Destination: Australia

Itinerary: Into the Outback

TWO MONTHS/MELBOURNE TO DARWIN

The Stuart Hwy is a must-do route for anyone longing for an outback experience. Locally understated as 'the Track', this hot, dusty piece of bitumen bisects the awesome central deserts as it stretches from the South Australian (SA) crossroads town of Port Augusta to the 'Top End' city of Darwin in the Northern Territory (NT).

Begin this Outback odyssey in Melbourne, where you can stock up on superb food and be an inner-city barfly before riding the Princes Hwy west and diverting onto the magical contours of the Great Ocean Road. Rejoin the highway and head across to Adelaide, SA's mellow but artistically vibrant capital. The going gets sparser after you pass Port Augusta, with the empty terrain and soporific silence eventually broken by the opal-tinted dugout town of Coober Pedy.

Once you've paid your respects to Uluru (Ayers Rock) and visited the spectacular, vertigo-inducing Watarrka (Kings Canyon) National Park, make for the desert oasis of Alice Springs in the heart of the steep-sided MacDonnell Ranges. Between 'the Alice' and the laid-back NT capital, Darwin, you'll gawk at the bizarre Devil's Marbles, down some beers at the Daly Waters Pub and marvel at the landscapes, wildlife and Aboriginal rock art of World Heritage-listed Kakadu National Park.

You can also do this route from top to bottom.