 Vast, mysterious and often silent, the Nullarbor Plain is an awesome place. The name is Latin for "treeless" - an apt description of this vast expanse running from the Great Victoria Desert in the north to a dramatic series of 60 metre cliffs plunging into the pounding Southern Ocean. Travel along the coast between Adelaide and Perth and you can't miss it.
Stand here in the daytime (preferably in the shade) and you gaze at an unbroken 360 degree horizon and an immense dome of sky, almost invariably blue and seemingly infinite. By night, a glittering canopy of stars unfolds, as intense and pure as you will see in this world. View the Southern Cross and other constellations not visible in the northern hemisphere.
The Nullarbor is equally magical, in another way, beneath the surface. Throughout this karst (limestone) country, passages running for kilometres link caves the size of cathedrals to form the world's longest cave system, much of it unexplored. From Koonalda Cave, (just north of the Nullarbor Roadhouse) an immensely deep cave network winds down to a subterranean lake. Koonalda Cave, containing one of the earliest records of human occupation in Australia, is part of the Murrawijinie Caves, which have been approved for public access. Many caves can be entered with National Parks and Wildlife officers, but never without permission.
In winter, gaze in awe at the gathering of southern right whales at the Head of the Great Australian Bight. You require a permit to enter the Head of Bight, which is managed by the Yalata Aboriginal Community.
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