The Eyre Highway runs for 2,700 km through two states from Adelaide to Perth, but it is the bit in the middle that is famous: the 1,200 km stretch across the Nullarbor Plain, one of the most isolated roads in Australia. At the end of the day it is just a long drive, with many unexpected delights: just do it!

Where does the Nullarbor start? It is usually thought of as the 1,200 km stretch between Norseman in Western Australia and Ceduna in South Australia.

However, I prefer to think it started when we left Esperance on a windy Sunday afternoon, heading north through desiccated wheat lands, a scattering of sparkling salt lakes, stark burnt eucalyptus and the earth of Australia blowing past us on the wind.

Shaking off the pristine holiday enclave of Esperance we were heading bush again, into a land of quirky roadhouses and friendly faces. We didn’t get far that first day, pulling into the little campsite of Salmon Gums, a great community project amidst landscaped cacti.

The host was a Vietnam veteran, having been a sailor on the Kittyhawk when they evacuated Saigon, telling us that they had so many people on board that they had pushed helicopters off the side. Originally from Arizona, he had found his niche in the quieter climes of the Australian outback.

Norseman

Hardy Norseman was a horse, so called because his owner, Laurie Sinclair, hailed from the Shetlands Islands. When tied up one night in 1894 the horse pawed the ground impatiently, revealing a gold nugget. So was born the gold boom town of Norseman and the Norseman Reward claim went on to become one of the richest reefs ever mined in Australia. Laurie sold out but never enjoyed another success like it. Gold is still mined today along with cesium, nickel and gypsum.

97 km north of Salmon Gums, the town is a pretty sleepy place. We had a look at the bronze statue of Norseman diligently pawing the ground, and checked out the roundabout camel train, cleverly assembled using corrugated iron. The wide streets allowed a camel train to turn around.

Norseman provided the last shopping centre of some size, water and cheap fuel before we turned the ute east to the Nullarbor. This 250,000 km square expanse is basically just a huge limestone slab of shells and sand, up to 100 m thick in places, which emerged from under the sea 25 million years ago. As you walk the cliffs you can still see millions of little seashells.

Somehow the Nullarbor crossing has entered the popular imagination as an iconic long distance Aussie road trip. We set off into a pleasantly leafy landscape with scattered forest and at the 50 km mark overtook a cyclist. We assumed he must be heading for  Fraser Range Station that day which has accommodation at 97 km – surely no one could do much more than 100 km a day on a bicycle in possible 40° heat?

We stopped for lunch at Newman Rocks, 48 km before Balladonia Roadhouse. A smooth expanse of rock gave superb views out over scrub and salt lakes and a dam at the bottom must have been a lifeline for wildlife. It was a lovely spot and we were sad it was too early in the day to stop though we picnicked before heading on.

Balladonia

An epic road trip deserves an epic car and what could be more classically Australian than a 1980 Holden ute, and a convertible to boot!? Unfortunately the 350 Chevrolet engine eats petrol so we were going to be stopping at every roadhouse en route: it is really irrelevant how expensive the petrol is if you need it! The longest stretch between roadhouses is actually the one from Norseman to Balladonia at 188 km and there are few diversions possible at this stage without 4 wheel drive.

There is a small museum at Balladonia whose greatest exhibit is probably a piece of the Skylab space station, bits of which crashed to earth nearby in 1979. Australia is very proud of the fact that it fined Bill Clinton $400 for littering.

After Balladonia one comes across one of the big highlights of the Nullarbor crossing: the world’s longest stretch of straight road which runs for 90 miles. Of course we had to pose the ute with the famous 90 Mile Straight Australia’s Longest Straight Road 146.6 km sign, once the German backpackers got their combivan out of the way!

Diversions en route to Caiguna included a shoe tree, a hat tree, and bizarrely a coathanger tree. Some people out there obviously have a warped sense of humour. Equally uninspiring was the Caiguna Blowhole, a small hole in the earth above a cave system through which air is drawn or expelled depending on pressure: nothing much was happening at all when we peered into it. The karst limestone hides numerous caves and few are accessible other than to cave divers, though it is possible to visit Murrawijinie Cave from the Nullarbor Road House.

Obviously trying to enliven the crossing someone came up with the World’s Longest Game of Golf, which admittedly is rather more original than a teddy bear tree.  The 18 hole course starts in Kalgoorlie – which isn’t a good start if you are approaching the plain south from Esperance unless you detour north the 206 km to Kalgoorlie from Norseman – then stretches 1,365 km along the roadhouse chain to end in Ceduna. The holes have amusing names like Brumbys Run at Madura or Dingo’s Den at the Nullarbor Roadhouse. It is free to play though there is a charge for the score card and it is pricy if you need to hire the equipment. Balls were being sold at Caigiuna for $4. However, it is quite a neat idea and adds interest to the trip if you are the sort of person who gets bored on long journeys – and at least it makes you get out of the car!

Another roadhouse fill at Caiguna where the 90 mile straight finished;if you do the crossing on the Indian Pacific train, the longest straight is actually 478 km. With the tracks 100 km further north, the train also really gets into the heart of the Nullarbor: the treeless sections certainly seemed to go on a lot longer!

