The Eyre Highway, or Nullarbor does go on for a very long way. Even at the checkpoints there seems to be a lot further to go. At Kimba, which according to its signpost is ‘Halfway across Australia’ Vin Rouge was almost, but not quite squashed by a big galah!
We crossed the border into South Australia where time gets just plain silly. In three days we changed time zones three times, moving not in solid hours, such as any normal country, but firstly 45 minutes, then another, and then 30 minutes. Kim complained that she was suffering ‘Land Rover lag’ using this as an excuse to sleep in late. One difficulty associated with the Nullarbor is the head wind. Yes, we had it all the way across, not only a head wind but sometimes a head gale. At times Vin Rouge, which is as aerodynamic as a brick, really struggled to make any headway above 70kph.
At last we were through, 1,300 fairly tedious kilometres in three days. The town of Ceduna, although well inside the South Australia border, is where the quarantine station is located. Its purpose is to ensure that fruit flies on fresh fruit and vegetables are not brought into fruit growing areas and we were thoroughly checked to ensure compliance. Carrying on to the small town of Winnulla, we camped overnight close to some giant grain silos. The whole area is one vast wheat field, crops as far as the eye can see. It’s farming on a grand scale. The crops are harvested, stored in massive grain hoppers and silos, transferred to mile-long trains then transported to the docks for export in bulk tankers.
No self respecting Land Rover owner passes near to Wilmington without stopping at the Toy Museum. True to form we dropped by to be greeted by David Christie and his son Adrian who informed us that a blue Land Rover towing a large boat had been through a few hours earlier and all was well. The driver had left a message in case we called by. Somehow both the car and the trailer had been fixed and he’d completed more than 700 kilometres without problem. That news made our day. Adrian showed us his latest project, a hybrid of various LR parts. Although not quite complete, Mike had a drive and found it a lot of fun - very fast, amazing cornering and brakes that would stop a road train.
Over the border, into New South Wales and yet another time zone. Broken Hill, known for its silver mine was our stopover point. We weren’t too taken with the place. It’s dominated by a massive slag heap and although there’s a few attractive buildings, they’re almost lost amongst the mass of ‘practical but ugly’ constructions. However, at Bells Milk Bar, a throwback to the 1950’s, we had enormous milk shakes and enjoyed the nostalgic surroundings.
Pro Hart is a well known Australian artist who started his working life as a miner before making a name for himself as a painter. His work, some of it graphic, other work conceptual and yet more critical of mining avarice, we found challenging but moving. He’d even painted one of his Rolls Royce cars in commemoration of Australia and the millennium. We wondered; shouldn’t that have been a Holden?
Now Vin Rouge has been on its best behaviour for weeks. With only a couple of minor issues through the remote and rough tracks we’ve been driving, the car has decided that it’s time to go home. It probably heard us talking about it and so the vacuum pump (needed for power assisted braking) failed. I can hear it thinking ‘let’s get home asap, no need to slow down’. As it would take a couple of days to get a new pump flown in at extortionate cost, we elected to drive back to Brisbane and ship in a new pump from the UK at a quarter of the cost. However, it’s Sydney first to catch up with some friends before the last leg north to Brisbane and home.
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