Part 1 of the Nullarbor—May 17-20

May 17: The Last Town for a Good Long While

Since the wind was going to be in my favor, I didn’t worry about getting an early start. Besides, I only needed to go 72kms. Wanting to reserve my food for the Nullarbor, I stopped at the bakery in Ceduna for breakfast. I realized, as I was stopping to pee for the third time, that my breakfast had been mostly liquid (juice, hot cocoa, peanut butter smoothie in a bowl with seeds, granola, and fruit, and two pieces of raisin toast). It was delicious though.

So, although the Nullarbor “officially” goes from Ceduna to Norseman, it’s not very Nullarbor-ish yet. It’s pretty much what I’ve been riding through the last few days. I didn’t see any wildlife (and no roadkill either). 

Tilmann was probably the heaviest I’ve ever ridden with all the food I’m carrying (don’t even have any extra water yet), but with the tailwind, it was not bad. My average speed for today was 17km/hour. One thing I have been able to unscientifically prove is that, in a tailwind, one must go at least 20km/hour to out ride/fly the flies. Below 20, they can keep up, and generally be a nuisance. I’m sure the flies will get worse (I have a headnet).

I saw another touring cyclist today. Brett is riding from Perth to Melbourne (he’s from Melbourne). Like Steve, he has had headwinds many days. Some people say this is unusual, while others say the wind is mostly easterly at this time of year. I’m just hoping it continues (although I felt a touch bad for Brett...).

I arrived in Penong around 1:00. Penong is home of the largest windmill in Australia. In fact, they have a windmill museum. It’s right across from the caravan park. I could see the big windmill from quite a ways away. The way the sun was shining on it, it looked like some big shiny spaceship. I stopped at the museum on my way to the caravan park. They have quite the collection of a variety of windmills. 

The Penong Caravan Park is full tonight. I’m actually set up under a shelter. There is no grass to speak of (South Australia is the driest state in the driest inhabited continent). I’ve met a number of people here (including another Colleen), but my favorite has been Margaret and Greg from Collie. They are also heading west (in their caravan). The Munda Biddi Track goes to Collie. Margaret gave me their number to call them when I get to Collie (it’ll be...Colleen calling in Collie—ha ha!). If they are home when I get there, they’ve invited me to stay with them! 

I’ve decided, food-wise, that I will eat a mid-day meal at the roadhouses if I end up at one, then cook my dinner and breakfast. I ate at a cafe here in Penong. There is no camp kitchen here (just a BBQ), so I used my stove tonight. I think I’m glad I got another fuel canister.

Penong is the last actual town I will come to until Norseman (I think). From here on, it’s roadhouses masquerading as towns. One interesting thing for golfers, you can “Golf the Nullarbor”. There is a hole at each town/roadhouse. I think you play each hole (getting your card signed at the roadhouses) as you make your way across the Nullarbor. Apparently, you can even rent a club. As I am a terrible golfer, I’ll pass.

May 18: Where Are the Live Wombats?

I took my time heading out this morning. I didn’t even get out of my sleeping bag until it was light enough to see without my headlamp. I stopped at the grocery store to pick up another pack of tortillas. Now I have 28 tortillas. That oughta do me. 

I was on the road about 8:30. I took a photo of the distances to all the places on the Nullarbor. Norseman, the end, is 1163km away. It’s going to take me awhile to get there! There was also a sign for kangaroos and wombats for the next 79kms (basically, my entire day). I had pulled off at about 20kms for a break. Off in the distance it looked like there were kangaroos. I got out my monocular thingie, and sure enough, there were three kangaroos! They were the only ones I saw today. 

I was seeing lots of wombat burrows, but no wombats. Then, I started seeing dead ones on the road. These wombats are not the same breed as the ones on Maria Island. These ones are absolutely huge! They are probably three to four times as big as the Maria Island ones. I saw 6 dead wombats on the road. I kept calling the wombats to come out of their burrows so I could see them. They didn’t listen. When I was about 15kms out of Nundroo Roadhouse, way off down the road I could see something moving across the road. It was big, brown, and roundish. It must have been a wombat. I tried to keep my eye on where I had seen it so when I got up to that spot I could see if it was still around (they’re not the fastest moving critters), but I never saw it. 

I did see some really pretty parrots. They were mostly green with a black head, yellow breast, and a yellow ring around their necks. 

The wind was not really a tailwind until I was almost to Nundroo. It wasn’t a killer headwind either, but I was certainly not going as fast as yesterday. Plus, it seemed to be more hilly. I don’t know if that was because I was going slower, or if it really was hillier. 

Still, I arrived at Nundroo after 79kms at about 3:00. There is a caravan park here...of sorts. Definitely no kitchen, and the showers were cold. But, the woman in the roadhouse let me use one of the showers in a motel room, and that was nice and hot. Normally the caravan park showers are hot, but they’ve been having problems with them.

There are several Aboriginal people that come into the roadhouse. Yalata, Aboriginal land, is just up the road. I will begin riding across it tomorrow. I won’t make it all the way across, but I can camp at the rest stops without a permit. That also means I’ll need to carry extra water. It was cheaper to buy a 10 liter box than the 7 liters I think I will need in bottles. I reckon I’ll need 3 days worth of water as I want to go out to the Head of the Bight (that’s 24kms return, then another 14kms to Nullarbor Roadhouse). If the wind is good, I might make it to Nullarbor Roadhouse in 2 days, but I’m not counting on it, especially since I’ll be packing at least 8 liters plus three water bottles. Ai yi yi, that’s a lot of weight!

May 19: Who Ordered This Rain?

