Not having enough of travelling by bus I decided to travel from Alice Springs to Cairns by the Desert Venturer bus. The journey takes 3 days 2 nights and covers 2067km, much of it along dirt roads. Picked up by the bus at 5.30am on day one from outside the hostel. Sarah, Louise and Jean from the groovy grape trip are also doing the same trip along with 28 others. We drove for 800km before stopping for the night at a "small" 150kmx50km cattle station. The station has a pet kangaroo called Mary who is very partial to ice cream and beer at night and tea and toast in the morning. Left at 7am on day 2 and continued the drive through the outback stopping for a BBQ at lunchtime. That night we stayed at a pub. After the bar closed I went back to the bar owners house for a few more drinks and left somewhere around 3am. The last day involved a 6am start to allow us to get to Cairns at a reasonable time.
I really enjoyed the trip, and although flying would only taken a few hours you wouldn't get the same experience. Unfortunately the service is finishing at the end of August after running for 7 years due to increased fuel costs and cheaper flights.
