Brisbane to Longreach and Carnarvon Gorge - Apollo

Fourteen nights and 3,239 kilometres from Brisbane out through outback Queensland and back to the coast, in a campervan.

Chinchilla and Roma come first on the Western Downs, then Carnarvon Gorge with a stay day, a sandstone gorge cut into the Great Dividing Range where side gorges hold tree ferns, palms and an Aboriginal rock art gallery several thousand years old, with permanent water at the bottom of it in otherwise dry country.

Tambo and Longreach follow, the second the birthplace of Qantas, with the original hangar and the Stockman’s Hall of Fame in the town. Winton comes next, where the dinosaur trackways at Lark Quarry record a stampede of around ninety-five million years ago and Waltzing Matilda was first performed. Barcaldine, Emerald and Biloela carry the route back east, then Seventeen Seventy and Agnes Water with a stay day, and Hervey Bay with another.

The camper and the day-by-day plan come from Apollo, 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 3,239 kilometres is a fair pace with three stay days. Winter is the season for the inland half, since summer out there is punishing and the gorge walks close in the heat. Carnarvon Gorge needs a full day on foot and the campsite there books out in the Queensland school holidays. Seventeen Seventy is where Cook made his second landing in Australia, and it is the northernmost surf beach on the coast before the reef takes the swell out.