An early start back through ‘The Alice’ before once again heading North this time towards our overnight stop at the Devils Marbles. Once again another big drive taking in some aboriginal art work at in Ti Tree and then onwards to the now infamous Barrow Creek – the closest town to where  Joanne Lees and Peter Falconio were attacked by Bradly John Murdoch when driving their combi along the same route. Walking round the round house at Barrow Creek was a weird feeling…

After a brief stop there it was onwards through the town of Tennat Creek and onto the Devils Marbles just in time for sunset. The Devils Marbles are large and small granite rocks scattered all over the landscape making for impressive scenery aswell as an important sacred site for the traditional owners.

Oh watch out for the dingos if your staying there one evening!

Leaving Quorn and a brief stop in Port Augusta we then headed onto what, with a few exceptions for ’sight seeing’, would be the last road we would need to get to Darwin – The Stuart Highway. Named after John McDouall Stuart the road stretches from Adelaide in the South to Darwin in the north – totalling more than 2800 kilometers!

A mamoth driving day after leaving Port Augusta saw us head a long way north towards the first target of Coober Pedy. We didn’t get quite that far stopping to take in some vast open views of the interior and to take walk on a salt lake, until we saw signs warning of laser hazard and unexploded bombs!!

Our stop that night was a rest stop along the side of the road with luxury drop! toliets – compared to some drop toilets they really were luxury. Another amazing night under the stars and a chance to air the van and sit our under the warming eveing sun. One bonus about heading north was the steadily higher temperatures!

Another early start, the great thing about camping is you get up with the sun and goto bed when its dark. Its a much simpler way of living, thugh when driving in outback Australia its a good idea to plan your stops before sunset to avoid dusk driving. when it gets dark the animals come out to play, and they seem to like car/van bumpers!

Today included a stop in the mining town of Broken Hill, though now its perhaps more well known as an outback tourist destination. It’s also a stop for the Indian Pacific on its way from Sydney to Perth and so i’d been here briefly a few years before.

Another big driving day saw us trying to get further North than we perhaps should have and its became clear that we were getting close to sunset with nowhere to stop. We set of down the barrier highway expecting a rest stop/car park of some sort, according to the map there were a couple, but really there was nothing! Thankfully as the sun was geading beyond the horizon we came across a small and abanonded town of Olary, a victim of the the drought and a downturn in farming. It was still mainataind to a basic level, and after a few discussions on whether it would turn into a wolf creek style place we stopped for the night. As it turned out it was one of the best nights stopped, being totally alone in the outback makes for a lot of fun and some amazing stars!