From Cairns to Birdsville is a fair drive of around 1,800km (1,000 miles) and I took it easy to start with, mainly because I needed to source more spares and equipment to make sure I was prepared for the outback and the dessert. The motor had performed excellently up until now with some challenging circumstances during the trip and I felt confident it was mechanically up to the challenge.

As I travelled inland from Townsville to Mount Isa the land started to get flatter, the roads straighter and trucks got bigger. This is truly the land of the road trains now. Large cattle trucks dominate, some with 3 full length trailers and over 50 wheels stretching the vehicles to over 50 metres in length. The road wasn&rsquo;t bad, a sealed highway now but still rough in places &ndash; rougher than the worst bits of the Bruce Highway running up east coast of Queensland.

Even on large highways like this it&rsquo;s tiring driving, especially at night. Not because of traffic, the road is quiet at night but because of the animals crossing the road, especially Kangaroos. You have to keep a continuous vigilance and the frequent corpses littering the road make sure you don&rsquo;t forget. 90% of dead animals on the road were Kangaroo&rsquo;s but I also saw Emu&rsquo;s and big black boars. 