April 18 (341 km)                       COCKLEBIDDY Roadhouse ($A18)

An early start for the long straight drive, pausing at the well-spaced roadhouses and some of the rest areas which punctuate the Eyre Highway. First BALLADONIA Roadhouse, after 91 km, which had been a day's stage from Fraser Range on our cycle-crossing. Each of the 10 roadhouses (and there is absolutely nothing else on the Nullarbor) offers fuel, licensed bar and meals, motel rooms, maybe expensive coin-operated internet, powered caravan sites, showers and toilets, though drinking water is not freely available. Balladonia, the largest, also has a museum display with bits of the American Sky-lab which landed there in 1979.

Soon we were on the 90-mile straight, Australia's (and perhaps the world's) longest straight road, an incredible sight stretching in front of us through the endless scrub, trees and hills. It was good to see so many live kangaroos 'out bush', as well as the road-kill attracting crows and eagles on the road in front of us.

Lunch in the large Baxter's Rest Area (named after Eyre's companion, the pioneers of this route in the 1840's). Here we pitched our tent for a cold wet night 5 years ago, but today the sun shone. Examined the Caiguna Blowhole (where the underground limestone cave system breathes) just before the CAIGUNA Roadhouse, which marks the end of the 90-mile straight, 178 km after Balladonia. Clocks go forward here 45 mins, travelling east! Only 64 km to the next stop, COCKLEBIDDY Roadhouse ('The Wedgetail Inn'), where we stopped for the night on the windswept caravan park behind the roadhouse. Incredibly quiet as night fell, just us and 2 campervans, - only road-trains drive after dark. Felt very small and remote under the vast moonlit sky – as indeed we are.

We noted the rising price of diesel at each roadhouse ($A1.55 at Balladonia, 1.58 at Caiguna (we had filled up in Norseman at $A1.25). Longest day's drive so far, imperceptibly dropping 1,600 ft to 270 ft asl.

April 19/20 (277 km)                  EUCLA Roadhouse ($A15)

Less wildlife along the highway today, as the terrain gradually changed. In the 91 km to the next roadhouse, the MADURA Oasis Motel, we gradually climbed to 400 ft at the top of the Madura Pass, with a view over the Roe Plains (once the sea bed), before dropping abruptly to 60 ft asl. The Hamilton Tablelands now formed a backdrop to the north, as the road ran between the limestone escarpment and the coast. The Madura Station (1876) had trained horses for the British cavalry in India.

MUNDRABILLA Roadhouse, after 115 km, was our next stop, to refuel (at $A 1.34 per litre – or 56 pence - the cheapest diesel on the Nullarbor). On the steady drive of 656 km from Norseman, our consumption averaged 11 km per litre. The little animal park at Mundrabilla had died (or rather most of the inmates had – just chooks and geese left). A row of pet graves across the main road told the story!

The final 65 km to EUCLA culminated in the first view of the Southern Ocean to the south, a deeper blue than the sky, contrasting with the startling white of the fine sand dunes. A short climb to 300 ft and a right turn into the best roadhouse/caravan park on the Nullarbor, complete with sea view. Eucla, with about 40 inhabitants, is also the largest settlement on the Nullarbor. It has a 9-hole golf course, museum, police station and meteorological office. Below on the beach are the historic remains of the Eucla Telegraph Station built in 1877.

Dusk fell suddenly at about 6 pm (Eucla time).

So far, we have travelled 720 km across the Nullarbor, with another 500 km to Ceduna ahead.

We took a rest day here, as we had during our 2000 cycle ride (when we shared the motel with the Olympic Torch circus on its way east for Sydney). Down on the shifting white sands we revisited the half-submerged telegraph station buildings – all that remain of the buried sandstone buildings of the original township - and climbed to the summit of the highest dunes, for an exhilarating slide down, setting off mini-avalanches of flowing sand. Walking on to the shoreline we found the old wooden jetty, used by the sail and steam ships which supplied the settlement and took its wool and sandalwood to Albany or Esperance. The jetty was lined with sea birds, the sky a clear blue, the ocean a sparkling turquoise and to the east the Bunda Cliffs (the longest unbroken stretch of cliffs in the world) rose 300 ft sheer from the ocean, shining white in the sunshine. What a perfect solitude on this, our 3^rd visit.

