UPDATE a la Jez… So over in Perth we bought this joyful-yellow Holden stationwagon. It was a bit of trouble at first – a transmission overhaul, a rekitting of the main brake cylinder, working out why we had no lights at all, that sort of thing. But once out on the wide open highway, it cleared 3000km at a constant 85km/h with barely a dodgy morning start-up. Through the goldfields of Kalgoorlie (we went down an old mine and panned for gold, finding an interesting yellow lump which was rather exciting until I noticed a whole boulder of the stuff nearby), the long haul across the world’s longest straight sealed road, camping out in the vast treeless (Nullarbor) plain under a perfect dome of stars, dining on oysters in semi-industrial Port Augusta – our old Holden took us all the way to the mild-mannered metropolis of Adelaide.

Very impressed with Adelaide. Approaching from the west (or north-west by the time you reach it), you come through rough red lands with little to draw the attention bar the spectacular Flinders Range to the east (we took a half day tour by 4WD over insanely undrivable paths right up to the very summit of one of the two highest peaks – Intrepid Tours comes highly recommended, should you ever be in the area, run by the least likely Quentin you’ll ever meet). Adelaide is small, manageable and well-organised, an easy 20 minute drive from a northern suburb to the southern ones, with a centre that’s half civic pride, half spaghetti western. Best of all, the ocean beaches lie 10 minutes to the west, the Adelaide hills five minutes to the south-east.

The Adelaide hills are wondrous – a green fairytale of a land, with forests aflow with wild flowers and ferns, pixies and elves. Suddenly you come across Hahndorf, an Alpine German village, complete with strudel houses, cuckoo clocks and Aboriginal artifacts (‘Shurely lederhosen and lagersteins…’ Ed.) Dee walked through here of course, and since we’re following her route to the inch, we had to drive this error of a shortcut she took the second day out of Adelaide. It winds through rolling hills in a worryingly random direction, sometimes tarmac, sometimes gravel, sometimes nothing much at all. The Hornet (the car) handled it well, coasting the downs and urging itself up the rises, until we reached civilisation once more at a small farming village by an abandoned copper mine.

Tracing the route includes pulling off into lay-bys wherever she stopped, and visiting the people she stayed with every 40km or so – always fun to meet these people in out-of-the-way places. Perhaps best so far was an extended stay with Charlotte and Anders down the Great Ocean Road in Apollo Bay, where the sunsets look (as Anders says) like God showing off. The golden cliffs plunge to the sea, bays of rocks and sand contour the coast, and their rented house sits high in the hills overlooking sea on one side and unspoiled rainforest on the other. Add a smart ball-crazed blue heeler dog called Jezebel (which caused some confusion), a beautiful British Blue called Bernadette, and excellent company (Dee met Anders when he was finishing their Amnesty cycling trip from Melbourne to Perth), and it was the best rest we’ve had so far.

Though not for The Hornet. The Great Ocean Road half killed it, and the day we left Apollo Bay we enjoyed three RAC visits in two hours! (The last was deeply embarrassing, as I missed the hole when topping up the oil, poured it over a hot engine where it caught fire. ‘Water!’ I screamed, after a few choice expletives, and we spurted Dee’s water bottle over the smoke. Not enough. ‘Get the stuff out of the back!’ I said to Dee, meaning the five litre bottle in the back. She thought I meant get all the stuff because the car was going to explode, and I ran to the back of the car to find her throwing backpacks to the side of the road…) No damage done there, but the nice Anglesey RAC guy warned us not to expect to get much beyond Sydney without fitting, erm, a new engine. Ah well.

Still, that was two weeks ago, and we’ve since made it to Sydney and beyond, Hornet intact. The last leg took us from the Melbourne mechanic (who seems to have fixed the transmission problem by looking at it) through the rolling countryside of Victoria and New South Wales. We stayed at one campsite right on Pambula Beach where kangaroos bound around the tents all day, and dolphins leapt from the sea. We had a pet of our own at this stage, Dee having rescued a flapping muttonbird from the middle of the highway. These shearwaters migrate to the Arctic (not the Antarctic, the Arctic, mad things), and are just arriving back – many of them run out of energy short of land and ditch in the ocean (the beach was strewn with them) or smash into something during an exhausted landing.. Unable to get our little friend to a vet before 5.30, we covered it in Dee’s sarong (which it gratefully shat all over), and boxed it up for the night. By morning of course it had karked it, which I was quite upset about, while Dee (fervent RSPCA supporter, note) howled with mirth at my sorrow. OK, perhaps justifiably, since the day before I’d been all for leaving it on the highway because it was obviously going to kark it. (But it’s different isn’t it – it had gone from being just any old bird to being our bird – our first pet. I was sad.)

The very next day another bird was sitting on a busy road, and again we doubled back to get it. This time it was neatly decapitated just before we reached it, no doubt saving us hours of vet-hunting drive, and probably my sarong as well.

In Sydney we drove to North Bondi Beach, site of Dee’s triumphant finish, and both of us dived into the surf to celebrate. Well over 5000kms of driving, making Dee’s third crossing in all – walking, bus, and car. Next up: camels, kangaroo-back and rollerblading. I, of course, will enjoy it all from a luxurious ocean-view beach-house, cocktails ready to toast each stage of her journey…

No, actually the book comes next, and at the moment we’re having trouble getting a silent place to ourselves in which it can progress. But time, for once, is not pressing, and the adventure can continue at its own pace. Next stop Malaysia…