With cloud cover overnight, we had a relatively mild night: a mere 8° C. But morning brought glorious blue skies a change from the last couple of cloudy days. We are anxious to get to our destination in good time, so we didn't want to spend another day in Coober Pedy if possible. Instead of taking a frightfully expensive tour, we managed to see most of the interesting stuff ourselves with almost no cost! An underground museum was free and had some nice opalis...

Heading out through Wilmington village in the morning we encountered peak hour - five cars went by before we could turn onto the highway! Passing through the north end of a range of hills called the Remarkables with extraordinarily gnarled eucalypts, we bypassed the chemical factories of Port Augusta and finally felt that we were heading 'outback'. A sign on the Stuart Highway heading due north announced that Alice Springs was 1221 kms away and almost at once ...

For a change we woke to clear skies and no fog, unlike the last couple of days. But that was short-lived and fog settled down on us around 9. We thought that the country around Mildura would be all orchards and grapes and food-growing but to the west it was not so. Dry flat land with stands of Mallee reached all the way to the South Australian border. Signs along the road demanded that we eat our fruit or throw it out and that failure to do so would incur dir...

We woke to heavy fog which didn't dissipate till well after 11am. The landscape was softened by the mist rising and falling again throughout the morning. Through traditional pastures with merino sheep grazing to the heavily irrigated lands with orchards, cotton, grapes and vegetables, we passed Narrandera and Darlington Point, heading west. Approaching Hay, the grazing properties returned, the lushness of the irrigation area long past. Large herds of black cat...

It was with great hopes that we would leave on the 15th, but like all things in life, they take a little longer than expected. Some last minute 'improvements' together with the painful task of deciding just which essential bits were to be packed and which were to be left behind delayed us one more day. On Sunday morning, all packed up and ready to roll, we left Sydney and headed out along the Hume Highway to take the route through the Riverina rather than thro...