Sunday, September 20, 2009

Through the Nullarbor

Once again everything went much too quickly. First I was so restless and wanted to get into the Nullarbor as soon as possible, then I was disappointed again that it was all over so fast.

The fantastic West wind held up for another couple of days. After 22. August when I said my goodbyes to Kylie and Luke in Esperance, it blew me along the Fisheries Road for 70km. I filled up my 10l water bag in Condigup, the last settlement, before I started on the Belladonia Road.

With real joy I discovered that after the junction there was still 40km of tarmac road, although the sign warned that there would be none for 194km.




Not unusual for Australia. What I found more alarming was “Rough Road”. But with the first 110km on tarmac and with the tail wind as well, made my chances of completing this stretch (264km) in two days, more and more likely. The last car disappeared after the farm land stopped as did the tarmac. Beautiful bush land along an initially really good dirt road came in its place.



The bush land stayed but the road changed with big stones and corrugations of a magnitude that I had never seen before. But by then it was already time to pitch a tent. I didn’t have to look for a special camp site, actually I could have pitched it in the middle of the road, as it was clear that nobody came by very often. So I had another wonderfully quiet night in total aloneness.

The next day started as the day before had ended, only longer basically, actually the whole 112km until the Roadhouse: corrugations and stones. It cost a lot of energy and nerves but as always, the more challenging it is the happier you are when you reach your goal.

The plus point was the wonderful landscape and the aloneness. Apart from two cars with caravans that overtook me the day before and also spent the night somewhere, the whole day I saw just one other car.

I didn’t want to be on the Eyre Highway any longer, that goes through the Nullarbor and would be my home for the next weeks, and took myself straight to the Balladonia Roadhouse. There were already a couple of charity cyclists “Bikers for Bibles” who had arrived there. They were going from Perth to Sydney in 32 days and were collecting money for various Bible projects. That must make them really well-saddled Christians.

Three accompanying cars took care of their earthly needs and their luggage. With this they could accomplish great distances with their racing bikes. Thanks to the tail wind I could keep up with them for the next 2 ½ days. In the morning I started before them, but so lightly loaded, without luggage they soon overtook me and invited me to a cup of tea in the morning. As I was well underway, I declined but I couldn’t pass the buffet at lunchtime.



To be offered something like this in the middle of the bush was a real luxury. Salad, sandwiches, Tea, coffee, sports drinks, fruit... what more do you want.

All this happened on the longest straight road in Australia. In the morning I passed this sign,



to arrive a few hours later already (despite a long lunch break) at the other end of the road.




Two very nice young chaps with a camera approached me and enquired “You must be Dorothy”, which was something I was hearing more often. As I was in such a good mood after this fantastic trip, which had also taken me to 40,000km overall, I was naturally happily available for an interview.



It was only 3 p.m. and I had done 182km. Physically, I could have gone on, but unfortunately I had two broken spokes resulting from the caves trip the day before. In such terrain an extra 10l of water and 5kg food on the rear wheel can’t work! Luckily I still had some spare spokes and was just about in front of the Roadhouse where the Bikers-for-Bibles were staying. It came in very useful, I only needed to put my bicycle down there for them and immediately one of them had changed my spokes with perfect precision, another had cleaned and greased the chain, and a third had pumped up the tyres. To thank them for that I was even invited to their evening meal.

With such reinforcements and a newly repaired bike the next day I could keep up with them pretty well and enjoyed the lunchtime buffet again but I didn’t want to spend another night in a Roadhouse and so went a bit further to a rest area. It was up until then my longest straight ride with 183km. I found it wasn’t so easy and fast as the day before but as one can see from the result, was still quite good.

Here several campers had settled and had set about starting a camp fire. Almost all had gone past me and greeted me straight away. I hadn’t even got my tent up before I had plate of Spaghetti in my hand. Why was I carrying so much food around with me? At the camp fire there was a good glass of wine again that once more made an end to a wonderful day.

Unfortunately the tailwind lasted only as long as the next morning. I only got to see the catering service of the Bible friends as I was so much in advance them. The people taking care of it were just starting to set it up, but I went on after a short chat only not just because of that but also because I didn’t want to make use of it to be overloaded by their Christian love.

I took care of myself in the next Roadhouse where the Bikers-for-Bibles escorts had also popped in for an ice-cream. I only saw the cyclists scurrying around. Stupid when you go like that in a team with no ice-cream breaks included.

In the afternoon the wind was less comfortable, and in addition all of a sudden I had to ascend a mountain for 5km and this after the last hundreds of km had been flat. I was happy again to have the Eucla road house in front me on arrival at the top as I wanted a shower again. The Bible team was only 12km in front, where the next road house was but I didn’t to go one step further. Eucla was very cheap, in a beautiful location and the manager was very nice.

Overnight it began. I had to empty my stomach quickly. I must have been caught out by bad water somewhere. I had thought that after 1 year in Asia my stomach could not be harmed any more. Not exactly what you need in the middle of the Nullarbor. I had enough medicine with me thanks to Johannes, my brother. Just a look at Immodium was enough to make me feel a bit better. Of course despite all this I wanted to go on. From the nice gents at the road house I got water that was guaranteed to be good, not always so to be taken for granted here.
It got a lot better once I was on my bicycle. As I had done 520km over the last 3 days, I didn’t have to hurry any more.

