Melbourne to Adelaide.

Rock music plays all night,
as Rick and Bennie share the driving.

Approaching Adelaide, the DJ on the car radio predicts an afternoon high of 36 degrees Celsius. It is Grand Prix weekend.

Former Grand Prix, Adelaide. Copyright Michel Guntern.

In certain side streets, Sheilas help sizzle steaks and sausages on the barbie, while their menfolk guzzle from tinnies in polystyrene coolers.

The Australian Grand Prix now winds
through Albert Park, in Melbourne.
Will Hindley Street ever be the same again?

Some of the standing spectators seem ready for a surfing event.

In shorts and thongs, they slop on some multi- coloured sun- block, slap on a hat, and begin to put their beer capacity to the test.

When the sun sets, Hindley Street is closed off with orange plastic cones and tape, to keep the traffic away from poeple gathering around the bars. This is party street, and it goes on for three nights.

Many travellers choose to use the long-distance buses to travel around Australia, others club together to buy a second-hand car, but they move en mass from one Backpackers hostel to another.

Someone with a thumb out, at the side of the road, gets to meet the characters moving about their own country.

There is only one road north from Adelaide -- through Port Augusta, the interior and Alice Springs -- to Darwin, at the Top End.

It is called Stuart Highway, or The Track.


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