Day 2: Today we drive the Nullarbor proper. We have given ourselves two days to get from Kalgoorlie to Ceduna. On the way we plan to play the worlds longest golf course. 18 holes stretch out over the length of the Nullarbor with holes positioned at various truck stops, points of interest etc. Sadly, we have no clubs. We ring around opp shops to try to find some cheap, look at Gumtree all to no avail. Finally, we buy a childs fairway wood and 7 iron from Sports Scene. Suitably armed, we prepare mentally for a day of long driving (and a suspect some wayward driving too).
Some essentials to get us underway from Kal.
A statue in honor of the Kalgoorlie gold miners and some stats. $96 billion dollars worth of gold has been mined from the super pit. Its currently producing $1.2 billion worth of gold a year.
Then, time for a round of golf!
The greens here are red dirt mixed with what smells like sump oil
The nullarbor golf course is a compilation course of about a dozen different sites. Silver Lake is hole 3 (if u start from the west) and is about 100km from hole 1 and 2 in Kalgoorlie.
A close up of the fairway
Next hole
Anson’s drive landed right in the middle of the fairway giving him a perfect lie to play his approach to the green.
Next hole
This is where my drive landed. The green is only 200m from here, just on the other side of this tree.
Next hole
The wild life was interested in the match unfolding between Anson and I.
The last 3 greens have been astro turf. Tricky to get shots to stick on the putting surface
We stopped at Norseman for a bite st the Full Moon cafe. Great coffee, fresh burgers and vibrant Thai food. For a remote outpost it was surprisingly busy. We turn here on to the Eyre highway. Its just a shade under 2000km to Adelaide from here.
As we are driving towards Madura a thought dawns on us. Theres a 3 hour time difference between Sydney and Perth. So, somewhere out here there must be time zones. We ring ahead to where we are staying and sure enough its 45 minutes later there. Doh! Our ETA just went from 8pm to 845pm and that means the restaurant will be shut.
Approacing Belladonia where a piece of Sky Lab landed back in the day. Not sure whats happened here since…..
Next hole. Skylab. Skylab is a long par 3 with no actual fairway. It also has a snake warning!
When Sky Lab came down the local ranger issued NASA with a littering fine.
Walking down to the green
Walking around looking for Ansons ball we caught this guy napping.
A shield behind the green shows the scars of those who over clubbed…
This bit of highway doubles as an airstrip when required
The otherside of Balladonia is pretty much the start of the Nullarbor. Things just got flat. The horizon is quite defined.
At this point we are roughly halfway between Perth and Adelaide so its probably time to have a think about how driving the Nullabor compares to driving around Italy in a food and wine sense. Now that we are in the center of the Nullarbor luxuries are disappearing and prices are rising. Petrol is over $2 a litre. Coffee is over $6. This morning we passed on a $6.50 coffee out of a push button coffee machine (same sorta machine that was in our accomodation in Milano) and got a $6.50 coffee down the road 100km made on long life milk (something we experienced a lot in Italy). Hmmmm, I’d suggest in terms of coffee culture (and Im talking about milk based coffees here) that the Nullabor is ahead of Milan!
Next hole, sadly the turn off to it was 300m before the end of the 90 mile straight so we failed to complete the straight…..
We didnt plan our trip very well so the last hole for the day (Eagles Nest at Cocklebiddy) was played by car headlights
Foodwise Italy has superior produce. The cheese, tomato, cold meats etc are fantastic. But, it repeats a lot. Kalgoorlie had duck buns, Norseman had Thai. Australia has a diversity in its food which I love, even in the outback. We are now heading towards a point where the road approaches the ocean then down towards (eventually) Port Lincoln. Im expecting some high quality seafood. The area around Venice was very seafood focused, but Im heading for Boston Bay (mussels), Coffin Bay (oysters), Port Lincoln (tuna) and the beautiful seafood of the Spencer Gulf. We will see…….