The South Australia border came after 12km




When you go round the world like this you start to notice how differently the big countries manage the time zones. In Russia the time changed systematically in specific sections by one hour in the easterly direction. In China not much was done about it, there was one time, Peking time, no matter if you were East, West, North or South. In Australia it is completely different yet again, it goes under and over, no matter if you come from South to North or from East to West, at every state border the time changes. But not only whole hours, no, half-hours or 1½ hours time differences, are also possible. At least it stayed the same within a state.

This time I was able to put the time forward for 1½ hours, a practical change for me making it light for longer, as it didn’t get dark until 18h00.

The Great Australian Bight started after the border, with imposing cliffs from which you had a beautiful view. Every couple of km there was a rest area with a viewpoint to stop.





Very practical for me and my stomach problems. At this time there should be many whales about. I saw none but despite this, thought it was really nice to do whale watching from my bike. After a long lunch break with rose-hip and ginger tea plus some light medicine for my stomach, I felt a lot better. I could ride on really happily.

It was astonishing how much rubbish there was by the road, although no-one lived there and the traffic was also limited. Trees were decorated with a few objects like at Christmas, probably to highlight you to this fact.



or practically a work of art was made out of it


Apart from that there wasn’t much going on to the left or right of the edge of the road


At the Nullarbor Road House you can marvel at the bicycle that was ridden through the Nullarbor by the first “helmeted” bicyclist in 1962 (I didn’t know that there were bicycle helmets already then.) Nowadays in Australia helmets are required by law, but probably not by then.

As time went on I always slept outside in the bush which was the most beautiful and quietest camp-site. As the saying goes, why pay for 4 stars when you get the whole of the Milky Way for free. The unending horizon not only made gigantic red-orange sunrises and sunsets across the whole width but also a starry sky that seemed to be infinite, above all because no light came from the Earth to disrupt it.

Officially the Nullarbor goes from Norseman to Ceduna, around 1300km. The proper Nullarbor feeling stops already 100km before Ceduna, where fences and agriculture begin.




Once more one of the biggest goals of this trip was over and again it all went by too fast. It had taken me just about 8 days from Esperance to Ceduna, having had a great time and met very many nice people.

I had probably had the best time of the year for the crossing with mostly tail wind, which was even very strong, and it wasn’t too hot. Over a day I needed merely 2 l of drinking water, very practical as at the Roadhouses you seldom get water.

I had all the types of weather you could imagine, all on one day at a stretch only snow was missing.

After the days in the bush, I enjoyed the advantages of a town again in Ceduna, at last I got my favourite biscuits again. Apart from that naturally a camping site was called for, with urgent need of a shower and a washing machine as well of course.


It is simply great when you arrive at a camping site and there is already another bicycle standing there. This time it belonged to Travis, an Australian who, with his dog, was riding from Perth to Horsham, Victoria. Then there was also Kim, a Korean cyclist. Both of them had arrived the day before, the three of us celebrated our Nullarbor crossing joined by a German/Australian couple that sponsored the wine. A really nice change after the evenings in the bush, it went on really late.

The two men decided to add on another rest day. For me the half day before (I arrived at lunch time) was enough. Still with the most beautiful sunshine I started the last section to Port Augusta, crossing the Eyre peninsula. This area is mainly characterised by grain farming. Each place had its own enormous grain silo, but nothing more. The aged General Store looked depressingly small next to it. No tourists come by here as the Eyre Highway goes past the place as does much else.

As there were endless fences left and right of the road and the rest areas were only small indentations with a rubbish bin in these
I decided to go to a camp-site to stay. I didn’t see anyone there, just seedy caravans around. It was cold and wet that day and I had no desire to pitch my tent there. So, without making a ceremony, I swept out the camp-site's store room and made myself comfortable there.

The next day I was overcome with tiredness, still a result of the short night in Ceduna. It was only at 15h00 that I found a rest area to my taste, amazingly there was a motor caravan there already as well. After the elderly couple had invited me to coffee and cakes it was clear to me that I would stay there. Between coffee and an evening meal to which I also was invited, I could lie down for a while, for a well-earned rest as I was thoroughly tired. Not even the original Bush tea, appropriately boiled over a fire in a Billy




could revive me again. I slept wonderfully that night.

Then came another night in the bush before the wind blew me completely to Port Augusta. It was only the 3rd September at noon when I arrived there so I could take care of things right away. Above all I needed new spokes for spares. Unfortunately they had no spokes of the length that I needed, but another surprise awaited me: the door opened and almost the complete Bikers-for-Bibles team came in. Which was a joy to meet again and the afternoon was done!

As I hadn’t had a day off since Prevelly, Margaret River, I forced myself to take a rest now. After breakfast the next day my legs wanted to go on but I didn’t give in.

Port Augusta was the first town on this trip that I had already been in during my first bicycle tour of Australia. But I could remember absolutely nothing of it. Can such a town that also has a historical centre have changed so much in 5½ years? The camp site where I was last time was certainly not there anymore. In its place is a MacDonalds’s with free WiFi where I then stayed almost the whole day.

When I returned to the camp site, Travis was there, to my joy. It is always nice when you meet someone again, as then you don’t always have to start from the beginning again: where do you come from, where are you going, how many km do you do per day... With Travis at the evening meal I could swap the different impressions of the last section right away.

From Port Augusta you get a wonderful view of the Flinders Ranges



that would be attacked next.