Background

I suppose that I should give you some idea of the area of Australia I am planning to visit. It is, after all, a rather large chunk of real estate. See HERE I intend to start by flying into Adelaide, South Australia, and catch up with my sister, Valerie and her husband Nick. Assuming that they are not still swanning about in Papau New Guinea (PNG) where Nick is advising the PNG Government on Electoral Reform, if you please. I then aim to travel north through Coober Pedy (where the Opal mines are) and Alice Springs, taking in Uluru on the way and eventually getting to Darwin, at the top end. The vast majority of this would be done following the Stuart Highway. Following that I would like to explore the Kimberlys area which is basically the North West corner of Australia to the West of Darwin, bounded by the Timor Sea and the Indian Ocean. It is likely that I will need to hire a 4x4 to negotiate this area which reportedly has some of the most spectacular scenery. I expect to terminate this leg in the town of Broome with its white sandy beaches and turquoise waters. Leaving Broome I will follow the coast along Route 1 until eventually arriving in Perth where I have relatives who may be persuaded to take me in for a day or two. The plan then is to head across the Nullarbor although the route I take to reach the Nullarbor will depend on the time I have left in which to complete the journey back to Adelaide. However, my preference would be to continue along Route 1 along the coast. All in all, this round trip is a distance of approximately 10,000 Kms but I intend to spend about 80 days travelling it. A simple calulation shows that I will need to average only 125 Kms per day which will hopefully give me plenty of time for sight seeing along the way. As you will no doubt have noticed the trip covers only the western half of Australia and that is largely because, on previous trips in 2000, 2006 and 2009, I travelled through much of the eastern half of the Northern Territory and the eastern coastline from Cooktown to Sydney. All of it beautiful and exciting in its own way but, I am always keen to see what is over the next hill. However, I have many photographs from these previous trips. If you would care to see a few, just let me know.

Planning

I should know better I suppose. My dear mother would have said, "you want your bumps feeling". ( A quaint expression indicating that I was a bit eccentric) and my dear departed wife, Christine, would simply have said, "your mad." My daughter, Samantha however, seems to be all for the idea, although I believe that she has designs on the house.

Having now reached retirement age and having no particularly strong ties I am now planning a 3 month (approximately) trip down under to do a spot of vehicular assisted walkabout, and I hope to document the planning and execution of my peregrinations (traveling or wandering around).

Perhaps you would care to accompany me on my journey, although I don't intend to physically travel until September 2010. However, planning the trip promises to be a journey all of its own.

Let me have your thoughts and comments and I will try to keep the journey as interesting as possible.