Traveling East

Liam and I drove from Perth to Canberra in Liam’s van, over five days. The van was pretty well set up for this kind of trip, and since we weren’t rushing (needed to drive ~8 hours per day with ~16 hours of sunlight), it wasn’t a very punishing trip.

We took a detour up to Kalgoorlie to see the Super Pit - the lookout was closed in the evening but we had a great sunset instead.

In the morning we got to see the Pit and watch a mega digger load up some 240T rated dump trucks!

On the road across the Nullabor, I was surprised how many road houses there were - it didn’t feel too remote. There were also a lot more trees than expected, aside from one short treeless section. Despite this the extremely large areas of bush and plains were very impressive. The vegetation in WA is quite different in to what we have over east, and while I don’t know enough to describe the differences, it does make the sights all the more interesting to look at.

In SA we went through some of the best wheat growing country in the world - they have so many grain silos that they don’t even have a mural on each one. Once we got near to Iron Knob the landscape was back to red dirt and mining infrastructure.

Wind farm out of Port Augusta

After Port Augusta we diverted via Broken Hill, and Wilcania. This diversion took us through the stereotypical rocky red dirt, scrubby outback country that I had been expecting in WA. We saw wedge-tailed eagles, a few emus, and a lot of goats.

Out short cut from Wilcania to Griffith was closed and we had to drive down to Hay - this took us through some of the flattest country I’ve ever been to. It was a surreal landscape - it almost felt like a video game where the horizon hadn’t loaded up

After watching the sun and moon set, we looked at the stars for quite some time before noticing a faint glow of light pollution to our North. Unsure what town could generate such a glow, we discussed what it could be. After 10 or so minutes, it turned into a point light, like someone using a head torch in the distance. After another five minutes, it looked like the headlights from a car, and I expected it to go past shortly. Five minutes later, the high beams of a road train lit up the world around us and like primary schoolers at the fence we egged them on to blast the horn.

This night was spiritually the last day of the adventure, as we were only an hour out of Hay. Whilst there were still some new kilometers ahead, the Riverina and the Hume areas are much more familiar to me.

Photography is a creative endeavour, but it is highly constrained by the light that exists in the real world. I’ve tried my hand at making a collage that captures a few elements of the trip, from the photos I have taken. I have also learned that having more creative choices is even more work.