Feng shui master Kenny Hoo recommended we leave his home town of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia at 8:28 a.m. Eight is a lucky number in Chinese culture. Why not 8:08 a.m.? I did not ask.

Maybe I should have, because no sooner had we crossed into Singapore for the last part of the Asian leg of the Fiesta World Tour that I realised we had left our Spot Tracker in Malaysia. So with no chance to turn back, I am afraid our ‘live’ positioning device has reported us stuck in Malaysia, not where we really are in Australia.

As I write this, the smell of the Pacific Ocean fills the Australian air. Sydney, our final destination after 57 days, 21 countries and 15,000 miles round the world, is just over the horizon.

Most Canadians live within a few hundred miles of the U.S. border. In Oz the same is true of the ocean. That leaves 3,000 miles of nothing in the middle. It’s called the Outback, and to my mind, it is the real Australia.

The Outback is not a place to go unprepared. You must venture into the bush with enough supplies to survive. In addition to water, our key survival tool was the Iridium satellite phone. Mobile coverage in this never-never-land is almost non-existent. The Iridium kept the expedition on the road and us safe for the 8 days across the Red Centre.

I had to put away the Huawei E5 mobile Wi-Fi hotspot as, with virtually no mobile signal, it was as much use as a chocolate teapot.

Remoteness brings other problems: Like the most basic human needs. Aussies call toilets ‘dunnies,’ and with hundreds of miles between dunnies, getting caught short is a very real threat. And the threat does not end there. Squatting in a desert inhabited by some of the world’s deadliest snakes and spiders leaves your derriere exposed, literally. So I invested in a portable folding dunny, shown in the photo above. See it and my Outback gadgets in action in the video below.

Snakes are not the biggest threat to Outback adventurers. Kangaroos can be as big as a Fiesta and colliding with one is best avoided. One deterrent is an ultrasonic siren called a ShuRoo (for “shoo, (Kanga) roo,” I suppose). They work like moose scarers in northern US and Canada.

They take half an hour or so to hook up to the vehicle. And reports are they work well. Sadly, ShuRoo did not return our calls so we did not get the chance to test one.

The most pesky critter in the bush is the fly. A single fly is not so bad. But hundreds are. So the award to the most basic and cheapest gadget of the trip so far goes to the $8 Great Aussie Fly Net.

Of our long term gadgets, the Handpresso continues to deliver reviving shots of caffeine. But espresso/Red Bull shooters seem the only way to keep some of us buzzing after 8 weeks on the road.

The Fiesta sound system is good. It even has USB connectivity. But the guys at Singapore-based micro speaker company X-Mini gave us some of their iPod/Pad/Phone speakers to try out in Oz. The single speaker is about 50% bigger than a golf ball. The stereo speakers look like tiny version of the B+W Zeppelin and splits in the middle for left-right separation. The sound is punchy and punches well above its weight.

Under the awesome Southern Hemisphere stars, by a mulga wood campfire, eating kangaroo fillets, the X-Mini’s banged out some great Aussie rock. Best track for the Outback? “Highway to Hell” by AC/DC. I’m biased. The band’s singer Brian Johnson is a mate — and a car guy like me.

“The song was written as the band crossed the Outback,” he told me. “It was hot as hell. Hence the name.”

I’ve added a film from Sydney with Brian here.

In the time I’ve written this, Sydney is coming into view. I can see the famous Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. Part of me is feeling elated as to have crossed the Pacific the long way round.

The other part feels deflated. Daily life without a 500 mile drive each day will feel rather ordinary. It is time to plan the next trip…

Photos and videos courtesy Jeremy Hart.

See Also:

• Big Crocs, Big Trucks and Big Magnets in Oz
• Spy Cameras and Solar Tuk-Tuks: Hunting Asia’s Madcap Gadgets
• Making the Perfect Espresso Near the Iraq Border
• A Bit of Drama Where Gas Is Cheaper Than Water
• From An Irish Matchmaker To The Best Road Ever
• Espresso and GPS Enliven Our European Road Tour
• Firearms, Boots and Dirty Cars as Canvases
• Travelling Around the World in a Gadget-Filled Ford Fiesta
• Rockford Spins, Drive-Thru Weddings and Flatbread Tacos

Authors: Jeremy Hart

to know more click here