Perth to Melbourne across the Nullarbor - Mighty

Ten nights and 3,420 kilometres from Perth to Melbourne in a campervan, across the southern edge of the continent.

Margaret River comes first, 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.

Cocklebiddy carries the Nullarbor crossing, a roadhouse on a limestone plain that is treeless as its name says, with the longest straight stretch of sealed road in Australia across it and the Bunda Cliffs dropping into the Southern Ocean along its edge. Ceduna marks the eastern end, then Port Lincoln on the Eyre Peninsula, Tanunda in the Barossa, and Mount Gambier with its blue crater lake, before the Great Ocean Road into Melbourne.

The camper and the day-by-day plan come from Mighty, 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. Eleven days for 3,420 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 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. Southern right whales calve at the Head of Bight between June and October. This is a one-way hire the width of the continent, so a relocation fee is worth confirming at booking.