Geo: -31.644, 138.625Todays Challenge. - To sample some road kill at the Parachilna Hotel.Today is Mothers Day, Rod has remembered to buy a card and prepares some breakfast as we relax in our villa until we head off for lunch at Parachilna (the Gateway to Lake Ayre). Rod indicates that it is just around the corner some 190km away and that we need to get there at 12.00pm to watch the longest freight train in Australia pass by. Rod explains that the lunch at the Hotel is to die for and Deb looks perplexed.We turn off at Hawker and follow a sealed road heading to nowhere, the desert is on one side of us and the Flinders Ranges on the other. At about 185km Deb spots a sign that says get some Aussie tucker into you ... read more

Geo: -33.1416, 136.419Todays Challenge - To discover what the township of Wirrulla has as its secret.Today we are leaving late as we have deliberately planned a short 4 hour drive. Rod has a long shower and heads down to the servo to refuel and grab some bait as we are going fishing. We both have breakfast at the Hotel then rigg the fishing rods and head off to the Ceduna Jetty. Its a beauitful morning and the water is like glass. There is one problem when the weather is good, you dont catch fish and we dont even get a bite. We dont care, as fishing is not about catching fish and we both spend the next hour talking about our holiday so far.We head back to the Hotel and check out at 10.00am. Rod spots ... read more

Geo: -32.3707, 124.926Todays Challenge - To spot the rare species of 'Nullarbor Tree' that sprouts multi coloured ornaments.We depart at 7.45 today and refuel before heading to Norseman and then across the Nullarbor on our return voyage.Rod decides to check the SuperPit lookout one last time which opens at 6.00am. You guessed it............closed! Rod curses under his breath. It is a beautiful day today and the temperature warms as we approach Norseman. As we have plenty of fuel and water we decide to bypass Norseman and we hit the Nullarbor for the second time. This is the first time we have been on the same road twice and strangely enough we are looking forward to it.Deb spots some Emus, but still no sign of a Camel only the sheds on the side of the road where ... read more

Geo: -30.7477, 121.472Todays challenge - To navigate our way through Perth's maze of freeways without taking a wrong turn.We depart Perth at 7.30 as we will be driving into the early morning sun. Perth farewells us with heavy rain and peak hour traffic as the Tom Tom tries to navigate me through five different freeways before heading us out of town. It tells me to bear left however there are four lanes bearing left so I stick to the middle lane. "Recalculating it blurts out". Dam it, I have failed the challenge already. Back on track we head underground through a very long tunnel then reappear only to drive through bumper to bumper traffic and miles of roadworks. We still have not seen a sign to Kalgoorlie. One hour later we spot a sign that indicates ... read more

Geo: -31.9554, 115.859Day 13 - Yallingup to PerthTodays Challenge - To spot the elusive Black Swan.We leave late this morning as we only have a three and a half hour trip to Perth. There is light rain but it is clearing as we pull into Busselton to refuel. The coastline has been very pretty along this stretch of road. Just outside of Busselton we hit the freeway and a lot of traffic. It reminds us of the Sunshine Motorway. The freeway bypasses Bundbury which Rod visited some 20 years earlier when implementing a computer network at the Griffin Coal Mine site in Collie. We bypass Mandurah and the traffic slows down to a snails pace.We pass through Rockingham where we meet the burbs and finally cross the Canning River Bridge and see the skyscrapers of the ... read more