Salmon Gums (the sister town of Cod Eyes, maybe?) appeared on the horizon north of Esperance and could not have come at better time.

We were just about to venture onto the well known Nullarbor plains, Australias longest and straightest piece of road, and needed a little bit of normalcy before we did so.
Salmon Gums total population doesn’t even reach 500 people but they were some of the most generous, kind, welcoming people we’ve met along the way. Sally, the camp supervisor gave us a warm welcome as we arrived and we set up camp for the night. The first example we can give you of what a beautiful town this was, was meeting Alan, one of the parks residents. The previous night he had driven a stranded backpacking couple, no older than us, 8 hours back to Perth to collect a new car after theirs had blown up spectacularly just 4 weeks after buying it, before escorting them back to the campsite through the night. His reasons for doing so? Because he had children and he hoped that someone would do that for his own if they were ever in similar situation. What a top bloke who thoroughly deserved the many, many beers we watched him put away that night around the campfire. He also had a rescue dog called Reggie, who he failed miserably to control but who he adored and that made me love him even more.

“Not all heroes wear capes, some war singlets.”

Our first port of call was the pub – YES, a Pub! Well deserved after a long day of driving (oh how naive we were… ). We got comfortable chatting to the locals, of who there were 10, on what was apparently their busiest time of the day/week and enjoyed a few to drink in the sun in the pub garden. What made this an even more joyous occasion was the company of Roxy, the 7 year old Great Dane/Mastiff whose head was bigger than mine and her bark deeper than even Dave’s voice. I could literally write a book on the dogs I’ve fallen in love with so far and Roxy was no exception. Even Dave had fallen in love with her, in the few hours we were sat there.

Much like our time around Sids campfire a few nights previously, we spent the evening meeting some fascinating people including Ian who was in his seventies and has lived full time in his bus for 7 years. Dave and Ian struck up a friendship over a mutual love of Formula 1 and meeting Sir Frank through the years. All the while, I sat with a lady named Kerry who had been at the campsite for 4 months after originally only planning on passing through. Her and her husband had travelled throughout the entire of Europe in a bus many years ago and had been on the road in Australia for the last 17 years!! Kerry swore like a trooper but we found a mutual love of the night sky, eventually spending a good hour showing each other the apps on our phone and discussing the need for less religion and more morals, honesty and love. Both Ian and Kerry were so excited for our adventure and what we had planned but retired to their vans early.
Luckily for us, that left us plenty of time to take photos of the sky that we had spent the evening admiring. It really is something else.

The following morning, we made good use of the hot showers with a thorough scrub and a hair wash before heading north to Norseman and the beginning of what would be our epic 3 day drive across the Nullarbor. An hours drive north, Norseman was this tiny little town that was supposed to signal the beginning of the Nullarbor, but could have easily have passed as a town more likely to have been seen in the fifties. Like Salmon Gums, its population was minute and had just a convenience store, a petrol station and a community hall. We stocked up with 3 days worth or breakfast, lunch and dinner, took a deep breath and off we went….

Welcome to the NullarBORE – it means “no trees” in Latin. An area of land 4 times the size of Belgium and home to the most amount of (I’m convinced) DEAD Kangaroos ever – 72 along one 90 mile stretch, we counted!

Here is a quick breakdown of what each day consisted of:

Day 1: 650km driven. 34 degrees.
Day 2: 550km driven. 38 degrees.
Day 3: 700km driven. 38 degrees.

 

During the day, there wasn’t much to report on – just endless sky and road. Sky and road. Sky and road. And dead kangaroos. It was at night that things really came alive, in more ways than one.
Our first stop on our journey was literally in the middle of nowhere, down a dirt 4×4 track, helpfully trodden by many Wikicamp users before us and with fire pits already prepared. This camp was also home to the most amount of LIVE Kangaroos we have ever seen!! There must have been about 40 of them, happily jumping (is that the right word?) around until they saw us and scarpered but it was wonderful to see them upright instead of sunbathing at the side of the road. We set about starting a fire, Dave was “a babe and pulled out dead trees with his bare hands” – direct quote from him – and I did my usual in preparing dinner; foil packet meal consisting of potatoes, onion, carrots, green onion, pesto and parmesan. Lush! All was going well, the sun was setting, the fire was going, we were eating and then the paranoia kicked in. I spent the remainder of the evening freaking out that a Kangaroo was going to kick me in the head or a spider the size of my hand was going to crawl its way into my boots. Adding to my anxiety was the crazy amount flies/moths/mosquitoes/beetles that buzzed their way around my head anytime I tried to use the head torch. Not cool.

 

 

The only thing keeping me going was the possibility of a night sky spoken about amongst campfire friends. A night sky so clear and full of stars, you could see the Milky Way with the naked eye. I soldiered on and my goodness, am I glad I did. Dumbfounded, awestruck, entranced are just a few of the words that spring to mind. It was truly one of the most incredible skies I have ever seen. See for yourself:

I went to bed happy and content.
Onwards to the next part of our journey.
Day 2 bought about more sky, road and dead kangaroos with an unexpected free camp and HOT shower just outside Yalata, an Aboriginal settlement, at a roadhouse called Nundroo. It was also the day we finally said goodbye to the vast and empty Western Australia and said Helloooo to South Australia!
We settled for the night, made friends with a Bob Marley tshirt wearing, dread loving Aboriginal trying to take a part a car in the field next door, ate our dinner and slept remarkably well. It was an uneventful night, followed by the beloved shower and onwards we went.
It had not been an uneventful night for our friend however, as we found him shoeless, cuffed and in the back of a Police wagon some 100km down the road at our first coffee stop of the day…

Day 3 turned out to be our longest and hottest day of travelling so far. Our 700km drive took well over 8 hours, including a stop by South Australias finest Police – with nothing better to do, they checked drivers licences, breathalysed Dave and rifled through his Tobacco before giving us cheap petrol station recommendations and sending us on our way. Marvellous. We also had our car searched to make sure we weren’t bringing any fresh produce and Western Australia fruit flies across the border – all was well.

