The Big Move - Sydney to Darwin

The big move, Sydney to Darwin. Deciding to move state was not a decision that came easily, but once made - it was hard to keep my excitement idle. After a year of FaceTime calls, messages, letters (yes snail mail!), and bi-monthly visits, it was time to give up our long-distance relationship and become roomies in the Top End.
I, ashamedly, had not travelled much of Australia. Apart from road trips, mostly to festivals up and down the East coast, and the most West I had been was the Blue Mountains. So I jumped at the chance to drive over 4,000km across and up the country. Not that I did much driving, ok none, but it was a big 4WD and manual! And I really did have every intention of learning manual before we left. We were on a bit of a time limit to get to Darwin, so we were averaging 7 hours drive per day. Stopping at random tiny towns along the way, sometimes the towns only consisted of a pub and a servo. I won't lie, there were times were I thought we were heading for a similar fate of 'Wolf Creek'.
A few days passed where we didn't see a single other car, just sandy desert as far as we could see. The terrain and weather changed vastly from state to state, and day to day. It didn't take long to find out that only fools would do this trip in January (with no air-con). The temps were usually in the 40's and when the wild afternoon storms hit, it was mayhem. We would have to slow to about 40km/h as we couldn't see out the windshield, it was hard to stay on the road, let alone see if there was an oncoming car. We also had to do a lot of river crossing, once we got further north they were sometimes croc infested rivers with the water spilling over the bonnet. Welcome to the top end!
We saw amazing wildlife, and came across very uniquely Australian people and towns. It was one of the most amazing trips I have ever done. This land is so vast and diverse, the weather so powerful and destructive.

    

Sandwich stop

The driver and me

Luckily for us, we only broke down once, and managed to do a running hill start after the car cooled down.

Bit dry on the green

Shack for the night

There she is

Incoming Storm

Just some random horses that we came across in the middle of nowhere

Driving due West at sunset was blinding at times