
passed by since we left Perth on that sweltering Sunday afternoon. Since then we have travelled almost 2,500km
and earlier we crossed the state border into South Australia. We have been unfortunate the weather ever
since we left Albany a few days ago.
Each morning the sun shone brightly providing us with hope that things
were going to turn for the better and no matter how fast we pushed Walter, we
couldn’t get away from the raincloud.
The nights were becoming painfully uncomfortable and cold. Before we left home we thought there wouldn’t
be any need to buy expensive tents as the weather would be dry, how ignorant of
us to think there wouldn’t be rain in one of the driest landscapes on
Earth! The tents leaked temporarily were
battered by the wind that plagued us late in the evening. On another more personal note, I was now
beginning to wear my underwear for the second time round.
WA/SA Border Town, 1,462km from Perth and 1,320km to Adelaide |
Passing
through the border marked a milestone of our adventure. We were no longer in Western Australia and
had arrived in the Nullarbor which is quite aptly named in Latin meaning ‘no
trees’. For as far as the eye can see, a
vast and flat treeless plain escaped into the horizon on all sides. The road hugged the Australian Bight at many
points along the route giving excellent views of the Southern Ocean. Walter steadily moved along the road at just
over 100km/h which seemed to sit around 2,000RPM nicely. Cars were sparsely seen along the road, there
were lots of road trains spitting up stones as they passed, one stone nicely
making a crack in our windscreen. A
white blob appeared on the road in the distance and it was getting bigger as we
got closer. It was a car moving
incredibly slowly on our side of the road.
It was dangerously slow in my opinion, if a road train came steaming up
behind you it would just wipe you off the road before slowing down. We approached from behind and made our move
to overtake the slow mover only to discover another vehicle in front. It was a bright pink scooter, no larger than
90cc chugging along slowly. What a crazy
thought, travelling along this road in that!
A few miles down the road we met the two Perth guys in a roadhouse. On closer inspection of the scooter, they had
made some much required amendments including a new cooling system. The guys were travelling from Perth to
Melbourne for charity on Big Red’s Pink Ride and had already had quite an
experience. Matthew, the bike rider told
us how he was plagued by the stones being flung up by road trains causing
painful bruises. We wished them well and
got back on the road.
The highway across the continent |
We had one further
night on the edge of the Nullarbor. The
rain forced us to abandon the tents and shack up in the car for an excruciating
night that was uncomfortable, stuffy, and claustrophobic and I’m not sure
whether I got any decent sleep all night.
It did mean, however, that we got back on the road early and was able to
make a huge distance the next day. To
fuel the journey, we stopped in Penong for an egg and bacon sarnie and several
cups of coffee. Penong has a population
of just over 200 and was the most populated town we had been in since leaving
Norseman on the other side of the Nullarbor.
Home for the night... No tents as rain is on the horizon. |
Vegetation and
farms were becoming a familiar sight the further we moved away from the
Nullarbor and into the grain belt that extends across the top of the Eyre
peninsular in South Australia. Towns
mimicking one another sprouted up more and more often that created a Scooby Doo
backdrop repeating itself as we drove.
Miles and miles of absolutely nothing |
We reached
a small town called Minnipa which was unsurprisingly indifferent to the rest but
all felt it was time for a rest. As we
pulled off the main highway and crossed the railway line that runs alongside
the road we found a sign directing us to Pildappa Rock. We had absolutely no idea what this was but
it was on a brown tourist road sign so we decided to go and explore. The rock was a 15 kilometre drive north of
the town along a road that progressively deteriorated the further we went. Formed around 1,500 million years ago, the
Pildappa is an inselberg rising up like a golden nugget. One side of the rock has weathered into a
wave that stands 10 metres high. The
only other people we saw around were in a campervan that left just as we
entered. We were alone to explore the
rock. We found our starting point and
climbed the rock. Some parts of the rock
were quite steep and were completely inaccessible. Once on top we, we were attacked by the wind
which blew hard against us. The view
from the top was excellent and gave us a good overview of the surrounding
countryside. At the bottom, we cooked up
some noodles and got back on the road.
Walter being dwarfed by Pildappa Rock |
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