Firstly, to begin before the beginning I’m going to share some of my experiences in translating what was not much more than a thought bubble into reality. The starting point was to realise what I didn’t know – which was pretty much everything!

While I had spent a lot of my life travelling most of it was on planes flying over oceans not driving through the outback, and while I considered myself an enthusiastic amateur at most things I quickly realised that when you start speaking to the “experts” in outback travel ignorance takes on a new level of meaning.

In the end I decided to trust my instincts and put my faith in Max, a 2018 Trakkadu (basically a 4×4 Kombi), a map of Australia highlighting our heritage lighthouses and a madcap idea to start at the top (i.e. 12 o’clock) and travel clockwise around the country! A more sensible person might have decided to start in Sydney where I live, and turn either left or right, but I decided I wanted an outback experience to kick things off and once that idea crossed my mind it had to be built into my plan

Initially I’d planned to start my trip on 22^nd June (the Winter solstice) at Cape Don lighthouse which is located at the end of the Cobourg peninsula 570 kms north-east of Darwin, and according to Dr. Google impossible to get to. However, after further research I discovered there was a way to get there which involved some serious off-road driving to the Cobourg Fishing Camp and then an eight hour round trip in a tinnie assuming the weather was good! Difficult but possible!

However, fait and the realisation I’d bought the wrong vehicle and snap decision to buy a house in the Byron Bay hinterland intervened and I needed to postpone my trip which I admit was a hard decision. As it turned out I managed to sell the wrong car and buy Max for the same price (the first time I didn’t loose money on a car), we were gazumped on the house we thought we’d bought and after that experience we appointed a buyers agent to help with the house hunting and deal with the men in sharp suits, and I realised there was a window of opportunity to start my journey after all.

Because it was now getting late in the dry season it would be necessary to make a few changes to my initial plans. Finally, I settled of the departure date of 9^th September (9/9 because I liked the symmetry) and instead of starting at Cape Don I’d start at Booby Island off Cape York, and as Australia’s most northerly point this was more naturally the top of the clock!

One of the other factors driving this timing was a long held desire to see the Morning Glory, a bizarre cloud formation that only happens at Burketown on the Gulf of Carpentaria in late September / early October, but it’s notoriously unpredictable and fairly rare.

In the days leading up to my departure I caught up with a few mates who, I think, doubted that I would ever leave and seemed pretty keen for me to saddle up and get going, it was finally time to walk the talk!

It felt a bit like I was looking over the edge of a precipice (a similar feeling to looking out the open door on my first and only skydive), it was now or never, the die had been cast and as the date approached I have to admit to a rising sense that I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into.

When departure day arrived it felt a bit surreal to be saying goodbye to my family without any clear idea when I’d see them next, but the road was calling and it was time to get rolling!