Traffic jams are not a problem on the Eyre Highway, a motorway linking Western and South Australia.
This motorway crosses the Nullarbor Plain and is named after English land explorer Edward John Eyre – the first European known to have crossed the plain by land between 1840 and 1841.
Eyre Highway stretches across 1,034 miles, running from the town of Norseman to Port Augusta.
Signed as National Highways 1 and A1, this motorway can boast of including on its path the longest straight stretch in the country, lasting 90 miles without a single turn.
What this motorway can’t claim, however, is to be regularly swamped by cars, also thanks to its linear features.
The landscape crossed by this massive motorway is not among Australia’s most exciting, as admitted by the same explorer the road has been named after.
After its visit to Nullarbor, he described the plain as a “hideous anomaly, a blot on the face of nature. The sort of place one gets into in bad dreams.”
Indeed, the area is for the most part arid, flat and nearly without trees, making it for a monotonous view while on the road.
It is home to kangaroos, as the signs scattered along the motorway warning of possible animal crossings suggest, poisonous snakes, dingos and local bearded dragons among other species.
Important for being part of the motorway network linking Perth to Adelaide, the Eyre Highway can be a risky feat for drivers, and for multiple reasons.
Given the nature of the area it crosses, the motorway isn’t populated with many fuel and rest areas. As a consequence, it is dotted with road signs warning motorists how many hundreds of miles away the next station will be, advising them to fuel up whenever they have the chance not to remain stranded under the blistering sun.
The long, straight stretch makes for a monotonous drive, which could make motorists dangerously drowsy.
Moreover, given the remoteness of the area, motorists can’t rely on having an internet connection throughout the whole route, so it is advisable to travel this road carrying up-to-date paper maps.
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