Road Trip

After receiving an invitation to attend a 50th Anniversary Reunion in Canberra ACT I decided to make an outback trip of the journey and drive across.   It’s 3700km by road, if you take the direct route on well maintained sealed roads.   But I’ve decided to vary the route and see parts of Australia new to me.  Last June I went on a club road trip to the Flinders Ranges in South Australia so the first third of my route is familiar country. 

 

The first quarter of the route may prove to be technically interesting as I’ll be on unsealed roads for much of it and as the weather forecast is for torrential rain the road my either be very slippery or perhaps closed.

From Adelaide to Canberra I plan to use back roads through South Australia, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT).  After the reunion I’m going to head NW through rural NSW and into NE South Australia to Innamincka where I plan on visiting Burke’s Gravesite.  This link will explain the relevance. (Burke & Wills Expedition).  Burke didn’t remain in his grave very long.  He was exhumed and taken overland to Adelaide where his body was placed on a steamship and transported to Melbourne for reburial.

I’ll continue north to Birdsville on the eastern edge of the Simpson Desert and visit ‘Big Red’, the highest sand dune in the southern hemisphere.  It will be interesting to see if I can drive to the top.  The planned route will taken me down the Birdsville Track to Maree.   I want to visit Lake Eyre.  It’s a huge dry salt lake approximately 40m below sea level.  This is where Donald Campbell made one of his world land speed record attempts.  Flood waters from torrential rains in far north Queensland several months ago have been making their way down to the lake meaning it will be a once in a lifetime  opportunity for me to see Lake Eyre with water.  

Continuing further south through tracks and remote roads I’ll reach the Great Australian Bight before heading west across the Nullabor Plain and home to Perth.

I’m looking forward to the trip