The CrossingEyre Highway to Eucla
The Last Night In WA
The final full day in Western Australia was cold, windy and unexpectedly social. By the time we climbed through Eucla Pass, Ols had taken his last WA steps and the border was waiting for all three of us.
Apparently a good Sunday starts with a lie-in.
In the strange little world of Hearts Across Australia, that meant I delayed getting up until 4:30 in the morning.
Breakfast went in, gear went on and we returned to where I’d stopped the previous day. From there, my feet continued east.
That morning’s job was simple enough on paper: about 44 or 45 windy winter kilometres to Eucla, the last place in Western Australia.
The first session was quiet. Bright, cold, and exposed.
Then the day became oddly social for somewhere that could look so empty.
During the second session, Barry and Jason from WA Police stopped. They had seen me earlier, closer to Norseman, and this time they pulled over for a proper chat. Later they stopped again where the campervan was parked and made a donation.
Out there, a police vehicle stopping beside you could have meant all sorts of practical questions. Instead, it became another kindness tucked into the day.
Soon after that, Ben and I met Chris from Milton Keynes.
Chris was heading for the Gold Coast via Melbourne, which already sounded ambitious enough. Then we found out he was cycling unsupported across the world and had been on the move for two years, with about 40,000 kilometres already behind him.
I was walking across Australia and somehow still managed to meet someone who made that sound almost modest.
There was something lovely about that. For a place that could look so empty, it had turned into a busy social day: two WA police officers, an unsupported round-the-world cyclist, the crew, passing traffic, and the steady stream of small human interruptions that kept proving the Eyre Highway was not as empty as it looked.
There was also a little unfinished business from the previous day: the Mug Tree.
I had passed it on Day 36. The name did not overpromise. It was a tree with mugs hanging from it. We did not have a suitable mug, and in any case we were not Mugs Across Australia, so a Lock in the Love heart felt like the better thing to leave there.
We had signed one with #HAA2015, Gary, Ols, and Ben, and after Ben and Ols had dropped me back at the restart point, I asked them to drive back a little further and hang it on the tree. They took the photo. I still wonder whether it survived for any length of time. I would love to go back one day and look.
By late afternoon, Ols joined me for the penultimate session.
Those were his final HAA steps in Western Australia. After that, he and Ben drove ahead to Eucla while I carried on for the final six kilometres or so alone.
That last stretch surprised me.
After descending Madura Pass and spending days in lower, flatter country, I had not expected Day 37 to finish by climbing again. But the Eyre Highway rose through Eucla Pass, and as the light went I was suddenly working my way back up out of the flatness toward the roadhouse.
I reached Eucla in darkness.
That gave us our final overnight stop in Western Australia. Not the border yet. That was still tomorrow. But after 37 days, Perth, Canning River, the hills, the Wheatbelt, Kalgoorlie, Norseman, and the long Western Australian stretch of the Nullarbor were all behind us.
Another 45.6 kilometres were done, taking the activity-distance total to 1559.1 kilometres.
Then there was food.
I ordered flake because I had not seen it on a menu before. It turned out to be another name for shark, which I had eaten plenty of times before.
It was bloody lovely anyway.
Videos From The Day
Reflections on the last full day in WA
A late Day 37 walking check-in near Eucla, with thoughts on the last full day in Western Australia. The cleaned audio reduces the worst wind crackle, though speech is still patchy in places.
Open on YouTubeImages From The Day
