After 10 weeks basically living rough in the campervan we decided to make a break for it so rather than cruise serenely across Australia in a couple of weeks we drove from Melbourne, through Adelaide, across the Nullabor Plain into Western Australia and arrived in Perth in 4 days.

Fortunately (or not) it wasn't quite as simple as that as the van overheated a couple of times in the 40'c heat of the Nullabor Plain. Driving 2500 miles at a heady 50mph top speed wasn't helped by having to stop every 30 miles to pour water over the radiator to cool the old girl down. Every stop we were accompanied by a million flies so at least we didn't get lonely. We then went against all known sensible advice and drive most of the Nullabor Plain at night. A massive electrical storm and huge gusting winds kept us awake but rain and a nice chill to the night that we needed for the engine never came.

When the end was in sight and we could amost see our Duke Of Edinburgh award awaiting us we called into a massive open cast goldmine in Kalgorlie called the "Superpit". Its about 3 miles wide by a 1000ft deep and the pictures we took do it no justice whatsover. Kalgorlie is a miner's paradise of brothels and bars so we drove on deep into the night to find somewhere more salubrious to stay.

Arrived in Perth and met up with a friends that have just emigrated. Other than staying up late one night to watch England lose in the Rugby World Cup final on the telly (Perth is ex-pat city) we had a tranquil week recovering. Even a nightime scary trip round Freemantle prison was a wonderful evening. A day spent watching historic racing cars and helping my mate build his new BBQ without instructions was about as taxing as it got and we sold the campervan back to Wicked Campervans.