Darwin to Uluru down the Stuart Highway - maui

Seven nights and 2,665 kilometres from Darwin to Uluru in a campervan, down the Stuart Highway from the tropics to the Red Centre.

Kakadu comes first, nearly twenty thousand square kilometres of wetland, escarpment and stone country, with rock art at Ubirr and Nourlangie that has been painted and repainted over tens of thousands of years, and saltwater crocodiles in the rivers.

Katherine follows, where Nitmiluk is a series of thirteen sandstone gorges cut by the river and walked or paddled in sections, then Daly Waters and Tennant Creek down the highway. Karlu Karlu comes next, also known as the Devils Marbles, where granite boulders sit balanced on open ground in a way that looks deliberate and is simply weathering, then Gemtree in the Harts Range, where visitors can dig for garnet and zircon, before Uluru.

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. Eight days for 2,665 kilometres is a hard schedule, and the Stuart Highway legs are long with very little between the towns. The dry season from May to October is the window: the wet floods roads in Kakadu and closes parts of the park. Several Kakadu roads are unsealed and four-wheel drive only, which is worth checking against the hire terms. Swimming anywhere in the Top End needs local advice because of the crocodiles. This is a one-way hire the length of a territory, so a relocation fee is worth confirming at booking.