We spend a week on the farm with Greg and Jill while we get Geoffrey serviced and ready for the journey ahead. It's always good fun but in the end we have to say sad goodbyes with a promise that we will return one day and we will. We decide to head slightly south and then across to the Adelaide Hills and not take the harsher northern route. Australia is in the grip of its hottest summer on record and in some parts of the outback a drought has now gone on for several years which is causing serious problems. It has always been a harsh life farming livestock out here but this is as bad a situation as anyone can remember.

The scenery is still stunning but burnt brown and in several places we come across cattle that have been left to graze the wide verges at the side of the road. Our first nights stop is at Coonabarabran on a campsite with a much needed swimming pool and a friendly kookaburra thrown in.

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