At 135k with no bends, the Nallarbour plain is the longest stretch of road in Australia and is the most sensible way to get from West to East. We saw a lot of bugs, a fair amount of road trains, a couple of cyclists (?) and learnt how to say “el pobre hombre se volvio loco” (the poor man went crazy).

The SA border is just after Eucla and is a place called border village. Like most other villages in this stretch it is in fact just a large roadhouse, but unlike other villages it has a 9foot fibreglass kangaroo called skippy. They are so proud of this thing that they sell an extensive range of merchandise bearing it’s image including t-shirts and drinks mats. I thought that it was such a hideous creature that while people stood photographing it I only took shots of the massive signpost next door marked with distances to cities across the world, pointedly avoiding skippy.

Fibreglass sculptures seem to be a popular theme in SA and the next roadhouse we came to boasted an oversize whale. I was much more impressed with this since it even had water spouting capability (not that they would ever run it due to the perpetual water shortage) and I took a photo, further insulting the famous kangaroo at the border. We also passed a giant orange, a gold panner and a giant banana.

The trip wasn’t just about fibreglass (although that was a large part of it), the scenery was dramatic in it’s flatness and straightness and even though we had been led to expect a desert like plain, there was a good covering of vegetation in the form of small bushes and the occasional tree. We saw plenty of eagles and a few dingos and enjoyed being able to drive with no hands since there were no corners or bends.

We're driving across that!?