Monday morning we left Taggerty, across to Seymour, Echuca and stopping our first night on the road at Knights Bend at Robinvale. The hazard lights went on twice through our first day. The first time was due to the worst wind and rain that we had come across; it was too dangerous to continue driving, so pulled over for about 10 minutes. Heading to Echuca a truck came towards us and blew both vents, above the windscreen off, so once again the hazard lights went on and we spent 45 minutes looking for the vents. Alan found one in an irrigation channel and the other one on the opposite side, so up went the tracky pants and through the water and mud he trudged. At $300 a piece he was very happy finding them. Travelled 487km’s

Tuesday – we travelled through Mildura, Renmark and stopping the night at Spalding, travelling 464 km’s. We still had a lot of wind and rain, travelled through wheat/sheep country and
came across the house that features on the front of the Midnight Oil album, Diesel and Dust.

Wednesday – up and on the road by 7.30am we got to Port Augusta, caught up on washing, did some shopping and was heading north by 12pm. We stopped the night at a free camp Moonie rest area 36km NW of Glendambo. Travelled 480km’s

Thursday 12th May We pulled into Coober Pedy to fuel up and saw a truck load of camels. On driving through town there aren’t many travellers around, the town was very quite. It’s like we are early for the northern migration. Weather is picking up, clear blue skies and back into our
shorts. There is a lot of time spent on the road, like it is just the two of us on this planet, not seeing many trucks or travellers. Stopped the night at Marryat Creek Rest area, 120km’s north of Marla. Travelled 571km’s.

  Friday 13th May
Crossed the Northern Territory border by 9am. We have arrived at AliceSprings, travelling quickly to get up to the nicer weather before we slow down.DABUS is running really well and the ride is much nicer, since we had the front suspension overhauled. The fuel prices during this trip, so far, have been much lower than our previous trip. The FuelMap app is great for checking out fuel
prices and keeping track of our fuel consumption. The fuel consumption competition began a couple of days ago; to see which driver gets better fuel consumption. The author is currently in front……with 14.2lt/100km’s…..previously with the strong head winds our consumption was 18lts/100km’s.