Oliver of Otterburn goes across the Nullarbor Plain

Here I am, with my co-driver Ray, about to embark on the long journey that is known in Australia as “going across the Nullarbor”.

It is quite a distance. From the township of Ceduna in South Australia to the township of Norseman in Western Australia is 1200 kilometers (nearly 800 miles).

For all of that distance there is not one human
settlement, only a number of roadhouses that provide food, fuel and overnight accommodation for the traveller.

The Nullarbor Plain is totally flat and treeless, as the name will tell you.

It seems that it is possible to see forever.

You can see me perched on a road sign that shows that I am 175 kms from the Western
Australia border, all around it seems that there is nothing, and then more nothing.

But the journey is not boring. In fact the treeless plain is a minority of the complete distance, and recent rains have brought about
quite a green look to the shrubs and small trees that grow in this dry land.

Then there are the Nullarbor Cliffs. These cliffs extend unbroken for some hundreds of kilometres and in many places it is a short walk only from the road to the edge.

This is not for the faint-hearted. It is a long sheer drop straight down to the waters of
the Southern Ocean and the cliff top is broken and crumbly ground –you have to be very careful.

But what a magnificent sight and such a
wonderful wild place!

One feature that I will remember is the Ninety Mile Straight.

The road travels for ninety miles without a single bend. Off we went, with nothing to worry about except to remember to wave to the drivers of the few cars coming in the other direction.

That is something I will think about next time I am stuck in motorway traffic.

Although it is a place where few people live, I did meet two lovely little girls. Jorja who is eight years old and her sister Hannah who is six.

Jorja and Hannah live with their parents at the MundrabillaRoadhouse. They are not able to go to a regular school because there is no school anywhere near Mundrabilla. Instead they are pupils of the School of the Air that is based in the town of Kalgoorlie.

The teachers conduct the classes over the radio, and the students are in a‘classroom’ that extends over hundreds of square miles of remote outback country. So Jorja and Hannah will probably never meet their classmates but they do know their voices very well. Jorja and Hannah would be very happy to receive emails from any girls of the same age who live on the other side of the world, the email address is -

mundrabilla@bigpond.com