Turn right onto the Stuart Highway and say goodbye to traffic lights and bends. Most settlements along the way are little more than a roadhouse with a couple of shacks tacked on. The Stuart Highway runs from Port Augusta, SA to Darwin, NT – over 2,800km. Found many things to see, although there are long gaps with natural beauty alone to keep you company. Far more of a nuisance are caravans travelling in convoy. Driving The Stuart Highway- Port Augusta to Darwin With the beautiful The Great Barrier Reef, the spectacular Sydney Harbour Bridge and breath taking Opera House, backpacking across Australia or even doing the Lap of Australia with the family is a …

See Major hire car companies can be found at both Adelaide and Darwin airports. The much-feared road trains aren't the biggest menace – a bit of stealthy middle-of-the-road positioning and a hard blast on the accelerator, and they're vanquished.

Around 80 per cent of the homes in Coober Pedy have been dug into the hillsides in an attempt to escape the savage desert heat.Faye's Underground Display Home allows visitors to get a glimpse of what these troglodyte abodes are like.

Far from being “boring” desert, this is a fascinating drive.

The final 600 kilometres is back in the land of the ever-flowing water, more croc than camel territory, and the Kakadu, Nitmiluk and Litchfield National Parks lie just off Mr Stuart's track. So … Mataranka Thermal Springs – Crystal Clear Water In The Outback Fresh from an amazing experience at Manyallaluk Aboriginal Community south of Katherine, we travelled about … Mataranka To Tennant Creek – Cattle And Caravans After relaxing at Mataranka Thermal Springs, we vaguely headed South on the Stuart Highway. Firstly, you can forget about good food.

Daly Waters has a non-functioning traffic light, permanently on red to trick visitors into staying, and one of the undisputed classic outback pubs. Suddenly the sandwich doesn't seem all that appetising.It's good to set a marker for what's ahead, and the sight of the furtive rodent dispels any remaining illusions that the next 2834 kilometres are going to be full glamour. It's all about getting to a state where you don't care too much about the spiders in the cabin.The last leg on the Stuart Highway is the one that takes the longest, largely due to the wealth of highly appealing detours.

Seemingly endless nothing lies ahead. The sight of the Timor Sea sends bursts of pride pulsating through the body. Upstairs, however, there's an indoor swimming pool.

This is, apparently, the UFO capital of Australia – and the owners are going to stick that story through hell or high water.The greatest of the Stuart Highway's overnighters, however, arrives once the desert has properly started to lose the battle to the tropics. The landscape subtly changes, becoming greener and less dramatically supersized. So if you’re travelling east from … Manyallaluk – The Dreaming Place Cultural Tour While in Katherine Tourism Information Centre, Peta spotted a brochure describing the Manyallaluk Dreaming Place cultural tour. It's a place seemingly stripped of life, struck with an eerie otherworldliness.If Lake Hart is surreal, though, Coober Pedy is downright bizarre.

This has led to a surprisingly cosmopolitan community in the heart of the Outback.

Reality and the normal way of doing things get left behind.

Entirely excavated by hand, it first started life as garage for Coober Pedy's mailman before being expanded into a three-bedroom home.It's not as basic and Spartan as you might imagine. See Desert Cave Hotel, Coober Pedy: Stay underground like the locals for from $255. You do need to be vigilant for live stock including wild horses.

The road is wide and you can literally see for miles. Caravans are boutiful but overtaking is easy and safe. The true end shall be the end of Daly Street.The car – by now disgustingly filthy – is parked up, and weary footsteps are taken across the parkland until John McDouall Stuart's target comes into view.

People, it seems, haven't come here because they love the desert – opal mining has some significant perks.After a few days on the Stuart Highway, a few realisations dawn. Gentle rises in elevation lead to phenomenal viewpoints, simply because there's nothing else in the way.It is the sort of land that is perfect for firing rockets into, and that's exactly what happens. But it turns out that seemingly endless nothing is far more impressive than first imagined.The sheer scale of the starkness, unfolding across the horizon and probably several horizons beyond that, is electrifying. Asking where the best place to eat in Coober Pedy is leads to the pithy response of: "Mobil service station. It is a segment of Australia's Highway 1 extending from Darwin, Northern Territory, in the north, via Tennant Creek and Alice Springs, to Port Augusta, South Australia, in the south—a distance of 2,834 km (1,761 mi). Since the first opal was found here in 1915 by a 14-year-old boy, miners have flocked from all over the world to dig for their fortune. Each seems to have its own gimmick, whether it's camel rides at Stuart's Well or an injured eagle strutting up and down a perch outside Aileron.Winning the gimmick wars hands down, however, is Wycliffe Well. See quest Wycliffe Well Holiday Park: ET-infused, motel-style ensuite doubles for from $129. In amongst those strange … Leliyn (Edith Falls), Nitmiluk National Park Swimming In Paradise  If you love swimming in crystal-clear fresh water, surrounding by red rocky escarpments then Leliyn (Edith … Discovering Litchfield National Park – Or At Least A Part Of It… Travelling north from Katherine to Darwin, Litchfield National Park should be on your … Katherine, Where The Outback Meets The Tropics Katherine is located at the junction of the Victoria and Stuart Highways.

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Far from being “boring” desert, this is a fascinating drive. Driving the Stuart Highway is a good experience.