02-Oct-2004 -- I looked at the map of Western Australia on the Degree Confluence website and thought we have to fill the gap on the 31°S line, so it was off to Loongana on the Trans Australian Railway Line. This area is typical Nullarbor (Latin = no trees) Plain country.... limestone,bluebush,caves and flat plains.
We left Esperance at 0500hrs and travelled the 600kms to Madura on the Eyre Highway, arriving at 1200hrs.We then turned north for the rough 110kms trip to the CP. The CP itself was unique in that it was the only one of the fourteen that we have done that we were able to drive to the point and have all the zeros on the GPS actually appear in the vehicle. Looking at the photos, its not hard to see why.
From the CP it was a 7km drive to Loongana, an abandoned siding on the railway. We camped at Loongana for the night and proceeded westward 30km to the bend that ends the longest staight stretch of railway.The smaller sign in the photo indicates that we were 1275kms from the nearest railway station to the east, namely Port Augusta in South Australia, with Kalgoorlie 500kms to the West. From there it was further west to Nurina, the site of a WWII Prisoner of War Camp, and then another 44kms to Haig where we turned south with 120kms back to the highway at Cocklebiddy. At Cocklebiddy we looked at some caves to the south of the highway and then set off on the last 500kms of our 1500km round trip.