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The CrossingThird day on the 90 Mile Straight

Halfway Along The 90 Mile Straight

The 90 Mile Straight did exactly what its name promised. I walked 56.6 kilometres beneath a huge sky, trying not to think too hard about a flat line that still had no visible end.

Date12 June 2015
Journey dayDay 28
Sunrise over the 90 Mile Straight on Day 28
Another early start, and the 90 Mile Straight handing over a sky big enough to make the effort worthwhile.

The third morning on the 90 Mile Straight started before dawn. By 8am, I had already covered 13 kilometres.

Glenn Carter and his crew passed at about 7.5 km, but I was too busy chatting to take photos. Even in the middle of Australia’s longest straight stretch of bitumen, people kept interrupting the emptiness.

The morning belonged to the sky: colour, cloud, long flat horizons and the strange scale of the Nullarbor. I took photos, but the place was bigger than any of them. At the time I decided an IMAX theatre had nothing on it.

The verges were getting smaller, the sky looked bigger and the trees were thinning out. Sometimes my choice was the edge of the bitumen or the slope beside it. I summed that up on Strava: “Lucky the road is quiet so either cut across or down the slope I go :)”

A few motorists called me crazy, in a nice way. Some offered water, and a man called Robin made a cash donation. Then, without an archway, a fanfare or even a bend in the distance, we passed halfway along the 90 Mile Straight.

Strava added its usual nonsense. GPS issues meant some activities were being flagged, so they didn’t count towards the Monthly Training Series challenge. I complained that Strava had stolen my MTS kilometres. My feet remained unconvinced.

The six sessions added up to 56.6 kilometres. On paper, flat sounds easy. Out there, flat meant exposure, repetition and looking ahead to find exactly the same line waiting for me. My Strava comment called it “a fairly flat one too - great mental challenge lol”.

At the finish there was no town, no roadhouse and no sudden bend. Just more horizon, with slightly more of the Straight behind us than ahead.

Videos From The Day

Hearts Across Australia on YouTube

Sunrise on the 90 Mile Straight

Sunrise over the 90 Mile Straight as Day 28 got moving.

Open on YouTube
Hearts Across Australia on YouTube

Truck on the 90 Mile Straight

A Day 28 roadside truck clip from the long straight section of the Eyre Highway.

Open on YouTube

Images From The Day

Red sunrise over the Eyre Highway on the 90 Mile Straight
The morning colour kept changing as the first kilometres ticked over.
Sun rising over the 90 Mile Straight
The sun finally cleared the horizon, which helped make the early start feel less unreasonable.
A straight dirt service track beside the Eyre Highway
Straight lines beside straight lines. Even the side tracks seemed committed to the theme.
Gary's shoes beside the white edge line of the Eyre Highway
Sometimes the available walking space was basically a negotiation with the white line.
Open Eyre Highway and sparse Nullarbor landscape on Day 28
Verges smaller, skies bigger, trees rarer. That was the landscape report by late morning.
Gary sitting inside the support vehicle during Day 28
A support-vehicle reset between sessions, with another chunk of the straight still waiting.
Late afternoon view along the 90 Mile Straight
By the afternoon the line still looked endless, because of course it did.
Gary wearing high-vis on the Eyre Highway late on Day 28
Late in the day, still moving, still somehow finding the next session.

View the full day gallery