The CrossingMundrabilla to the Eucla stretch
They Stopped In The Dark
Les and Pat Hood saw me walking in the winter dark outside Mundrabilla and stopped to make sure I was all right. That simple roadside check-in stayed with me through the wind and the kilometres that followed.
Imagine driving along the Eyre Highway just after 6:00 in the morning.
It is pitch black, cold, windy, and there are spots of rain in the air. You are more than 20 kilometres from the nearest roadhouse. Ahead of you, in the headlights, is a tall bloke in high-vis gear carrying a torch and walking in the opposite direction.
What do you do next?
Les and Pat Hood stopped.
They asked if I was okay, then we ended up having a lovely chat about Hearts Across Australia and the Heart Foundation. They kindly gave me a donation before we wished each other safe travels and they continued west.
By the time I revisited the photo for the ten-year anniversary, their daughter had commented on the original 2015 post to say Les had sadly passed away. Rest in peace, mate. It was a real pleasure to meet you on that cold, dark morning in the middle of nowhere.
That was how Day 36 began: in the dark, in the cold, with strangers choosing kindness.
The previous day had finished about 24 kilometres short of Mundrabilla. We returned there in the morning, walked through Mundrabilla and kept going east, then came back to the roadhouse for another night.
Winter had arrived without a shadow of doubt.
For the second day in a row, the morning had an intensely wintry feel. The 5:30 start made it sharper, because the first 90 minutes were in darkness. There was cold, wind that pushed and argued, and a little rain. The setting was still moor-like, and the wind made the place sound alive in strange ways.
At one point I thought I could hear running water.
It was just the wind making the leaves and branches of a tree sing.
Other trees were jostled into life too, and every now and then I could have sworn a truck was coming. No headlights on either horizon. Just trees making noise in the wind.
It was an incredible start to the day, even if it was not an easy one.
Later, the numbers ahead changed the feel of everything again. I saw a sign showing Eucla 68 kilometres away, the state border 80 kilometres away, and Ceduna 560 kilometres away. After so many days of Western Australia, seeing the border listed like that was a real wow moment. It was still not close, not exactly, but it was suddenly measurable.
The Eyre Highway had its odd little human touches too.
People had made roadside art to break up the long drive across the Nullarbor: fridges, a pair of Asics shoes hanging from a branch, and the Mug Tree, which was exactly what it sounded like. A tree with mugs hanging from it.
I loved that sort of thing. I have always liked the old habit of leaving ribbons or tokens on branches near springs and other significant places. We did not have a mug worthy of adding to the tree, but a metal heart with our names on it felt more appropriate for HAA anyway.
The heart would go onto the tree the next morning, with #HAA2015, Gary, Ols, and Ben written on it.
By late afternoon, the clouds stacked up over the horizon in a way that looked half sunset, half active volcano. The day had given me darkness, winter, kind strangers, noisy trees, the border on a sign, and weird roadside rituals. Not bad for one more stretch of highway.
I finished after another 45.5 kilometres, taking the activity-distance total to 1513.5 kilometres. That left us about 44 kilometres from Eucla, the last place in Western Australia.
Then we drove back to Mundrabilla Roadhouse for a hot shower, a decent feed, power, heating and sleep.
For future Nullarbor-crossing trivia, Mundrabilla also had pretty much the lowest fuel prices we saw between Norseman and Ceduna. Hot water, heating and cheaper fuel. Luxury.
Videos From The Day
Winter morning east of Mundrabilla
A short clip from the wintry Day 36 morning: low cloud, wind, and the moor-like feel of the Eyre Highway east of Mundrabilla.
Open on YouTubeWide load east of Mundrabilla
A wide-load truck rolling through late on Day 36, another working-highway moment on the long stretch toward Eucla.
Open on YouTubeImages From The Day
