Nullarbor day 2 and 3
The Nullarbor could be crossed in two days. I chose to take 3 to allow lots of time and to be sure that I was not driving when I should not have been. Although beautiful in its own way, it is numbing in the visual sameness. And those giant road trains do come by every 5 minutes or so.
Everyone visiting the Nullarbor gets their photo with one of these signs. Not so easy to do when you are alone, but I got it! Sorry to say that I really did not see any of these along the way. Notice that one of them is a camel. Yes, in Australia! They were brought here for pack trains and such and then turned loose. Now, this hearty, feral version is prized throughout the Middle East and Australia exports them back! On a previous trip up around Alice Springs, I did see some. So interesting!
RFDS. Royal Flying Doctor Service. This is a famous part of the Outback, and crucial to the health of the few who live here. So, when there is an emergency, the plane with the Doctor needs to land somewhere, right? Periodically, a section of the highway is set aside for that purpose.
And, periodically everyone has to get totally off the road for one of these things to pass by.
The ruins of the telegraph station at Eucla. 125 years ago, this station had 30-40 people working in it passing telegraph information between eastern and western Australia. Since it was abandoned, the sand dunes of the beach have taken over.
The beginning of day 3. A good shot from a bluff that shows the massive scale of the Nullarbor.
Yes, 90 miles, not a single curve or anything. They say that this stretch is easily seen from space. It took over 1 and 1/2 hours to do this, with a few stops for breaks. There is nothing this long and unbroken in the US.
I stopped for a water view and a stretch. and walking around the pull out, I came across this memorial. To the left is a sort of tombstone depicting the life of a husband and father that died at 49. His ashes along with his dog are here it says. And, then they did this memorial to him as well. My guess is that he loved to fish along this area. Creepy, yes, but poignant as well.
This may be too hard to read, but Belladonia in the Nullarbor is where the Skylab crashed down in 1979. There are like 5 permanent residents, but for a brief period of time, they were world famous. It notes that President Jimmy Carter called the motel owner to apologize for the mess caused! Can you imagine our current one calling ANYONE to apologize for ANYTHING? The county did issue a littering ticket but did not assess a fine!