Veronika Wild

Rare Pitstop at Cocklebiddy  Just back from another lightning dash across the Nullabor with my daughter and the little girls. It turned out that her hubby had to fly back early leaving her to tow the caravan back to Perth by herself.  Some years ago when she and her brothers were much the same age as the little girls, my husband and I had not one but two melted tyres while travelling the 3027 Km (1880 miles) North -South road between Darwin and Adelaide at this time of year, so I wasn't reaIly keen on her driving alone with three little kids including a babe in arms.  Ferry schedules being what they are, we ended up with just four days to make this journey of 3020 Km (1877 miles), before the girls were due back at school, hence the indecent haste. On the other hand, an airconditioned car was probably the best place to be on days when the temperatures hovered around 46oC. My concerns were justfied. About halfway through we blew a tyre. While I have supreme confiden...

 Old Telegraph Station at Eucla West to East across Australia After a great reunion with my daughter and her family in Perth, I headed across the Nullabor again. Won’t bore you too much with the details – just look at last year’s post “ Across the Paddock .”  I didn’t stop to see the whales this time, but basically not much has changed there in several thousand years. See how the wombat is drawn larger than the camel. That's why I was expecting to meet Muttaburrasauraui - the giant mammals that used to inhabit the place. I am surprised that only 90 miles got a mention. It was more like 2000! Because it was daylight this time when I came through, I did see this road’s only hill which I missed last time and also called in at Eucla where the old telegraph station still stands though it is slowly being covered by drifting sands.  No one appreciates now what a tremendous achievement that was in 1872 when it connected Australia with the rest of the world or how diffic...

*Translation: A paddock is the Australian word for field. When truck drivers say they are going for a run across the paddock, they mean they are driving across the Nullabor Plain, that vast area near the bottom of Australia called the Great Australian Bight, the bit which looks like someone has taken a bite out of it. Nullarbor means ‘treeless.’ It is. I'll swear that in 2000 kms there is only one hill and one bend. The last time I did this trip, the road wasn't sealed and it was a long, death defying ordeal of dodging enormous pot holes, wild life and gigantic road trains which loomed out of clouds of red dust. You also had to carry in everything yourself – food, fuel, water and spare parts, as there wasn’t much in between other than a lonely tank or a bore, if you were lucky. This time it was a long, easy, sometimes boring drive with very few distractions. Only the wind was a bit of a problem, tossing the van around like a shoebox and making it use much more fuel that it s...