It was a long time ago that I went up the middle to Australia (2003). I met my friends in Adelaide and in a red camper van four of us travelled up through South Australia to Uluru and back to Melbourne via Alice Springs and Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory.

I don’t have any photos of Adelaide or Alice Springs. I think I was more discerning in those days, I still had a film camera after all, but it disappoints me. Adelaide was, from my vague memories, quite a quaint little city and I got out into the surrounding hills full of villages originally started by German settlers with names such as Hahndorf, and vineyards. However, two of the things that surface most quickly when I think of Adelaide was the number of mullets and tattoo parlours that didn’t open until late.

Through Australia’s Outback, the deep red sand contrasts with the bright blue sky and it quickly settles into a beautiful monotony of sand, sky and spinifex. It’s not the landscape for a long game of iSpy. It’s worth remembering that, at night, it gets extremely cold so warm clothes are essential. It is desert after all.