Monday 28th of June

Monday 28th of June, originally uploaded by Ozventurous Fourtunus.

We've all but given up on 3G coverage at any point today so this post is unlikely to go up live. However today we have had a lazy enough morning, then a really good look around the telegraph station, beach and old jetty at Eucla, then got in the car to knock off the 700km drive to Norseman which sort of puts us back over the other side of the Nullarbor. So we've crossed the frontier and continued on and are about to reenter civilisation.

At the moment we are driving along the 90 mile straight, which does what it says on the tin. There is a bit sign just after Caiguna, where the service station lady frowned at us for only buying 10 litters of petrol, which we only needed for safety's sake, at the price of $1.72 per litre.

I've paid less than that for a decent chianti.

Not that the service stations are gouging, that's just what it costs to transport things here. The sign actually says "90 mile straight - the longest straight road in Australia". It's dark, Craig is driving, and the only thing anyone has said in the last ten minutes was him saying "this road is hard core".

The sign goes on to add that the straight continues for 146.6 km. Not quite so catchy.

Now he proves me wrong by saying "how about a piece of chocolate?"

Lorenzo has been asking about the aboriginal civilisation but is so far finding it hard to believe that they didn't build anything permanent. None of us is able to explain it adequately, but the closest we can go is that they already had something permanent around them.

Australia.

"If its true" he says, "it's perfect that there was a cilvilisation that was not greedy, and just lived with what they had."

Today we have seen on the road six if not seven huge eagles, probably as wide as our car with their wings stretched out. There has been rain on and off today and majestic rainbows that go all the way across the horizon because there is not one thing in their way.

The epic, straight road, out in the desert, nothing around us scenery has managed, today, to become even more epic, the roads definitely straighter, the desert flatter and more barren, and there is definitely less around us. The distances between towns are larger and the towns when you get there are fuel stops with a motel attached.

The clouds are clearing now which is what we want and the stars are coming out.

Perfect.

Greg