Salmon Gums

12/4/2013. Somewhere on the Australia's Longest Straight Road

Drove for another day across the Nullabor on the Eyre Highway and played some more golf. This road is in a good condition but after while we were happy to just stop and play golf. Lidia started to take photos of the road,  road's signs and even our shadows. 

 

 

 

 We even saw a little twister off the side of the road. Not sure if you can see it on the photo, but it looked pretty good spinning around

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We crossed the boarded into WA, and with the excitment of a boarder search, we forgot to take the road sign photo  We did get the boarder Kangaroo, with Lidia in the pouch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 We had a strong head wind for the whole day, which added around 3L/km to our economy, just as petrol prices hit the roof.  This meant that even with the extra 50L fuel we carried, we couldnt make it across.  Graham was a bit worried to start with, anc checked the tyre pressures and bearing temperatures, but after talking with other people, it was confirmed just the headwind.  At least it was only fuel, and not overheating problems like others were having.

 

 Graham did some calculations, and we needed to buy an extra 44L of fuel to make it, so we rounded it off to 46.41L -  and Graham was not impressed.   

 

 

The Pathy rolled over 200,000kms on the Nullabor - how Australian is that.. 

 

 

We stopped for the night on one of the free camp spots on the Australia's Longest Straight Road - 145km.

Graham has been quiet on the beer subject recently.  Mainly because we though it would be good to try a "working mans" South Australian beer, we we bought a 30 can slab of West End Draught.  This was hard work, but this is the last one.  Graham doesnt regret it, but wont do it again.  Funny thing, was the beer actually tastes better out of the can, than it does on tap..

 

13/4/2013. Kalgoorlie-Boulder Centennial Park

 We did it!!!! First finished the nullabor (without incident), other than a minor incident when some guy in a bongo tried to overtake when there was oncoming traffic, and found the car and van was longer than he thought.  Not really close, but I did need to use the brakes and give him some room.  ,There was no wind today, so our fuel economy was back to 13L/100, so we cruised into Norseman with 80kms of fuel to spare.. (Could have cut the safety margin a bit)..

We stoped on Norseman to see what there was to do, and apart from some cheap fuel, and camels made from corrugated iron, there was not much going on.  We were warned about dress rules for the final golf holes, so visited the local op-shop to get a collared shirt.  This was awsome, because Graham found a souvenir shirt that cost $45 in the tourist info shop, for $2 - and it had a collar.  We snapped it up.

 

We had decided to commit to the golf scene, and detoured a bit to Kalgoorlie.  By the time we finished the golf, we scammed a free shower in the Club house and a $12 pizza special, washed down with some clubhouse pints -  The World's Longest Golf Course it's officially over.   We added a page to the blog, with all of the details.

 

We headed to the free camp area in Centennial  park, which happened to have "Justice Crew" live in concert there playing, with people and cars everywhere.  Somehow, security kept the "free caravan" park for RVs and caravans (not for parking), so we got an easy park.  The music was pounding the van, but I fell asleep watching a movie, and Lidia reports she was asleep by 9:45.  I really dont know how.

 

14/4/2014 (Today). Salmon Gums.

We woke up early as we are not use to the time change yet to WA, and found ourself in a deserted main street.  We thought we would drop by coles and top up the van supplies, but it didnt open on Sunday..  How retarded is that.  The only places we found open, was the bakeries, Bunnings and the tourist info place.  We got our final stamps and certificate for the Nullabor Links, and Graham asked the girl what there was to do in Kalgoorlie,   she actually chuckled (as did another customer).  "Not much" she said..  We took in some lookouts and headed out of town.

 

 

The drive was long and boring, and Graham was tired so we stopped at a highway rest area for an afternoon snooze, but stopped in midge headquarters.  We travelled another 20kms down the road and stopped at a community funded caravan park in Salmon Gums.  $5 per person per night, for toilets and hot showers, and extra $5 if you want power.