Sydney to Broken Hill Outback Loop - Apollo

Eleven nights and 2,539 kilometres in a loop from Sydney in a campervan, out into outback New South Wales and back along the rivers.

Mudgee comes first over the Blue Mountains, a wine region planted in the 1850s and now better known for shiraz than for the gold that funded it, then Dubbo with an extra day, where the open-range zoo runs to three hundred hectares and is driven or cycled rather than walked.

Cobar and Broken Hill follow out west, the second a mining city built on one of the largest silver, lead and zinc deposits ever found, with an extra day there, the Line of Lode through the middle of town and a strong painting tradition grown up around the light, and Silverton nearby a near-ghost town used in a long list of films. Wentworth comes next at the junction of the Murray and the Darling, with Mungo National Park within reach, then Balranald and Wagga Wagga.

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. Twelve days for 2,539 kilometres is a fair pace with three extra days built in. The outback legs are the long ones, with a couple of hundred kilometres between towns and very little in between, so fuel and water matter. Mungo is reached on unsealed roads and holds the oldest known human remains in Australia, which is worth checking against the hire terms before counting on it. Driving at dawn, dusk and after dark is where the animal strikes happen.