Driving across the Nullarbor

Driving across the Nullarbor
Nullarbor Plain, near Mundrabilla (WA)

Driving across the Nullarbor Plain has to be one of the most amazing drives we've ever been on.

When we set out on this trip, we always saw this part as being a risky - if not scary - stretch of road, but we're pleased to report (to our parent's relief) that we had the best time on this drive and arrived safely to our destination.

There are numerous blogs and sites out there that give you a very detailed explanation on HOW to do the drive: things to look out for, stops along the way, tips with petrol and water and everything, so I won't go through that here. Rather, I thought I'd share our experience - as a married couple with a dog - driving across this long, flat, endless stretch of land.

Adelaide to Esperance

With more than 2,100km to cover between Adelaide from Esperance, we decided we would do this drive over 3 days, so that our drives wouldn't be too long and the 3 of us wouldn't go crazy or get too tired on the road.

Day 1: Adelaide to Ceduna

780km

Our first day saw us say goodbye to Adelaide and the lovely Henley Beach, and heading northwest towards Ceduna, which is essentially the eastern end of the Nullarbor Plain.

Goodbye, Henley Beach Home!

About 130km out of Adelaide, we reached our very first pink lake, Lake Bumbunga, situated in this little town called Lochiel (population 113, according to their 2016 census). Having a Scottish name and a lake (or loch?) in town, someone found pertinent to put in a monster in the lake and name it Lochie:

Lochie, at Lake Bumbunga

All in all, an interesting stop to stretch the legs, give Summer a little run, and a chance to get the drone out for some shots:

And that, my friends, was pretty much the only noteworthy stop for that day. The remaining 780km of the drive was rather dull, cruising along open fields, farm lands and nothing really worthwhile until you we got to Port Augusta, an old port town that seemed to have seen better days. From there, onwards to yet more of the same landscape and open fields with not much to look out for.

Thanks to Bill Bryson though, and his book Down Under we were kept entertained throughout the entire drive. Bill's tales of crossing the Nullarbor were getting us particularly excited for Day 2.

We stayed the night at the Ceduna Motor Inn by the side of the road, one of the few motels that were pet friendly. We had an easy night in with pizza and beers in the room, and got some good rest for the remainder of the drive.

Day 2: Ceduna to Mundrabilla

580km

Day 2 was our first day in the Nullarbor as well as our shortest drive day. With only 580km to cover, we decided to take our time and enjoy the day as much as we could.

We started off with a little wander around Ceduna waterfront (very windy but lovely) and breakfast at the local bakery. We were starting to get a feel for small-town Australia, with not much open around town on a Saturday morning, and a very neighbourly gesture: the butcher next to the bakery saw Summer with us and walked out with massive offcuts from beef and asked us if Summer could have them. As much as his offer warmed our hearts, we've had a few too many stomach incidents with Summer and weren't ready to risk it on a 580km drive, so we politely declined, to Summer's dismay.

With our bellies full (some more than others... sorry again, Summer) we were ready to hit the road and see what this Nullarbor was all about. With time on our side for the day, we decided to take a small detour and check out Point Sinclair Pink Lake, just outside of Penong (SA), which turned out to be a huge highlight:

Yet again, the drone came out and provided some fantastic shots of the pink lake and the contrast of colours around us:

Drone shot over the Point Sinclair Pink Lake

From that point on, the landscape started shifting. Bush started getting thinner and thinner until we were well and truly in the middle of the Nullarbor.

I'm sure I was not the first one to be surprised to learn that "Nullarbor" is not an Aboriginal name for the area - it is in fact Latin for "no trees" (checks out). The Aboriginal name for the are is Oondiri which means "the waterless" (also checks out). We were both mesmerised by the open, vast landscape, and the feeling that we're all tiny specs of dust flying across this universe.

And the most fascinating of all of this is that this wide vast plain that looks landlocked in the middle of nowhere actually runs along the coast, which creates these otherworldly views of a dry, arid desert right next to this magnificent cliff looking out to the open ocean:

The Nullarbor Timezone

One of the most interesting (and confusing) experiences during this drive was learning that we crossed three different timezones during our drive. If this wasn't enough to do your head in, the time difference between them was just 45 minutes. Let's recap this...

In Adelaide we were in Australian Central Standard Time (UTC+9:30). This was already confusing as we were just 30 minutes behind Sydney (Australian Eastern Standard Time, UTC +10).

For 340km in the Nullarbor, and in Mundrabilla where we stayed the night, the "local time" is the officially unrecognised Central Western Time Zone (UTC+08:45) which is 45 minutes behind Adelaide.

Still with us?

Once we left the Nullarbor (and the weird 340km stretch) we entered Australian Western Standard Time (UTC+8).

Phew.

Thankfully there were clocks everywhere to help us out

We stayed the night at the Mundrabilla Roadhouse, a very pleasant surprise for us, where we secured a pet-friendly room (Summer even had her own bed), and managed to have a drink and a very good meal at their restaurant. We couldn't be happier!

Mundrabilla Roadhouse from above

Day 3: Mundrabilla to Esperance

823km

The third and last day of our drive was also the longest: with more than 820km to cover, we woke up early and were on the road by the first sunlight.

I'm not gonna lie, it was a hell lot of driving, and while we were devouring offline Spotify playlists, podcasts of different genres (politics, news, pop culture, music) and long Audiobooks, we were going a bit crazy. The roads are always so flat that it required an additional level of attention. Here's Alex behind the wheel in one of those moments, letting some steam off:

Going a bit cray cray

The rest of the drive across the Nullarbor was beautiful and, thankfully, uneventful. Probably the only highlight of the day (if we can call that) was the 90 Mile Straight: as the name suggest, a stretch of land without the slightest turn, that goes for 90 miles.

Driving the 90 Mile Straight
Time lapse on the 90 mile straight

After hours and countless km's on the road, the vegetation started to change slightly and trees start to pop up, indicating that the "tree-less" Nullarbor was definitely coming to an end:

Vegetation changing around us

The Nullarbor Plain ends at the rather uneventful town of Norseman, where we simply stopped for a quick break, before venturing the last 200km stretch to Esperance.

We've spoken to quite a few people now who have also done the Nullarbur drive and most of them hated it. I am not entirely sure how such a long (and arguably boring) drive became a highlight for us, but we thoroughly enjoyed it, and were very glad that our car stayed strong with us and we safely made it to Esperance.

We are now officialy in Western Australia for the first time in our lives and ready for the adventure ahead of us!

We made it to our home in Esperance!!!

Odometer check:

For the data nerds out there like me, here's the odometer of our car after these 3 days of driving from Adelaide (SA) to Esperance (WA):

2,223km in 3 days of driving!