Null Arbor

Perth is the city of the West and for about 700km, there is farming, wheatbelt and mining, This portion of highway is busyish with trucks and transient workers. Norseman is the last of this more structured regional and a good spot for a layover, mostly a sleepy small town, comfortable lodgings, a pub, a supermarket, two big roadhouses emphasize it as the transit point.

From here you hit the only of sealed path across southern Australia. Setting off early heading east seems to emphasize the change. After the somewhat hectic day before, turning onto the Eyre Highway, where a sign says Adelaide 1860km, next service 190km, quickly options are gone, a couple of rough local service roads, but this is it. One path and on an early start it feels fresh.

It’s a good path, folklore says bring three spare tyres, a barrel of water and a pack of fanbelts. But long gone is the track of legend, and in a modern car you drive 1000’s of km’s around the city without much consideration, this isn’t that dramatic. Sure don’t be flippant, but generally if your cars been serviced, then check your tyre pressures grab a drink and you will be good.

This is an outstanding piece of highway. Its generously wide, with just occasional bends, not corners, just a tweak in alignment and occasional crests along the sections that have a few rolling slopes. Even the most nervous driver can kind of relax. And that you do, after an hour or so of this low input cruising, your sense of space time and distance changes. The long visual of the road often converges into a somewhat imperceptible horizon with oncoming traffic slowly emerging from a distant shimmer. Cars going your way are similarly paced, no need for a rush overtake, the space will appear and generally you can saunter past with a nod and time to take in your fellow travellers. In the longer flatter sections with endless emptiness ahead this can become quite odd, maybe overtaking a road train on cruise control without touching a pedal, ambling past over a minute or so and indicating back in at a gentle distance. In the first few hours this time perception settles your mind, like a meditation. Start to feel the country as it passes, feel the miracle of your vessel, the steady purr of the motor, the woosh of the wind, climate controlled, a comfortable seat, listening to music or stories and taking in the changes of the landscape. And change it does. Australia has a reputation for being endless plains, but they are not the same plains, the Null Arbor (no trees), is actually a short section, from the West there is woodland, then fields of stoney limestone, the edge of the scarp looks out across spectacular coastal savanna. The Jump Down, is a 150m drop on what is a mostly flat journey, then follows the edge of the plain along this ancient eroded range for a couple of hours. Then at the Jump Up the ocean and dunes appear in the distance, and as the two merge you see how the scarp eventually becomes the cliffs of the Bight.  You can feel it as the road cruises along safely back on land that is deceptively flat for a long spell until an innocuous camera sign takes you to the edge of the world, where you pull up just short of huge cliffs that stretch as far as the eye can see, crumbling into impenetrable pounding ocean, looking down and out across a seemingly endless volume of water. Other worldly and a breathtaking contrast to the 10 hours of vagueness you have just traversed. This is now the other end, a different state. The treeless part is shorter than might be expected, but a great spot for a stayover at the roadhouse with other souls in various state of disconnect from civilisation that lead them to be in the middle of this sparseness for a night. Relocators with packed trailers, the guy in the old bunger ute appears again. Once saw a small car towing a big four wheel drive and caravan. There is different sense of being, an edge of survival through our modern comforts. Staff at these places are hours from a town or a shop or convenience. Old buildings remind of much more challenging travels, even the accommodations have a elemental feel reworked from simpler times, power is self-generated, historical images reflect the old dirt highway, a reminder of privilege.