kathndes: Nullarbor to Esperance

After we left the Nullarbor roadhouse we were able to turn off to see the Great Australian Bight and the Southern Ocean for the first time. (It is so blue here) It is truly a spectacular sight and we got some good photos. We were able to go to the coastline a few times before crossing into West Australia. At Eucla, the first town in WA, you come down off the plateau to the plains. This was a strange section of the trip as you have the ridge (the height of the cliffs) off to the right of you. Some travellers have been very creative along here and used the dead trees to make a theme. Some were covered in teddy bears, some in thongs, some in bras and the one we photoed was a soft toy theme. They were very amusing. There are several places where the Royal Flying Doctor can land on the highway. At Madura we started to photograph the 18 hole golf course now crossing the Nullarbor, from Ceduna to Kalgoorlie. The tee off area is usually near the roadhouse, but the fairway and the greens are something else. You golfers will really appreciate this. Once again, at Madura, you come up a pass on to the plateau again. At Cocklebiddy we saw the funniest signboard, which we will share with you later. And then you come to the longest piece of straight road in the world, or so they reckon. 146km without a single bend. At the golf tee at Balladonia we asked a lady to pose for us teeing off into the bush. You will appreciate the way they have marked the green. We were lucky to get a tailwind all the way to Norseman. End of the Nullarbor crossing and, YES!!, we did not see one camel. We were now experiencing the summer. 35deg at lunchtime. Such a shock from what we had two days prior. So we had to make do with the galvanised iron ones in the roundabout in Norseman. Norseman is very small, but they have a large gold mine right on the town doorstep. We went up the lookout and were surprised by the gypsum lakes surrounding the place. One is very large and is a gypsum mine. There's a large pile of goldmine tailings 40mtrs high and covering 12 hectacres. We moved on to a small town south of Norseman called Salmon Gums for a couple of nights. Population about 45, but the van park was great for $10 per night. The town gets its name from the beautiful trees growing for kms around. A thunderstorm eased the heat the second night, and the following morning was quite cool AGAIN. We headed off for Esperance - bloody hell - talk about winter winds. There had been quite a lot of rain here and the wind again was from the deep south. Can't get used to the changes. Esperance is very pretty. The ocean is sooooooooo blue. The main street is lined with huge pine trees. Did a bit of sightseeing, replenished our supplies and had the car serviced. Tomorrow we are off east to see some National Parks. Photos to follow.