What does the edge of the earth look like

In the Great Australian Gulf in South Australia, there is a vast and empty Nallarbor plain — a real edge of the world. It is the largest single piece of limestone in the world, covering an area of 270,000 sq. km. It stretches for 1000 km from east to west. The surface of the plain is so flat that a straight line of the Trans-Australian Railway stretches for 483 km here. The plain ends abruptly with the Bund Cliffs, which form a 200 km long cliff curving around the Great Australian Gulf.

The Bund cliffs form the southern end of the Nallarbor Plain, which stretches further. The white base next to the bottom of the cliffs is the Wilson Bluff limestone.

This chalky material formed on the ancient seabed when Australia began to separate from Antarctica 65 million years ago. The thickness of this limestone layer is 300 meters, but only its upper layer is visible on the cliffs.

Above this limestone layer there are whitish, gray and brown layers of limestone or crystalline rock. Some layers contain marine fossils, including worms and mollusks, which indicates their marine origin. Other layers consist exclusively of the marine segment (foraminifera). The cliffs are crowned by a hardened layer of wind-blown sand from 1.6 million to 100,000 years old.

The cliffs reach 60-120 meters in height, and you can look at them from several points on the Eyre highway. Although it is best to look at them, of course, from the air.

The Eyre Highway — the main east-west road of Australia — runs along the line of this amazing coast less than a kilometer from the edge.

The highway was named after Edward John Eyre, who, along with John Baxter and three Aborigines, attempted to reach Albany in Western Australia via the Nallarbor Plain. Due to the lack of water and the most difficult conditions, a mutiny occurred, and two aborigines killed John Baxter and escaped.

Eyre and the third Aborigine continued their journey and completed it in June 1841. The Eyre Highway was laid exactly a hundred years later — in 1941.

At a distance of 85 km along the highway there are five main observation points, which offer excellent views of the cliffs.

The western point is the most popular, because tourists can walk along the cliff, sticking out from the cliffs, and enjoy the amazing view.

At the eastern end of the cliffs there is another place where you can watch the southern smooth whales frolicking in the ocean below for hours.

Southern smooth whales migrate here in autumn to give offspring in coastal waters along the South Australian coast, and then stay here until their cubs gain the right weight.