The CrossingBunda Cliff Rest Area to near Nullarbor Roadhouse
Beautiful In Its Stark Emptiness
I still hadn't reached the actual treeless plain, but the country was already colder, wider and more austere. In all that stark emptiness, generous people kept appearing.
I still hadn’t reached the actual treeless plain, but the country was starting to look like the Nullarbor of my imagination. Colder, wider and more stripped back.
I resumed from Bunda Cliff Rest Area with Nullarbor Roadhouse as the overnight target. I would stop walking 15 kilometres short, but the roadhouse meant power, food, people and internet after two quiet days.
The mornings were properly cold now. I started in several layers and two pairs of gloves, waiting for the sun to turn the day from something to endure into something I could enjoy.
When it did, the low scrub, huge sky and long sightlines were beautiful. This part of South Australia seemed to be taking things away: less cover, less clutter, less noise.
I liked it. The Nullarbor was hard, exposed and awkward, but the space did something to my head that busy places never could.
Around the middle of the day I passed a sign saying WA 150. The border that had felt enormous two days earlier was already 150 kilometres behind me.
Chuol Wuol stopped to check that Ben and I were okay. He looked as though he was still processing the idea that I was walking from Perth to Brisbane, which was fair enough. I was still processing it too, in a rolling sort of way.
Later, Les and Marg stopped while driving their new caravan back to Geraldton. They gave me a banana and a bag of shortbread, and took the HAA website details so they could donate. Les’ dad was Joe Hollomby, the Shortbread Man, who had spent years baking and selling shortbread and apple pies to raise more than a million dollars for good causes.
WikiCamps promised a Teddy Bear Tree, and there it was: a tree full of weathered stuffed toys in the middle of nowhere. Then we smelt smoke and found a couple of patches of grass or vegetation smouldering. Ols dealt with them, so we could add “saving Australia” to his support-crew duties.
Elsewhere, Chris Woods from STIX FX finished the event shirt design and Alicia at Oz Virtual Racing created a virtual run medal for the fundraising.
I stopped after 45.3 kilometres, with the activity total at 1,744.0, and we drove on to Nullarbor Roadhouse. The manager told us about a bloke who walked around Australia dressed as a stormtrooper and apparently had the costume save him from a snakebite.
Maybe I was one of the more sensible ones after all.
Videos From The Day
Wide load on the Eyre Highway
A wide load rolling through Day 41, because the Eyre Highway belonged to much more than us.
Open on YouTubeOls deals with the smouldering grass
After a whiff of smoke led us to smouldering roadside vegetation, Ols added fire control to the support-crew job list.
Open on YouTubeBen fetches the SPOT tracker
Ben heading back along the Eyre Highway to retrieve the SPOT tracker late on Day 41.
Open on YouTubeImages From The Day
