Perth to Melbourne across the Nullarbor - maui

Fourteen nights and 3,417 kilometres from Perth to Melbourne in a campervan, right across the southern edge of the continent.

Margaret River comes first, three hours south of Perth, where the vineyards sit between tall karri forest and a surf coast, then Albany on the south coast, and Esperance, where the beaches along the Great Ocean Drive are white enough to be uncomfortable in bright sun and kangaroos use them.

Balladonia, Madura and Coorabie carry the route across the Nullarbor, which is not a desert of sand but a limestone plain, treeless as its name says, with the longest straight stretch of sealed road in Australia running across it and the Bunda Cliffs dropping into the Southern Ocean along its edge. Ceduna marks the eastern end, then Port Augusta, Wallaroo and Adelaide. Mount Gambier follows with its blue crater lake, then Portland, Geelong and the Victorian coast into Melbourne.

The camper and the day-by-day plan come from maui, and the hire is priced live per vehicle rather than per person; campsites, fuel, ferries, park fees and activities are all extra, with a nil-excess insurance pack available at booking. Fifteen days for 3,417 kilometres means long days at the wheel, and the Nullarbor section is the part to plan rather than improvise: fuel stops are a couple of hundred kilometres apart, roadhouse prices are what they are, and water should be carried. Driving at dawn, dusk and after dark is where the risk lies, since kangaroos, emus and camels all use the road. This is a one-way hire of some length, so a relocation fee is worth checking at booking. Spring brings the wildflowers out across the Western Australian half.