Melbourne to Uluru via the Flinders Ranges - maui

Seven nights and 2,953 kilometres from Melbourne to Uluru in a campervan, out of Victoria and up through South Australia into the Red Centre.

The Grampians come first, three hours west of Melbourne, a sandstone range tilted up on edge with waterfalls, lookouts and one of the most important collections of Aboriginal rock art in the south-east.

Mildura follows on the Murray, then Adelaide, and the Clare Valley with its riesling. Wilpena Pound comes next in the Flinders Ranges, a natural amphitheatre of quartzite ridges some eighty square kilometres across, which looks like a crater and is in fact the eroded remains of a fold in rock laid down hundreds of millions of years ago. Woomera and Coober Pedy follow up the Stuart Highway, the first a rocket range township and the second an opal town where much of the population lives underground, before the long run to 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 nearly three thousand kilometres is a hard schedule, and this is a transit with highlights rather than a tour of any one place. Winter is the season for the inland half. Fuel stops are far apart north of Port Augusta, and driving at dawn, dusk or after dark is where the animal strikes happen. This is a one-way hire of some length, so a relocation fee is worth checking at booking. Anyone with ten days rather than eight should give the Flinders the extra two.