We camped just 5 km east of Caiguna, pulling off to the south into a vast warren of tracks and bushes. It was easy to find a sheltered, secluded spot well back from the highway to camp for the night. There are free camping spots all along the highway: one only has to look for a rest area then follow the tracks back to a cosy spot. In most cases a 2WD vehicle is perfectly adequate, but I recommend downloading the free Campermate and Wikicamps apps – the latter costs about $5 – which list all the campsites around Australia in detail, both free and paying. They also mention useful stuff like where to shop, find fuel, water or WiFi and the various sights – used in conjunction with the brilliant Maps.Me app, I found them indispensable.

Day Two

An unbelievably grey day and even fairly cool. Numerous roadsigns warn of a succession of animals you are likely to hit, the most famous one a trio of kangaroo, camel and wombat. If you don’t drive at night, you are unlikely to encounter any of them alive. The ute hummed along happily, our early morning start revealing the roadkill from the previous night: the roadtrains don’t stop and animals just bounce off their huge bullbars. We saw the usual sad array of dead kangaroos and two dead dogs: there is a huge feral dog problem in the area and if you hear dingoes howling in the night, I am afraid it is more likely to be wild dogs.

Our first roadhouse of the day was Cocklebiddy which was once an aborigine mission but now boasts that it is home to 8 people, some budgerigars and over a million ‘roos. A little further east, a 4×4 will give you the option of visiting the Eyre Bird Observatory where there is accommodation in another old telegraph station, though if you stay two nights they will pick you up.

Let no one tell you that the Nullarbor is boring: the scenery can actually be quite dramatic. At Madura Pass, another great free campsite and only 1 km before the Madura Roadhouse, we pulled in to get a superb view of the Roe Plains below, a wide green emptiness of salt bush and mallee and still plenty of trees.

Dropping down from the escarpment, we filled up at the roadhouse. There was once a station here producing horses for the British Army in India. Some rusty old bangers served as lawn decoration; en route we passed a couple of burnt out cars by the side of the highway which hadn’t made it. Whatever anyone says, that is really the only danger you will face on the Nullarbor: a breakdown with a long wait for parts in the middle of nowhere or an expensive tow back to civilization – no matter how good your recovery insurance, any towing above 300 km maximum (and often less) is charged for, and at about $10 a km, it can quickly add up out there.

But hey, worry about that when it happens: most crossings are mercifully trouble free and if the worse came to the worse, there are plenty of people around to help.

Eucla

It is 180 km from Madura to Eucla and all the way the escarpment ran parallel on our left: it was easy to see how it could once have been a cliff face to the sea. At the Eucla Pass we suddenly rose up onto its heights again and arrived at the Eucla Roadhouse. This is probably the most presentable roadhouse en route – the motel even has a swimming pool – and we lunched on tasty steak and onion sandwiches with chunky chips.

While waiting for our food, we read all about the Nullarbor Nymph, a topless blonde with a kangaroo skin skirt who was seen running wild with the nearby kangaroos in 1971. Just the sort of thing to excite the imagination of any hot blooded Aussie male and journalists descended en masse. A bus even stopped to leave food out for her and there were numerous sightings – sadly it all proved to an elaborate hoax but it caused so much excitement that the saga was apparently even turned into a dodgy B movie. Now that would be an interesting one to track down!

Eucla also has a 1877 historic telegraph station on the coast below the escarpment, indeed once there was an entire township down there. It is rapidly becoming engulfed by the shifting sands though the old rough hewn bricks are still attractive. The story goes that the telegraphers from South Australia sat on one side of a table, those from Western Australia on the other, and messages were passed over!

Far more evocative is the ramshackle old jetty a 15 minutes yomp away on a wild beach of fine sand and wave washed seaweed. It is funny to sit there and visualize a map of Australia and there you are in the middle of nowhere bottom centre. Next stop Antarctica!

Finally there is a large whale, apparently donated by Albany, who were presumably doing a bit of promotion – and cheaper petrol than Border Village, only 12 km further on. Border Village hits back with an overload of great Australian cliches: not only does it have a giant kangaroo, but it is clutching a jar of Vegemite. It also has a posing pouch attached for more silly photos.

Finally we were back in South Australia trying to work out the time difference – basically when you reach Ceduna, you need to have gone forward 2 ½ hours. It was time to camp anyway and we turned south at Peg 10 to a superb camp right on the cliffs which were just starting to gain their height towards the ramparts of the Bunda Cliffs.

We were high above an expanse of sand dunes though one could quite easily have hiked down for a dip. A stiff wind caused us to site the tent back from the cliffs but I found a sheltered spot to curl up and enjoy the view: the Nullarbor crossing was just about to enter the dramatic stage.

Day Three

We awoke to a grey overcast day and even a sprinkle of rain on the tent. The sea looked rather grey but maintained enough of a green hue to be exotic.

Our progress was slow. It took us about 4 hours to cover the 172 km to the Nullarbor Roadhouse: we were now closely following the Bunda Cliffs and there were lots of lookouts en route. We initially stopped at Peg 38, a popular campspot but also our first glimpse of these rugged limestone cliffs which stretch in an unbroken 200km line from the Head of Bight to the Delisser sandunes.