Finally, we hit CIVILISATION in the form of Port Augusta. We have never been so happy to see a Coles and Pub. A quick pint stop for Dave was well deserved before we headed 8km down a dusty, gravel, corrugated track to meet Doug – a researcher/scientist in charge of Chinaman’s Creek Camp ground – and his gorgeous collie Dagan (aptly named after the God of the underworld after he spent his puppy years digging the garden up!). Situated right next to a creek, if you hadn’t already guessed from the camp title, we watched the sun go down, ate chicken fajitas (our first meal with meat in for a week, bliss!) and headed to bed after a long day. Except it was an equally long night for us… the 38 degrees we had experienced during the day did not shift once the sun went down and our beautiful Pam Pajero was like an oven with zero wind bringing us any form of comfort. Because of the camps positioning, outside was equally as hideous, with the added bonus of a million mosquitoes and sand flies. I woke like a bear with a sore head and was keen to escape but the lovely Doug had other ideas.
Australia born and bred, Doug grew up in the Australian outback before heading to Lambeth, London to work as a teacher in the 70’s. From here, he herded together a bunch of German, Spanish, Italian and English hippies into a huge bus and drove through Europe, all the way home to South Australia. His love affair with Kangaroos and marsupials began when he was just 8 years old when he took in an orphaned joey. On his return to Australia, this love affair continued and he now resides at the Chinaman Creek research facility researching and writing about all things Kangaroo.

Here are just some of the facts we learnt about Kangaroos from Doug the following morning, whilst we watched him hand feed a wild group of them.

• He raised the tallest Kangaroo seen in Australia – his name was Dougal and he was 7foot 8 inches! He died at 13 years of age from what they believe was a stroke.
• They typically die from heart attacks or strokes (unless they live along the Nullarbor, then it’s most likely to be a road train that takes them..).
• They can’t box!
• Gestation length is 1 month.
• Kangaroos are able to stop the development of a foetus in utero during weeks 1, 2 and 3 of their pregnancy if conditions are not favourable. They are are able to hold this pregnancy off indefinitely, until they feel it is safe to carry on.
• For the first few year, Kangaroos give birth to only males to improve their chance of being the next dominant male.
• Red Kangaroos have a very distinguishable red line down snout.
• Wombats can run at 40km per hour and jump to an adults shoulder height!
• 68,000 Kangaroos are killed on the roads each year.

Years ago, a cull order was issued. Unfortunately, those demanding these culls and those that carried them out were not people who worked closely with the animals. Those that killed the Kangaroos were being given money dependant on the weight of each one. Unfortunately, this has had a massive impact of various aspects – male kangaroos used to be in charge of up to 30 females; this number now reaches into the thousands. Equally, in killing the largest Kangaroos, they were also killing off thousands of years of impressive and strong bloodlines. As a result, Kangaroos are no longer as strong, sturdy or intelligent as they were, giving way for disease and more recently, a susceptibility to issues such as blindness.

Sadly, Doug believes that over the next 40 years, we will only have access to Kangaroos in captivity and very few, if any, will roam Australia freely.

After our history lesson with Doug, we left camp, back down the awful 8km of corrugated road and towards Port Augusta. We had a pile of washing to do and hungry stomachs to feed before we could go any further. All sorted, we headed South to a lovely little town called Mallala with, you guessed it, a tiny population of just 500 people.
We arrived tired after I had had an almighty confidence crisis in the car on the way there. After a long few weeks filled with too many bugs, not enough sleep and not much to see but road and sky, I was feeling duped. Id heard such wonderful things of Australia, but so far, I wasn’t convinced. So many had told me I wouldn’t want to come back, that Id love it but all I could see was an overly priced, incredibly hot, fly infested version of England and I was not impressed.
After a massive heart to heart and agreeing to give the country until at least Christmas, we pulled up and headed straight to the pub (I’m sensing a theme here..). Despite being mostly tee total since New Year – alcohol and my various chronic illnesses do not work well together, at all – I decided to have a glass of wine. Fast forward to 11pm, I’m 8 glasses of wine deep, whilst Dave has lost count of the amount of beers he has sunk. Neither of us has eaten since lunchtime and we are playing pool with our new Aussie friends – Hayden, Andrew and newly pregnant Alissa. It was all going swimmingly, until the world literally did start to swim and I demanded a swift exit to the car before we would have to camp out on the pub garden tables.
We awoke the next morning, both fully dressed and with the car doors open. Impressively, Dave had drunk wired a 12v fan together during the night, despite not actually being able to stand. Not so impressive were our handovers. BLEURGH!

However, Adelaide called and after an incredibly slow start – we woke at half 7 and eventually made it to Adelaide at 11 – our next part of the adventure continued….