London to Leeds Trafalgar Tour of England and Ireland Explorer An early start to the day, we joined our Trafalgar tour of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales –at our accommodation in London. 43 of us in total, with majority Australians or Americans. Heading north through the Cotswold villages, we arrived at our first stop for the day- the cottage of William Shakespear’s wife, Anne Hathaway. This cute thatched cottage was nearby the town centre of Stratford-Upon-Avon, also Shakespear’s birthplace. We enjoyed a pub meal and a pint of warm beer – trying our best to sample local beverages, but secretly hoping the next pub we go to will serve a nice chilled ale instead! After lunch the tour led us to the ruins of St Michael’s Cathedral in Coventry. Our guide told us of the ... read more

Renmark to Jerilderie The final day of our journey had begun at the fuel bowser, getting 13.1L @ 152.7c/L. Our travels today took us from the South-Australian/Victorian border through Mildura, Balranald and Moulamein to Deniliquin where we stopped for lunch with Lach’s grandparents. The drive seemed pretty quick as we made our dash home, trying to avoid the cold wet weather the winter has brought us. Majority of our belongings have been in storage, however due to the plague of mice (and their apparent interest in nesting amongst our bits and pieces, we need to relocate our contents into a shipping container before we fly to Europe in 9 days. We grabbed 13.0L @ 153.9c/L, before heading on our final stretch of bitumen towards the farm near Jerilderie. After travelling 582km’s this day, we received ... read more

Ayers Rock to Coober Pedy The morning started at the fuel bowser – filling up 80.5L @ 180.6c/L. Shortly after leaving Yalara we came across Mount Connor – around 3 times the size of Uluru, easily mistaken by many overseas tourists on their drive in! The top of the mountain appeared so flat compared with Ayers Rock, as though someone had compressed it down as flat as the surrounding land. Further down the road there were many wavy red sand dunes which seemed stand out from the saltbush and Spinifex planes alongside the road, with various types of animal footprints and tracks to be seen. This day was a long drive along some very flat and open land, so we travelled big distances requiring a few fuel stops; Kulgera- 15L @ 190.0c/L, Marla- 90L @ ... read more

Alice Springs to Kings Canyon Standley Chasm was our first stop on the way into the West MacDonnell Ranges, here we found ourselves wandering along a track over white rocks surrounded by fiery red rocky cathedral walls. We came to a fork in the road, taking Namatjira Drive towards Ellery Creek Big Hole. The waters here were far too cold for swimming, but boasted a sandy creek fringed by gums around the large waterhole. Neil Hargrave lookout was our free-camp for the night, with an abundance of mice we had been warned of in our travels north. The night tested every feather of down in our sleeping bags as we have struggled to acclimatize to Australian winter temperatures, having avoided the winter for over 2 years! Morning light came and the bloke who camped nearby ... read more

Darwin We’ve had an incredible few days in and around Darwin, loving the warm and dry weather that provided perfect conditions for fishing and sightseeing around the city. The view of Darwin Harbour was fantastic from the waterfront precinct – with cute frangipani flowers on the trees that lined the streets from the harbour to Fannie Bay and surrounds. The Parap markets were a hive of activity with many jewellery and food stores to be seen. We caught up with Matt and Amelia (friends from uni - Matt an old highschool colleage of Sherees’). Since we've travelled over 14,000km's we thought we'd better get a service on the Triton while in town, and no less than 24hours after the service we found a flat tyre which Lach suspects the valve was leaking (as we couldn't ... read more