From Fremantle, I had a few long days of riding to get to Port Lincoln.


My first stop was Dunsborough, and on the way, I made a quick stop in Busselton, home of the longest timber jetty in the southern hemisphere…pretty specific, I know, but either way, at 1.8km, it’s fairly large

In Dunsborough, I stayed with some friends that I’d met last January in Kathmandu. Dave and Lucy, and their two girls, Skye and Layla put me up for a night, and the next morning, they showed me all the best places to stop as I headed south and east.

Unfortunately, shortly after heading out, a decent amount of rain started coming down, which made stopping at any of their recommended sights pretty difficult…if I’m cold and wet, the last thing I want to do is walk around, and prolong my experience of being cold and wet.

The rain had let up a bit as I rode past the Diamond Tree, which is an old fire lookout. Rather than build a massive tower and post someone up there to watch for forest fires, they just picked the tallest trees in the area and built little forts on the top of them.
 
To get up, there are massive spikes driven into the tree trunk, making a spiraling ladder.

Halfway up, you find this encouraging sign

Here is the view looking down

And at the top
  
Luckily there were no fires, but based on how much the tree was swaying back and forth, I can report that it was pretty damn windy that day.

I spent the rest of the day riding through more rain, but as it started getting late, it also started to dry out, so I luckily was able to have a dry night at a small town campsite.
And I woke up to these relatively tame kangaroos
 

 

The next two days were spent riding through the Nullarbor, which I’ve also heard called the Nullarboring.
Nullarbor is derived from Latin…nullus, meaning “no” and arbor, meaning “trees.” And the name fits it well. I’m also going to guess that in one of the local Aboriginal languages, it means “straight roads”
The treeless portion didn’t hit right away, but the roads were stick straight from the start.



Camping is easy and free out in the bush…just drive off the road and find somewhere to set up the tent, and enjoy a beautiful view of the Milky Way at night, as the sky is clear and there’s no light pollution.

Along this stretch of road is the longest golf course in the world…Nullarbor Links.
Apparently, the second longest course, Jade Dragon in China, clocks in at 8548 meters. The Nullarbor Links blows it out of the water with a total length of 1365 kilometers. With an average distance of 66 kilometers between holes, you need a car to play, rather than a golf cart.
I saw a couple of the tees and one green, and not surprisingly, they weren’t quite as well manicured as your typical course.

 

The best part of this stretch across the Nullarbor was the Bunda Cliffs, which are right at the top of the Great Australian Bight, and just off to the south side of the road. The cliffs are a 90 meter sheer drop down to the stunningly blue ocean.

 

And one last thing…a bird casualty…

I’ve had some close calls between my head and a bird before, and it always made me wonder what would happen if ever there was an actual collision. Not long before getting to Port Lincoln, I solved the mystery. A bird, about the size of a robin, flew in front of me and met my helmet’s visor. I could feel it, but the impact was much more mild than I would’ve otherwise expected. I always worried that this could really mess up a person’s neck…and I guess if it were a huge bird it could, but this one didn’t do anything, other than leave a few feathers behind on the visor.