That morning involved a very early start, around dawn, so as not to be noticed by locals camping out in their sports field sheds.
After a quick breakfast in town (it seems food and petrol are about the only things I’m actually spending any money on), I hit the road heading west.
The roads on the Eyre Peninsula don’t have much appeal sports-riding wise.
So I just followed the front wheel until I hit the coast at Streaky Bay.
Then followed yet more featureless roads to Ceduna, the (eastern) gateway to the Nullabor.
By this stage I had already covered 350km for the day – making up for the time I lost by detouring to Kangaroo Island and the Flinders Ranges. A quick stop for lunch then it was back into the saddle.
The big Suzuki was just eating up the miles, and with the right music in my ears I was regressing into a zen state, only having to concentrate for the big road trains that dominate the roads through much of regional Australia.
Although I hadn’t hit the Nullarbor yet, the roads were flat, straight and uninteresting, rolling past in a miasma of blurred scenery.
At last, I hit the official start line.
And was greeting with, well, almost nothing – and yet somehow, for all the lack of trees and almost everything else I had seen prior, the stark contrast between the scrubby vegetation on the ground and the leaden-grey clouds in the sky somehow drew the eye inexorably to the vanishing point on the horizon. Somehow, even with less to look at, this was far more interesting than the roads earlier in the day.
I now had more wildlife to contend with, too – adding camels to the danger list.
It’s not strictly true that the Nullarbor has no trees – but they’re few and far between.
Moving westwards through Nundroo, Yatala and Nullabor roadhouses, the Great Australian Bight crept north to meet the road, until only a few hundred metres of dirt track separated it from the main highway.
This is the edge of the continent, and I camped out on one such detour less than 100 metres from the cliff face. The sound of the surf pounding against the rocks lulled me to sleep.
