Lucy loves Australia

I read a really great article this week written by Gavin Green who drove a mini across the red centre of Australia from Sydney to Perth in honour of his father, who had made the same trip (and for the first time in a mini in 1966).

The photos of his journey stunning… here’s a couple:

Heading towards Uluru (Ayers Rock). The desert landscape is mottled by iron in the soil – Mark Bramley

Star trails in the outback night sky, captured by a long exposure photograph – Mark Bramley

….and the account of his adventure quite mind blowing. Let me tell you that is a LONG WAY whatever size of car you’re in! But incidentally, a mini is the smallest car on record to make this journey.

The article was featured in the British Airways magazine HiLife and its certainly worth a look.

I love this conversation Gavin wrote up:

Halfway along the Winton-Boulia road, we stopped at the Middleton Hotel, home to one of the world’s most remote pubs. Middleton was once a coach staging post and a thriving town. Now it is just a hotel. Owner Lester Cain greeted us.

‘G’day,’ he said in that time-honoured outback greeting. ‘Weer ya headin’?’

To Boulia, we explained, then to the Northern Territory and on to Perth, mostly on gravel and dirt roads.

His eyes narrowed. ‘What?’ he said, nodding at the Mini. ‘In that?’ He scratched his chin stubble. ‘Whaddya gunna do? Carry it?’

If you read closely though, you’ll realise that not everything could fit in the mini and the camping equipment and ’spares’ for the car were in a 4×4 support vehicle. Luggage or no luggage though, it’s still a long way in a little car doing 500-odd miles a day (phew).

My recommendation however is that if you are thinking of tracing Gavin’s ‘tyre tracks’, you might want to do it in something a little more suitable — say in a 4×4 campervan like these from Britz !

What a fantastic adventure across the Outback!

Here’s how Gavin sums up his experience:

…after 4,130 miles, our journey ended. We were exhausted from driving ten hours a day continually for ten days, from those rough roads in Western Australia and from the constant worry that we might not make it. The Mini may be a great little car, but it is no more designed for rough outback roads than Gucci loafers are for desert trekking. Yet we had made it, with no mechanical problems apart from a rattling tailgate, and no major discomfort apart from the liberal coating of dust inside the car.

Unlike my dad, we had achieved nothing of historic importance. Except for completing, as far as we knew, the second ever crossing of Australia through the centre by Mini.

Thanks for sharing your adventure with us Gavin!