The Six Megameter Trip

That was the least Christmassy Christmas I've ever had, but still thoroughly enjoyable. Gingerbread pancakes on the balcony in the morning sun, followed by a barbecue on the beach and a swim in the sea. All before the sun had even risen in the UK. The back of my neck got especially burned, the sun was so strong that I wasn't even safe under my beach umbrella, I could see my shadow distinctly within the beach umbrella's shadow.
Update: I've uploaded a pic (we didn't take many) of Christmas day at the beach, as well as a couple of my car. They're in the Mawson Lakes folder.

Since Christmas I've been doing a lot of hiding in my room with the air conditioner on, It was over 40º on the run up to the new year, too hot to even think about going outside. I've been carefully preparing for this road trip of mine, the round trip looks like it'll total 3700 miles, 6000 kilometers, that's 6 megameters! Four and a half road trips from Land's End to John O' Groats. That's like driving in a straight line from the UK to the nearest corner of China or India, but it's only... less than a quarter of the way around Australia. This country is big.

The plan is to head south out of Adelaide, go along the Great Ocean Road, then past Melbourne and Sydney, up to Brisbane and further up into the jungle, stopping at Rockhampton. When I get there I'll see how much time (and funds) I have left, and if not much, come back directly through the barrier highway (630 miles of nothing but sand). I've only got 18 days to complete the trip, having to be back to pick up Flossie on the 22nd, so I need to average 200 miles a day. Of course I can cut the trip short or drive straight back through the aforementioned barrier highway if I'm really going to be late, but I want to see jungle if I can.

I'm leaving Adelaide on Monday, tomorrow, at 6am. I had planned to leave today, but after getting involved with a certain friend's hogmanay party yesterday for hours and hours I still have to wash clothes and pack etc. I've got over 40 hours of CDs, 40 litres of water, five loaves and two tins of tuna, so I'm mostly sorted. I also have barbecue supplies for when I want something hot, but then i expect to be able to fry an egg on the roof of my car, so probably won't need it.

I'll blog whenever I can get an internet connection, tweet whenever I can get phone reception, and take plenty of pictures (though I imagine they'll be mostly of the landscape variety). Also I promise not to... well I'll try not to go on about how hot it is.