It took me 8 weeks, but I came to the conclusion that Australia is rather large (much like the road trains, a tenuous link but I wanted to include that photo). Kazakhstan is big, India is Big, Mongolia is big, I know, I’ve driven across all of them. Yet they are mere minions compared to Australia.

All bar one of my posts about Australia have been about specific places or events. I’ve given very little wordage to life on the road in between. And trust me, there was a lot of road. We covered over 13,000 km in two months and there are several things that I was continuously impressed by.

The changes in scenery when covering such distances are great and dramatic. In South Australia for example, within half a day went from arid flat desert to rolling green hills full of livestock. To accompany this comes the climate changes. Something normally you associate with air travel. You get in a plane in a cold country, and get off it again a number of hours later in somewhere swelteringly hot. I was surprised how much difference I noticed in the temperature and weather and how quickly it occurred just by driving several hundred kilometres (obviously more noticeable north-south than east-west).

The wildlife in Australia is so diverse and so abundant. To be seen and heard everywhere, not only in the outback but in the towns and cities as well. Furthermore, to a European, the selection of animals is quite bizarre. The native beasts of this land are so different from anything we have at home. I can only imagine what the first European explorers thought when they encountered it all. Most striking and amusing for me were the Kangaroos and Wallabies seen hopping across the road at dawn and dusk.

The country caters so well for those in “recreational vehicles”, that is camper vans and caravans. There are public toilets all over the place along with free rest / camp areas often with toilets, water and barbeques (sometimes gas or electric powered). It is no real surprise given that about 80% of the traffic on the road is due to tourism, but again it is impossible to imagine this in Europe. As a result, one can get by very cheaply living on the road, stocking up in the big supermarkets (especially with the ultra cheap Home Brand food at the Woolworths), with the biggest cost being fuel.

Apart from backpackers with similar itineraries, the majority of people doing the mobile home thing are early retired Australians or the “Greying Nomads” as they affectionately call themselves. Many have sold up their homes and live permanently on the road taking several years to cover what we did in two months. Their “homes” ranging from tiny vans with a mattress in the back to fully converted coaches with all the mod cons and often a boat and car being dragged along behind. The different solutions and ingenuity of some of the vehicles was very impressive to a techy guy like me.

These Greying Nomads are so friendly. No sooner than you have pulled up in a camp area, then people will wander over to say hello, see where your from and invite you to join them around the camp fire. This open friendliness is something that is missing in Europe and is quite incredible at first. I think it was Martin who mentioned it before we got here, that the people are a different kind of friendly, but that didn’t stop me from being pleasantly surprised by it.

Something that will stay with me for a long time was the night skies. With zero light pollution in the outback they were just incredible. Every night when stepping out of the van I was transfixed by the views above my head. It was truly something magical, all the stars, the meteorites (coincidentally our visit conisidered with a meteorite shower) the occasional satellite and depending on the cycle the brilliant illumination from the moon that normally goes unnoticed. In addition to the night skies we absorbed, daily we witnessed beautiful sunrise and sunsets that seemed very distinct (much like anyone who has seen a sunset in Asia describes it as different to back home). I can’t really pinpoint the difference, but the wonderful hues and pink haze opposite side of sunset really stood out.

Sunrise, sunset and the stars are on offer daily, but when was the last time you saw any one of the three in one day. The daily unobstructed views really were something special. Oh, and another thing, it all goes the wrong way! The stars, the sun, the moon all very disorientating.

Several people thought we were crazy trying to cram in so much with so little time. We knew it would involve a lot of driving given the distances between places in this colossal country, but for me that really is part of seeing it. You can’t get a feel for Australia’s size any other way and to emphasize that I am going to quote Señor Bryson as he is better with words than me (which probably has something to do with why he sells more books than I do).

“Australia truly does exist on a unique scale. It’s not just a question of brute distance – though goodness knows there is plenty of that – but of incredible emptiness that lies within all distance. Five hundred miles here is not like 500 miles anywhere elsewhere, and the only way to appreciate that is to cross the country at ground level.”