16 March 2012<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Daylight saving wakes me up. We\u2019re 45min behind , this is Central Time. I get to the WA-SA border and the Quarantine Officer has me thrown out all my fresh produces : half a kilo of carrots, a handful of beans, a lettuce, even the garlic and the onions. I eat the remaining apple and banana while the paperwork is processed. Welcome to Western Australia.
The Nullarbor Plains make a natural barrier for the fruit-fly so it\u2019s forbidden to bring into WA any fresh product that may carry either the insect or its larvae. That includes honey, nuts, seashells, etc\u2026 Tough!<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Further on, another 45min back to the clocks and this is the real Nullarbor, from latin \u201cno trees\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Indeed, as I cruise the plains, the vegetation and the scenery changes drastically. From a mix of scrubs and trees which normally forms the Outback, I\u2019m now sailing through a sea of green bushes, no taller than a foot. It goes on for miles and miles, and miles. The odd Road Train, campervan or caravan I pass wave a friendly hello as to say \u201cgood luck mate it\u2019s bloody hot out there\u201d. The area gets on average eight inches of rain per year! That\u2019s not even a cuppa a month! Good thing I\u2019m carrying 60L of water as I can feel the heat outside. The air-conditioning is of course still not working, since the whole cooling system has been flushed and replaced by fresh water. I\u2019m in luck though, the wind has turned and it\u2019s now blowing from the south. That relieves the engine somewhat and I can get to 100kmh, a very normal speed for the truck. It\u2019s hot inside, hotter outside. I\u2019m drenched.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This road is one straight line after another, and the longest in Australia, one of the longest in the world too. 147km dead straight. Well at least I can read a book…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The color of the sand changes from yellow to a dark red, finally I make it to Norseman. Civilization! Well, sorta, it\u2019s a mining town, small but friendly. One shop, a couple of banks, a couple of bars. That\u2019s it. Big, huge trucks, massive truck! This is real Outback scenery now, red sand, gumtrees and eucalyptuses. The friendly mechanic confirms the head gasket is cracked, but another trick seals it : flush the system again, refill with fresh water, bring to temperature, flush 200mil out and pour in a bottle of Chem-Weld. Bring to pressure and wait. Voila! The head gasket is temporarily fixed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He assures me Toyota engines can run for years with a cracked gasket, they won\u2019t blow up or warp anything, just check the water level every day and keep it under 2200revs. Right. Still. I have 80.000km ahead of me so I\u2019ll get a quote in Perth then decide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the good side of things, petrol stations and roadhouses in the Outback have free shower and toilets 24h\/7. Great. I need a shave though. Later. Campsite out of town, it\u2019s all quiet under the stars. This is still awesome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I still have a dark mood when I prepare dinner, then go to sleep with million questions in my head. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What should I do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Distance today: 773km, total: 3911.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
16 March 2012 Day Eight. 14-03-12 Daylight saving wakes me up. We\u2019re 45min behind , this is Central Time. I get to the WA-SA border and the Quarantine Officer has me thrown out all my fresh produces : half a kilo of carrots, a handful of beans, a lettuce, even the garlic and the, Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47478,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[188,1],"tags":[160,80],"class_list":["post-498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-tlwh","tag-australia","tag-western-australia"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/walkabout.be\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/dsc_0573.jpg?fit=1072%2C712&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p27S7o-82","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/walkabout.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/walkabout.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/walkabout.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walkabout.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walkabout.be\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=498"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/walkabout.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47472,"href":"https:\/\/walkabout.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498\/revisions\/47472"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walkabout.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/47478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/walkabout.be\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walkabout.be\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walkabout.be\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}