During the night, one of the couples on our coach decided to give their friends a call in Adelaide just to let them know that they were in the country and enjoying the tour, and their friends immediately leapt in a car and drove nearly three hundred miles just to see them and say hello before we moved on first thing in the morning. There was only ever going to be a small window of opportunity for these people to turn up in Berri and give their mates a hug before ...

Back in 1995, my coach tour of the country headed through South Australia on its way towards the red centre and Uluru - and many of the small towns we visited on the way are worth mentioning here before I move on to Adelaide. The following account of the journey from Berri to Coober Pedy is taken from my diaries of the time, and updated for this book. True to his word, our driver - Mike - got us all to introduce ourselves to each other on the coach as we headed ...

My coach towards South Australia was due to pick me up from the station at a little after seven this morning, so, being a man, I left everything until the very last moment and had to get up at the crack of dawn to pack my suitcases. Of course, the only place open for breakfast at this time of the morning was McDonalds, and so at six o'clock I was wheeling my luggage into a deserted restaurant and making the mistake of trying to make smalltalk with the spotty-face...

Over the last few days, I've had the opportunity to take a break from travelling for a while and relax in one of Australia's truly big cities - and I think I've earned it. For nearly a week, there has been no worrying about having to catch a connection, and certainly no having to phone up bus companies to find out which parts of my route are currently underwater. I am annoyed that the combination of floods and prebooking my hotel in Perth has prevented me from st...

At breakfast this morning, I carefully lifted the milk jug from the buffet table and was slightly surprised to find that the whole thing fell apart in my hands. Several pints of milk sloshed all over the carpet and I found myself standing in the middle of a small white puddle holding nothing but a handle. For a moment, I imagined that I was about to find myself surrounded by kitchen staff cursing and swearing at me - but instead the waitress merely raised her eye...