April 21 (217 km)                       NULLARBOR Roadhouse ($A17)

A short climb over the next 12 km to the WA/SA BORDER VILLAGE Roadhouse and quarantine checkpoint for west-bound traffic. Going east, we advanced our clocks another 45 mins. From here the road skirts the Bunda Cliffs which run for 200 km, about 90 m above the Southern Ocean, to the Head of the Gt Australian Bight. The 6 coastal lookouts have danger signs along the undercut cliff edge. Today, though still very hot, a strong wind blew off the land and we heeded the warnings whilst taking photos.

On our cycle ride in an even stronger wind, we had camped on the north side of the road, pitching our tent in the lee of an emergency phone about 50 km before the Nullarbor Roadhouse. At the Roadhouse, we had taken a 30-min flight in a single-engined plane with Whale-Air's bush pilot, Nigel, to spot the Southern Right Whales which migrate to the Head of Bight in winter (June-Oct). Nigel and his little plane were not here today – probably running scenic flights in the Bungle Bungles.

The Nullarbor National Park crossed today is truly 'Null arbor' – no trees, very sparse scrub, no wildlife apart from a pair of dingoes scavenging alongside the crows around the Roadhouse. Night fell suddenly, just the headlights of passing roadtrains occasionally piercing the darkness.  

April 22/25 (301 km)                  CEDUNA, Foreshore CP ($A19.35) - Top Tourist

A long drive to complete the Nullarbor Crossing. After 14 km we passed the turning for the Head of Bight whale-watching lookout, 12 km south of the highway. This is part of the wooded, rolling Yalata Aboriginal Reserve and the next roadhouse, after a further 79 km, is YALATA. Its store and petrol station also serve the nearby Yalata Mission Village (which is out of bounds to non-aboriginals).

Only 55 km to NUNDROO Roadhouse, with its sense of approaching civilisation – our first sighting of outback windmills, parched grass, signs of farming and a dirt road turning south to Fowlers Bay. After 76 km, PENONG signals the end of the desert crossing. Here, on the western edge of South Australia's wheat belt, are a few people, sheep, a folk museum in the old station's stone-built woolshed, a roadhouse (with fuel at the lowest price since Perth), a hotel, general store, caravan park, even a laundromat!

Over the final 75 km to CEDUNA we passed the abandoned sites of several schools – in Victorian pioneer days, a couple of farms would have enough children to fill the classroom. A mixture of excitement and regret as we spotted the blue of Murat Bay and knew the crossing was almost over. Through our quarantine checkpoint (having consumed all fresh fruit, vegetables and honey in readiness) and along the single street of shops to the foreshore. The Top Tourist CP, opposite the long jetty, is beautifully situated. Just a short walk to the Foodland supermarket and Bill's fish & chips (excellent local King George Whiting for supper).

We have now crossed the Nullarbor on the Eyre Highway (National Highway No 1) 3 times - that long narrow ribbon of bitumen through the far from treeless desert - and find it an extremely varied and poignant journey. So many memories: of kangaroos (dead and alive), deserted Eucla buried in the sand, the sheer windblown limestone cliffs, the dramatically empty landscape, like travelling the very edge of a map: 'there be dragons' (or at least whales). No mobile phone signal, no internet or email, no crossroads, no telephone or power lines, nothing but the bare essentials of 10 simple roadhouses for the last 800 miles! And this time we saw ONE single cyclist, a lone man pulling a trailer, riding east-west. On our own ride in 2000, we met just one other; while driving across in 2002 we met (and fed) 2 separate cyclists. Cycling Norseman to Ceduna had taken us 2 weeks; this time, driving, it took just 1 week!  

We spent 3 more days in Ceduna, a long weekend culminating in Anzac Day (Monday, 25 April). We photographed the superb sunset over Denial Bay from the jetty, and walked 5 miles return along the coastal path to Pinky Point at Thevenard, from where local salt, wheat and gypsum are shipped. At 10.30 am on Anzac Day we joined the people of this small remote town, marching to the cenotaph for a memorial service organised by the RSL (Returned Services League) on the 90^th anniversary of the Gallipoli landings. The veterans attending with their medals are now those of subsequent conflicts – WW2, Korea, Vietnam. The service was short (just one hymn, a recorded Last Post and Reveille, and the first verse of 'Advance Australia Fair'), but the town lacks a band and a bugler. The television channels gave full coverage to the moving events at Gallipoli's Anzac Cove as dawn broke (shown here live, at noon).

The weather began to cool over the weekend and it was good to take time to write up the journey, plan the next stage, send and receive text messages from friends 10,000 miles away, and buy a newspaper.

News: Prince Rainier of Monaco has died. The new Pope is the German Joseph Ratzinger, or Benedict XVI.