Telegraph Station

The drive from Eucla to Norseman was pretty bland. Thank Yoda for the good company. The most exciting thing to happen was the plague of grasshoppers that fired themselves at the Kombi like a barrage of bullets. We collected a few as souvenirs on the front bull bar.

On leaving Eucla, Daph requested we drive the four kilometres (that we weren’t willing to walk the day before) to see the old Telegraph Station. Ern agreed. But then Daph immediately regretted it on discovering it was a dirt track out to the sand dunes, and we all know how much Ern loves dirt tracks!

It took us half an hour to drive at ten kilometres an hour, avoiding potholes and corrugation with no sign of a building anywhere. Until we finally found it, dilapidated and crumbling, buried under sand dunes. Not much to see. But it was still an interesting place to explore, reading all the graffiti that visitors gone by had scratched into the brickwork, dating back to the 1960s.

And so onwards to Cocklebiddy for the night, where the motel wasn’t quite up to the standards of our previous stopovers. It could have been an awesome retro motel with a bit of love. But it hasn’t been renovated in... probably forever. The staff were friendly enough. And we got chatting with a guy in the next room who was stranded and awaiting truck parts. He was originally from Ern’s neck of the woods in West Sydney. Small world. He told us his uplifting tale of being recently reunited with his mother after forty-six years apart since being forcefully adopted out at birth. Heart-warming.

The following morning, we continued on to the “longest straight road in Australia,” which was exactly that, with not much else other than the Wedge-Tailed Eagles. These magnificent creatures perch regally atop the sporadic trees, awaiting a road train to prepare their next meal for them. We slowed down to watch them ferociously chow down on roadkill, and then majestically take flight as the Kombi disturbed their feast. Spectacular!

We had planned on stopping overnight at Balladonia. We were excited to explore their museum and learn about the NASA Skylab space station that crashed here. But it was closed due to COVID-19. Of course. After a phone call to the emergency mobile number, the nice lady came out to let us buy petrol because we were dangerously low. Then we drove on another two hours to Norseman, where we officially ended our Nullarbor journey. We are staying at the motel here overnight before reaching our final destination in Esperance tomorrow.

It’s been an eye-opener, and we have loved it. Our experience is most probably unique, in that COVID-19 has affected what we can do on our journey. Most places were closed. So everywhere is deserted. No fellow travellers to swap stories with. And we couldn’t visit the recommended stop-offs. Maybe the world won’t be in lockdown on the way back and we could have a completely different experience on our return.

Despite not being fun-packed, we have some awesome memories. But the main things we will take away from our Nullarbor journey are:

1. It’s expensive. You have no choice but to pay extortionate prices for petrol and a run-down motel room to escape the flies. What else are you going to do?

2. It’s smelly. Daph will never get the stench of the livestock road trains out of her nostrils.

3. It’s barren. It’s amazing how many miles of nothing this country has.

4. It’s greener than we imagined. We thought it would be red dust, but it’s green scrub.

5. The flies! Too many!!

6. It’s a long way. A bloody long way!

7. No camels, dagnammit. Despite Australia apparently having the largest camel population in the world, surprisingly!

But... we made it across! Daph always knew the Kombi could be trusted.