The arid to semi arid karst landscape has been eroded by rain into a rough, jagged surface. This is particularly noticable on the cliff edges which are up to 90 m high and weathered into precarious overhangs, fractured outcrops and crumbling edges: these are the sort of cliffs where you keep your children close by.  They are dark and sombre and instantly recognizable with a distinctive white band of Wilson Bluff Limestone near the bottom. Peering gingerly down, the Southern Ocean is a deep blue, implacably beating against them. From May to September, there is great whale watching as right whales migrate into these warmer waters to calve and can easily be seen from the cliffs. The visitor’s centre is called Head of Bight but unfortunately all whales had long gone on our visit.

The Nullarbor Roadhouse dates back to 1957 – you can still see the tin hut original to one side – and is a jolly place to stop with a decent cafe. They also have a good range of t-shirts if you really can’t live without a Nullarbor souvenir. It is worth a wander to check out all the murals and old signs around the place. Simon was taken in by the sign advertising topless waitresses! It is possible to detour north in a 4WD to the semi ghost town of Cook, a refuelling stop for the Indian Pacific train.

2 km before the Nullarbor Roadhouse, we had photographed a sign proclaiming Nullarbor Plain Western End of Treeless Plain. Imagine our surprise when 14 km east of the Nullarbor Roadhouse, there was a sign saying Nullarbor Plain Eastern End of Treeless Plain. It was all a bit of an anti climax: the classic Nullarbor as one thinks of it, with no trees, had literally only lasted 16 km. Even then, it was far from desert, just a wide expanse of saltbush in all directions.

Yalata is Aborigine owned and is no longer a roadhouse or fuel stop. It started as a resettlement area for the aborigines who were affected by the Maralinga nuclear testing by the British in the 1950’s. The area has recently been opened up for tourism and it is possible to visit ground zero, the site where the seven weapons were tested, the airstrip and the huge sealed pits where the contaminated soil and debris were buried. Go if you dare!

The afternoon remained grey. We picniced in an expansive bush clearing attended by friendly magpies and continued on. The trees were back, lining the road that stretched away endlessly in front of us, a silver seam in the landscape. Fences appeared and dry grasslands and even a derelict farm just before Nundroo.

There are two possible detours on this section: to Fowler’s Bay, a little fishing village with accommodation from caravan park to motel, or to the famous surfie hangout of Cactus Beach at scenic Point Sinclair with a quirky campsite only: turn off at the windmill town of Penong.

We finally reached Ceduna at about 6 pm, sadly too late to visit the tourist office to claim our certificate for crossing the Nullarbor. The eastwards fruit check is there but the chap was more interested in the car and we were rapidly waved through. Our crossing was over and we had survived. Don’t let the big distances put you off, it is imminently do-able and all the roadhouses have motel accommodation or camp grounds if you don’t want to wild camp. My biggest tip: if you are using an Australian phone, make it Telstra: it is the only one with any reception!

Happy travels!

NOTES

Roadhouses on the Nullarbor (with distances between them). All have fuel, motel accommodation and camping.

Norseman ~> 191 km ~> Balladonia Roadhouse ~> 183 km ~> Caiguna Roadhouse ~> 64 km ~> Cocklebiddy Motel ~> 83 km ~>Madura Motel ~> 115 km ~> Mundrabilla Roadhouse ~> 62 km ~> Eucla ~> 12 km ~> Border Village ~> 186 km ~> Nullarbor Roadhouse ~> 146 km ~> Nundroo Roadhouse ~> 76 km ~> Penong ~> 75 km ~> Ceduna

Salmon Gums. 110 km north of Esperance. $10 for unpowered site or $15 with power. Large gravel area for caravans or camping under the trees. Friendly hosts from Arizona. Sparkling ammenity block, small camp kitchen with fresh herbs in pots outside, washing machine. Local pub does wood fired pizzas on Saturday and Sunday.

Fraser Range Station. 97 km east of Norseman. Range of accommodation in old shearers quarters starting at $95 or camping starting at $22 for an unpowered site. Evening meals available. No booking necessary for camping. enquiries@fraserrangestation.com.au or phone 0890 393210.

Newman Rocks. 140 km east of Norseman. Look for Newman Rocks Road on north side of highway and follow for about 1 km, bearing right at the fork. Superb free campsite with great views and lots of space in open or amongst trees. No facilities bar a bin and fire rings.

Eyre Bird Observatory. With overnight accommodation in historic telegraph station south of Cocklebiddy.

Madura Pass. Wild camping 1 km before Madura Roadhouse with super views over the plains below.

Peg 10 and Peg 38. Superb wild camping spots on the cliffs just beyond Border Village –  10 if you want a swim and dunes, 38 if you want sheer cliffs!

Head of Bight. Great views plus whale watching from June to September. Entrance $15. If you don’t want to pay just visit any of the cliff lookouts marked by a camera sign and Peg 38.

Maralinga Tours. Tours leave Tuesdays and Thursdays, April to October. They include a full day tour and two nights camping fees. 4WD needed.