I sure slept well last night! I didn’t even have to pee until 4:15 (okay, probably should have drank more...). This morning wasn’t as cold as it’s been the last couple of mornings. I said goodbye to my neighbors, Mike and Angelique. We had dinner together in the roadhouse last night. It was pretty good. I had a Caesar salad with prawns, and garlic bread. 

Carrying the extra water was pretty heavy. All the extra water was on the back. The 6 liter bag was strapped on top of my tent, and the two one liter platypus bags were in each of the outer pockets of the rear panniers, as was the extra water bottle. The biggest issue, though, was that I couldn’t use the kickstand (too much weight for the kickstand, and I couldn’t lift Tilmann anyway). Throughout the day, whenever I stopped, I had to find a tree to lean Tilmann against. 

It was slow going up the hills (again, today, there were several hills), but I expected that, so it was okay. What I didn’t expect was rain. I thought what I was looking at toward the Coast was fog. As it moved in, it was actually rain. It was misting at first, and I thought, oh, this will end. But, then it was “misting” a bit harder. I pulled off the road and found a tree to lean Tilmann against and pulled out my rain gear. As it wasn’t especially cold, I took my long pants off, and just wore the bike shorts Steve gave me under my rain pants. As always seems to happen, as soon as I was suited up, and headed down the road, it stopped raining. I pulled into the next rest stop place and took off the rain gear. 

Things were progressing along nicely. I saw one kangaroo bounding along a dirt road in the bush parallel to the main road. Still didn’t see any wombats. The n the dark clouds moved in again, and I had to pull over, find another tree, and put my rain gear back on. This time it rained quite hard. It was extra special when the road trains would go by. It added greatly to the shower I was getting (well, I don’t get a shower tonight, so...).

Finally, it stopped raining, and the sun poked through off and on. I decided if it was still not raining, and the roads had dried some, when I got to the Yalata Roadhouse (which is closed), I would at least take off my rain pants. 

I pulled into Yalata and took off the rain pants. This was where I had planned to stay, but it was only 1:30, and there was no reason to stay there since everything is closed. I continued on. Even though I was now on Yalata Aboriginal Land, I figured there would be someplace I could pull off and stealth camp.

I came to a good place, but it was still pretty early. I would just end up being bored, and spending way too many hours in my tent. However, looking up the road, it looked like it was raining again. So, you would think I would have decided to stay there. Nope. I put my rain pants back on, and continued up the road. I decided I would either ride until I was out of the rain, or to the next suitable campsite, whichever came first.

I was beginning to despair about finding a decent place to get off the road. There just wasn’t anything. I’d gone about 15kms past Yalata, and down a big hill. At the bottom I could see where it looked like a rest stop. This wasn’t one on my map. Sure enough, it was a rest stop, AND it had stopped raining! Hallelujah, home for the night! There was a sign that said it was a rest stop and not for camping, but I don’t care! There were several roads leading away from the road. I went well down one until I came to a perfect spot with a tree to lean Tilmann against. The sun even came out, and most everything got dry. 

Several vehicles have pulled in to the rest stop (I can hear them), but then they probably read the sign, because they continue on.

The sky has cleared up mostly, and I’m hoping for good weather tomorrow. Please don’t anyone order up anymore rain!

May 20: Heading to a Bight

I stayed outside my tent last night, even went for a little walk when it was almost dark in the hope of seeing some kangaroos or wombats. I saw nothing. Finally, I gave up and retired to my tent. Just as I’m starting to read, I hear the unmistakable thump thump thump of a kangaroo go hopping by. I grabbed my headlamp and opened my tent. I could see nothing. I went back to reading. Then I heard multiple thumping feet go by. Again I looked out my tent door. Nothing. To be fair, it was pretty dark by then. I guess I will just have to be satisfied knowing they were there.

It was very cold this morning—5.3 Celsius. However, it was sunny, so it was just a matter of time before it warmed up. I rode about 5kms with my warm jacket on, but took it off after going up the second hill. The hills continued for about the first half of today’s ride, then it flattened out.

As I was riding along, a vehicle went by me, then pulled over just up the road. A guy got out, and was waiting for me as I rode up. It was Ian from Streaky Bay! That was 5 days ago! We had a good chat. I took off, and he beeped as he went by. It was fun to see him again.

I wanted to go to the Head of Bight. I was hoping the wind would still be slack when I got there as the road turned a bit back east to get out to the Bight. Well, it was doing its usual thing of picking up shortly after noon. I made it to the turn off shortly after noon. But, even though I had a headwind for the 12kms out to the Head of Bight, I knew I’d have a tailwind coming back.

Head of Bight is where the whales come into the bay to have their calves. Except it’s a little early yet. There were reports of two whales, but I didn’t see them. The scenery was still quite spectacular. 

I rode the tailwind back to the highway, and the final 14kms to Nullarbor Roadhouse, one of the nicer roadhouses along the Nullarbor. I’m am now officially on the Nullarbor Plain, and it is definitely more null, and less arbor. There are still low shrubs, but no trees. 

There are several caravans (a club of several traveling together toward Sydney) here. I’ve met some really nice people, and had a good time chatting with all of them. I’ve come to look forward to these roadhouses because I know I’ll get to talk to lots of people.

Apparently, there are dingoes here. It’ll probably be like the kangaroos. I may hear them, but won’t see them. 

I hope it’s not quite so cold in the morning. There was just a brief rain shower (like 30 seconds). That means cloud cover, and that means more warmth. However, if it’s a choice between rain and warmth, or sun and cold, I’ll take sun and cold!

And then there was the outback...

Largest windmill in Australia in Penong 

The iconic sign

Sunset on the Nullarbor

And now no trees (sort of)

Head of Bight