If you are crossing Australia by road, at some point you have to pass through Alice Springs. But if you are coming from the South, you first have to pass through Stuart's Well and there is a trivial pursuit question that asks about a singing dingo and a little place called Stuart's Well's in the geography section. There is, in fact, a singing dingo who lives at Stuart's Well in the Northern Territories, but you will never hear him sing like Pavarotti or Bono though. Get that piano going and Dinky the Singing Dingo is extremely enthusiastic.Jim, his owner and Outback legend, warned us that even though he looks like a fairly large yellow coloured family dog (who can sing - robustly), he is all dingo.

And dingoes have a nasty reputation among the livestock farmers in Oz. So much so, that there is another trivial pursuit question about the solution they have come up with. Question: What is the largest man-made structure on Earth?

Answer:It is the 5300km Dog Fence that stretches from south-east South Australia right through to eastern Queensland. This 2m high chicken wire fence separates the dingoes on the northside from the livestock on the southside. So lucrative is the livestock business and destructive are the dingoes that it makes financial sense to build and maintain this fence to keep the two separate.

Dingoes just like to kill for no apparent reason other than because they can. Having them roam free would spell disaster for livestock and their farmers and eventually, the dingoes themselves.So best to keep them separate.

Out here, when it rains, it pours! And pour it did. So much so, that the ground doesn't have time to soak it all up. So any little dip or depression in the landscape becomes a little pond, dam or even a flood! Getting back onto the Stuart Highway to see Dinky the Singing Dingo meant we had to gingerly cross flooded dip after flooded dip. Some so deep that many cars had stalled part way through and their owners and passengers were pushing the vehicles to get to the other side.

But with plenty of rain comes plenty of mud. The dry sand turns muddy, then turns very slick. Once you have been caught you have to spend a lot of time digging yourself out and laying sand mats for your tyres to get any traction to get you out.

We heard that plenty of people had been trapped in Kings Canyon because of the rain and mud where the roads were sand and gravel. It would be days before they got out. We even heard that one vehicle was so stuck that only a tractor would get them out!

But where we were, with the sun breaking out, the warm weather and the knowledge that the road was tarred and you weren't alone meant that each crossing had a bit of a carnival atmosphere. It is not often that you get to see this much water in any desert. Especially when the water is knee or even thigh deep!

The huge amounts of water mean that the flora and fauna have a field day! The flora is green and thick and the fauna can go to any old depression or dip for a drink. So we didn´t get to see any of the famed kangaroos bounding along besides us as we drove north to Alice.

You´ve heard the stories of those "bladdy 'roos" breeding and multiplying like flies out here and that Oz now has about 5 million of them spread throughout their territories. There is even a move on to promote 'roo meat as the lean, healthy alternative to domestic sources, so many are there!

But the most we saw, were road kill. At night the roads remain warm and toasty as the desert night cools. But there is plenty of road train traffic hurtling down these roads at night and nothing stands a chance if it gets hit by one of these. Nothing! The 'roos don't know what hits them!

But besides Dinky the Singing Dingo, Stuart's Well had some 'roos undergoing a little rehabilitation. To seen them up close and watch their every movement was fascinating. With the island of Australia breaking off from the supercontinent eons ago, the fauna that remained started to evolve into what we see today. Nowhere else in the world will you see kangaroos and wallabies that exhibit such intriguing and interesting features and behaviour. The two little kangaroos could have held our attention for days, they were so different from what we had seen anywhere else! But we needed to get to Alice.

Alice Springs is, for all practically purposes, the centre of Australia. Only 1500k to Darwin in the north and 1600km to Adelaide in the south. It is practically 2000km to both the east and west coasts. But on the west side of town, the tar roads peter out and the gravel roads start. Eventually they even peter out altogether. The first real road that you apparently come to is just 200km before you reach Perth! That is about 1800km of Outback!

Considering that the pitstops coming up the road from Adeliade are, for the most part, nothing more than a petrol station, a resto and a tiny motel, Alice Springs is like a huge metropolis! There are actually traffic lights! A supermarket! Take-aways and cafes and even a pedestrian mall! And Sunday morning was the Christmas market.

I pity the poor b***** that had to don the full Father Christmas gear, because he must have been sweating up a storm in that suit. It seems very strange to be in a place where Santa is dressed as if he came from the Pole and the town citizens are in shorts and T-shirts and just trying to escape the heat in what shade they can!

One coffee later, and we were back in the Bomber and seeking the last of our night stops. Two weeks were coming to an end and it turned out to be a stunning spot! Red wine, flies and an awesome desert mountain sunset and so many stars that the night sky took on a silver hue....what a way to end a campervanning stay!