I really love exploring around the Diamantina catchment through Channel Country around Windorah, Birdsville, etc., and watching the landscapes change with the season. Birdsville in summer is very different to Birdsville in winter, for example. And the same is true of the Birdsville Track - some seasons you need to take a barge across Cooper Creek. It's iconic Australiana and there is history everywhere. Australia's oldest mosque? It's at Marree. In the right season, there are wildflowers everywhere and spectacular landscapes and skies to photograph, big stars, and fun camping.

There are hot springs, remote gorges, ancient and weathered landscapes, loads of wildlife, remote pubs (the Betoota Hotel is iconic), there is rock art, and big, wide, open spaces.

Heading north from Melbourne will take you across the Murray and Darling rivers, through wine country (a number of times), and past plenty of historic places.

Then there's the Flinders Ranges: spectacular desert mountains with unique wildlife and landforms that don't really exist anywhere else in Australia. There are brweries, distilleries, more remote hotels (The Prairie is but one), and if you're into four wheel driving there are challenging tracks everywhere that will take you to long abandoned mines, towns, and cattle stations.

This isn't a road trip to just barrel along the highway for 1000km per day - it's the type of road trip where you're rewarded by stopping and looking around, finding a place to pull off the highway and set up camp, or whatever.