The Nullarbor crossing was not the best. The weather was cold and damp – not decent rain but foggy with drizzling rain and heavy dew. Between Westonia (west of Kalgoorlie) we did only about 300 km on 5 of 6 days because we needed to wait for rough weather in South Australia to pass through the state. We did have one longer day of 470 km because stopping while it was raining was not enjoyable. By the way, although Nullarbor is Latin for “treeless” the part of Nullarbor Plain that the highway crosses is really only treeless for about 40 km and it is much more interesting than people think.

Happy hour at Nullarbor Roadhouse

A highlight, as usual, was a visit to the whale watching centre at Head of the Bight, about 20 km from the Nullarbor Roadhouse. This time we saw at least 20 whales, mainly females with their calves. Some came very close to the boardwalk.

Head of the Bight

Mum guiding her calf along the base of the cliff

Our final stop for 2 nights was at Crystal Brook where we spent a few hours cleaning both the inside and outside of the caravan before taking it to storage. The delaying tactics worked and we missed the really bad weather. Here the daytime temperature rose to 17 deg but at 7.00 am it was zero, glad we have an insulated van with a heater.

For those interested in statistics (rough figures), during the 92 day trip we travelled 13,000 km, being 11,000 km with the caravan and 2,000 km on side trips. We relocated the caravan on 43 days at an average of 250 km each time we moved; the van did 400 km or more on 7 days and less than 100 km on 9 days. We used 3,000 L of diesel at an average cost of $1.72, making a total of $5,100, or $55 per day. Average fuel consumption was 23 L/100.

It was a very enjoyable trip, allowing us to see and experience places that we hadn’t visited before. We spent time with old friends and met lots of interesting new friends – a special Hi goes to Kate, Ben, Jasper, Flynn and Leo whom we met several times up north and again at our local caravan park at the end of our trip

Until our next holiday, keep safe.

From Ted and Jo