Out of the Desert

We made it through the Nullarbor! I'm sitting in the library of Norseman, Western Australia (pop. 1200), and this is the first town we've seen with a population of over 47 in 4 days. It's been a long, hot drive, but we're getting closer and closer to Perth every day. It's not fast at 80 km/hr (48 mph), but it's progress.

Amazingly enough, we've had no major problems with the car. We drained the radiator and added some "Chem-I-Lube" on the advice of a guy we met in Streaky Bay, and ever since then it's been smooth sailing. We lose about a liter of oil a day, but that's about it.

The drive has been pretty spectacular. The cliffs along the southern edge of the Great Australian Bight are breathtaking, and they're right up alongside the road for about 300 km.

We've seen shitloads of kangaroos, but this morning we had an extra special treat. We stopped to get some fuel and as we pulled out of the station we ran over a big snake that was crossing the road. I'm not sure what kind of snake it was, but it was brownish and I'm assuming it was sinister and deadly. We pulled over to take pictures of it (as it was our first snake) and we filmed it getting run over by an enormous Road Train. Sick, I know, but it was pretty cool.

This afternoon we head to Esperance, and we hope to be in Perth on Friday. According to Lonely Planet, this next stretch of the trip will bring us through forests of the largest eucalyptus trees on earth.

Posted by flow Frazao on February 2, 2005 at 01:16 AM in Australia | Permalink