When we first saw Uluru, it was called Ayers Rock and it was still “ok” to climb it.  But these days, to me, Ayers Rock feels devoid of character, maybe even of meaning – I’ve come to like Uluru.  So what to make of Nullarbor?  It “sounds” vaguely appropriate but why are we naming this massive, breathtaking area in Latin?  (Latin is a language as dead as dead can be.  First it killed the Romans and now it’s killing me).  And on top of that, there’s heaps of trees!

We’d done some research before our crossing (not usually our forte) and I’m therefore delighted to report that we stayed right next to one of the TopTenHighlights on our very first night.  It’s the Windmill Museum at Penong.  The picture below does it justice but it made us shudder for the other NineTopHighlights.

Penong is also etched in our memory for the worst plate of food so far delivered (including my own pesto gnocchi catastrophe – the previous champion!).  Those of you who’ve been paying attention will know that we’d been “seafood” over-promised-but-under-delivered recently, so when the opportunity came to turn an entree size Garlic Prawns into a main course, Lesley could not be held back. Beautiful plump king prawns sizzling in garlic infused oil – sadly not!  Glutinous but weirdly rubbery pieces of prawn-shaped gristle swamped in a bright, but vile, yellow sauce, devoid of any single appetizing aspect.  You’re lucky we don’t photograph our food!  Penong Pub👎👎.

Leaving Penong, better things came our way.  We had imagined spending a week crossing the Nullarbor, missing none of the interesting parts.  It soon became apparent that we could see all of the interesting parts and still only take 3 days.  The first diversion, 100 metres outside Penong was to Lake McDonnell, one of the many “pink lakes”.  Hmm, definitely pinker on one side than the other, but only a drone shot would have been illuminating.

Next major interest was the Head of the Bight whale watching lookout👍.  An excellent development well set up to showcase the Southern Right whales that visit and have babies here every year.  Sometimes there are over 100 whales almost within spitting distance of the cliffs.  A fellow traveller told us as we approached, that the good news was “spectacular views”, the bad news was “no whales”.  Not good enough for us obviously, so about 30 minutes later Lesley spotted what we were reliably informed was “the first for the season – congratulations”.  Presumably this happens every day, but we departed in high spirits.

A bunch of cliff top stops along the way generated spectacular cliff views in patchy weather.  For heaven’s sake, it’s meant to be a desert, why is it raining and freezing?

Other things to see on the Nullarbor, Highlights told us, are roadhouses.  They’re big garages with assorted fried food – that’s it!  To be fair, most of them will stamp your Nullarbor Links golf card.  Always reluctant to run out of gas, we stopped at several and paid $2.99/litre at one of them – our top price so far.  Other than that, it’s endless flat and straight road in superb condition and through country that was nowhere near as barren as we had imagined.  Road trains and caravans too, but next to no wildlife despite warning signs. 

Overnight stopping places were sort-of found on Wikicamps but were just places where you could drive off the road for a few hundred metres, be totally solitary and light a fire and they worked a treat.  One of our best campsites so far was just such a spot at Caiguna Blowhole (another non-Highlight).    

Norseman is the town nominally at the western end of the Nullarbor.  It was devoid of activity and interest for us when we arrived Saturday mid-afternoon, everyone had already had their democracy sausages, and so we reckoned we could make Kalgoorlie that day.  It’s only 150km; probably get there before dark; find out if there’s a new government.  What could possibly go wrong?