South Australia

In this episode of the Travel Bug I head into the Australian Outback on a 5,000km road trip, exploring some of Down Under’s most spectacular landscapes. From Adelaide I’m making my way south to Kangaroo Island. Next it’s off to Clare Valley and across to Port Lincoln, before hitting the road to the Flinders Ranges and traversing the desert along the Oodnadatta track, finishing in Alice Springs to board the legendary Ghan.

After a couple of days in the city I hit the road south to the aptly named Kangaroo Island, known by the locals as KI. I was really excited to get to Kangaroo Island because other than the stunning scenery, it’s full of animal life, so much so that it is often called the Galapagos of Australia. First stop on Kangaroo Island was to head to Seal Bay Conservation Park, where there’s a resident population of Australian Sea Lions. Then I hit the road to visit Admirals Arch on the western coastline. While it might look sensational, it’s a little on the nose, because at Admirals Arch you’ll find a seal colony. Next on my tour of Kangaroo Island was a visit to Remarkable Rocks. The striking formations look as though they were carved by human hands into unique shapes, but it was the work of Mother Nature over thousands of years that has lead to their stunning appearance.

Saying goodbye to Kangaroo Island I caught the ferry back to the mainland and drove north the winegrowing region of Clare Valley. While it’s wine that put this scenic piece of Australia on the map, I was there to have a look at one of the regions other emerging products – Beer! Knappstein is a winery that has returned to its roots, and while they still make sensational wines, they also produce one of the best beers in the country.

The endless seas of wheat were becoming all too familiar, so it was time for a change. Hitting the road early I drove the six hours south-east to the sheltered harbour city of Port Lincoln. It’s at the end of the Eyre Peninsula and has a population of about 15,000 people. The city survives mainly because of the huge grain handling facilities, as well as fish processing works and tuna farming. With aquaculture being so prevalent in the area, it was only fitting that I

went on a tour to have a closer look at the tuna that give so many of the people here a living. The tour wasn’t one of those trips where you’re kept

 at a distance from things, on this tour you get to hop into the water and swim with massive tuna – while they’re being fed mind you!

From the tuna pen we motored further up the coast to a sheltered alcove for the best part of the tour, a swim with sealions. This is a really unique experience, where you get to interact with an animal in its natural habitat. The sealions move through the water with absolute grace and in a flash they can turn on a dime and speedily swim away.

Leaving the coast I started my Outback adventure, and first stop on this journey into the desert was the awe inspiring Wilpena Pound, in the Flinders Ranges. The best way to take in the magnificence of the Flinders Ranges and the volcano-like formation of Wilpena Pound is from the air. It’s only from a bird’s eye view that you can really get an appreciation for how beautiful and dramatic the landscape is.

I then made my way to Rawnsley Park Station. While it’s a great place to stay, it’s also a working sheep station where you can get hands on experience in life on the land. After spending a morning herding sheep, I quickly discovered I shouldn’t quit my day job!

Back behind the steering wheel and it was time to take the plunge and hit the road. I planned to drive from the Flinders Ranges, into the Outback along the Oodnadatta Track

, emerging from the desert at Marla. This was the leg of the journey that had me a little worried, because once you leave the Ranges the landscape quickly becomes extremely desolate – not a place for the faint hearted. But on this occasion I was lucky to see a rare phenomenon, rain in one of

 the driest places on earth.

Overnight the rain bucketed down and I emerged from my swag to receive bad news over the radio. The road ahead had been closed, meaning my journey up the Oodnadatta Track had to end, forcing me to backtrack a few hundred kilometers and make my way up an alternate route to get to Alice Springs in time to catch the train. The dramatic weather continued, including massive dust storms, and it made the drive into Alice Springs a lot of fun. I was surrounded by huge storms and the horizon was alive with lightning.

Before the car was loaded on train and we left for the journey south to Adelaide, I had an opportunity to poke my head into the drivers compartment for a quick chat with the captain of the ship, who was busy preparing the train for departure…..he was actually fixing the brakes!

Eventually it was all aboard and The Ghan lurched its way out of Alice Springs right on time, beginning my journey back to Adelaide. The passing scenery turned from the red and green of the flourishing outback, and back to the familiar yellow of wheat. And with the rain still falling we eventually rolled into Adelaide and all too soon my adventure had come to an end.