We head off the Stuart Highway briefly to have a look at the middle of nowhere. The bus and trailer kick up plooms of dust along the desert track leading to a point in the cattle ranch with nothing to see but dust for miles around.

Some quite intensive travelling is required today, 800km in total, but the random outback towns are actually quite funny. They all have populations of about 20 (basically the owners of the pub and petrol station and their families) which we are more than doubling by turning up. We pass through Elliot and Dunmarra, both towns centred on a petrol station.

Daly Waters has a bit more to it as it is the departure point of Australia's first ever international flight, not to mention "Australia's Most Remote Traffic Light" which is probably the dumbest tourist attraction I've ever seen. Now the town consists of a pub, a souvenir stall and 5 houses. The pub is decorated in the traditional outback wallpaper of foreign money, though this also has its fair share of flip-flops on the walls as well.

The Pink Panther Pub and Wildlife Centre is an odd one. A 40-year old papier mache statue of the panther himself decays on the front lawn. He is joined by four wire mesh cages, two of which hold small crocodiles and two contain birds, making up the wildlife centre.

After more driving we reach Mataranka Thermal Pools. It's an amazing tropical paradise: parrots fly overhead the thermal spring set amongst the palm trees, with giant spiders spin large webs between the trunks. The hot spring flows into a river with trees overhanging, turquoise water..and a croc-warning sign, just to keep the stress levels a little above zero.