I awoke today feeling quite rested, and even though the noise of the diesel generators in the background is...it’s not really noticeable in the same way that you would notice other noise, it’s just...it’s background noise. The noise of the generators I find preferable to intermittent road noise, because of its intermittent nature you can’t frame it into the background.

I ate breakfast at the roadhouse and I didn’t fill up with diesel as I had a bit over half a tank. This was a minor mistake as when I did fill up at Madura Pass it was significantly more expensive than Mundrabilla.

The journey from Mundrabilla to Norseman was my favourite stretch of road on this road trip, in both directions.

This stretch of road, just under 650 kilometres and taking around 6 hours 30 minutes was surprising, it was fascinating and I enjoyed it immensely.

It’s I feel, more isolated than the first part of the journey because the Eyre Highway drifts away from the coast so there’s less tourist ‘take photo here’ stop off points.

There are surprises, the Madura Pass surprised me because what I wasn’t expecting crossing the Nullarbor were many elevation changes. So much so there were signs warning trucks to use low gear and overtaking sections long this part of the road.

This part of the road also includes the 90 Mile Straight or the 145.6 kilometre straight, which is a slightly less epic name for it.
You don’t really consider what this means, it’s an interesting factoid for the Eyre Highway, but in reality 145 kilometres at 110 kilometres an hour is still going to be an hour plus of driving straight with nothing ahead of behind you.

What I didn’t notice as I was driving was the curvature of the Earth, which you’re supposed to be able to see. It was sunny and once you start to look into the distance you get the shimmering mirage sort of effect.

But it is wonderful, in its own way, I had to pull over about half way along the 90 Mile Straight to have a piss. Yes, not very romantic and it wasn’t at a rest stop somewhere it was just behind a tree. But the ability to look both ways and see nothing but straight road and hear and see nothing is quite amazing.

I had originally intended to stay in Norseman for the night before heading onto my relatives, however upon ringing up the Norseman Railway Hotel Motel, which is a fabulous looking 1920s Deco-era hotel I found out they were hosting a “retreat” and were booked out. So instead I decided to go down the road to Salmon Gums, around an hour south from Norseman.

Approaching Norseman after crossing the Nullarbor and the Eyre Highway isn’t so much a ‘welcome back to civilisation’ moment.
It’s somewhat odd, there’s lakes near Norseman and the highway weaves itself around them as you approach the town, you cross train tracks and go past a roadhouse before you enter the town.

I continued south through Norseman for Salmon Gums, not wishing to stop in Norseman for anything.

Salmon Gums consisted of a petrol station on the road and then further into the town a pub, post office and a few farm equipment businesses.

There was very little on the outside to indicate that the pub was open, though the design of country pubs like this, if the door isn’t open it’s often hard to tell if it’s open or closed, the windows are often fairly dirty / dark and if there isn’t a sign outside you just walk up and try the door.

I was moderately surprised by the accommodation at the Salmon Gums Hotel. I had actually booked, but upon arrival decided to change my booking to one of their motel units, rather than the hotel room (which would have had shared bathrooms). After the long day I just felt like a long hot shower and some space to spread out. Also the vibe there was...odd.
Not quite enough to make me want to leave, but I was on a moderate edge.

The room was fine, better than fine in fact, it looked like it had been recently renovated, the same could not be said for the parking area, which I did wonder what happened if they had more than 5 people with cars staying.

The room had an ensuite, double bed, fridge, toaster and kettle, plus cereal, milk and bread in the fridge. What it was lacking was a TV which considering its renovated state was somewhat surprising, but with good 3G I had YouTube for entertainment.

I discovered the following morning that the cereal was past its best before date. Based on this I wasn’t game enough to try the bread that was residing in the fridge.

Even though I found I’d arrived a little early, the drive from Mundrabilla being about 7 and a half hours. I used the time to check emails and other technology-based stuff as I found delightfully I finally had 3G at a decent speed.

Sole patron (aside from me) in the bar. Remains of edible meal in foreground.

The meal I had that night wasn’t stellar. It was edible. Steak.
The pub was somewhat odd, there was one other person in the pub, although it was early, 6 pm. Though someone else rang to pick up some food, for her kids, it seems the pub functions as the local fish and chip-esque shop for the area as well.
The woman who came in to pick up said food remarked “I haven’t been in here for ages”.
It was...cosy enough in the pub, roaring open fire, updated stools.
I felt somewhat out of place, not just because I was the only other patron of the pub, but because they, the publicans and the other patron were enthused about the AFL on the TV. Which I have very little interest in, and my remark “I’m not much into any sportsball” wasn’t received with the jest I thought it would. So upon finishing my steak I left them to their TV and beers.

That night I fell asleep to the noise of rain on the metal roof, it was probably as noisy as the diesel generators at Mundrabilla had been. It was interestingly not the first time I’d encountered rain during my trip, having experienced rain intermittently that day across the Nullarbor.